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Do I Really Need A Programmable Thermostat
August 24, 2021
Do I Really Need A Programmable Thermostat?
Yes, you do, especially if there’s nobody home most of the day. Because this nifty controller protects your HVAC system while slashing your annual cooling and heating costs by up to 30% (according to the EPA). This is achieved by adjusting temperatures by some 10°F once everyone leaves or falls asleep. But what are the benefits?
Energy savings: For every degree Fahrenheit adjustment in air temperature, you use 1% less energy.
System protection: by preventing overuse, your equipment needs fewer repairs, adapting settings to seasons.
Convenience: no matter how erratic your family schedule, arrive home and wake up in comfort every day.
Selecting the right equipment
For no-hassle savings, pick a ‘set it and forget it’ model matching your family lifestyle:
- Weekly programming offers a heating/cooling schedule for the entire week;
- 5-2 programming allows different schedules for weekdays and weekends;
- 5-1-1 programming allows different schedules for weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays;
- 7-day programming allows different schedules for each day of the week.
What about installation?
Once you’ve made your choice – having checked it’s compatible with your current equipment – it’s time to call in a professional. Your home comfort system is a major investment, with complex wiring and sophisticated technology, and a badly-installed thermostat could short out your units and possibly void your warranty as well.
How do I set it and forget it?
The factory settings on your programmable thermostat might not meet your family’s needs. For maximum savings, adjust these temperatures to the times people usually wake, leave, return home and sleep. For added flexibility, a Wi-Fi thermostat can be connected to a mobile app with remote temperature control.
A winter temperature of 68°F is suggested by the US Department of Energy, lowered by at least 10°F when everyone is out or sleeping. In summer, set the thermostat at 78°F when your family is home, letting it rise while the house is empty. Remember, smaller differences between indoor and outdoor temperatures lead to lower utility bills.
For savings in comfort, schedule your unit to switch off half an hour before the last person leaves, switching back on again thirty minutes before somebody arrives home. At night, let temperatures drop or rise for an hour before bedtime, adding warmth or coolness thirty minutes before your morning alarm. For expert advice on making the perfect choice, check out licensed dealers near you in our directory.
Ductless Mini-Split System: When Is It The Right Choice?
August 23, 2021
Ductless Mini-Split System: When Is It The Right Choice?
Smart thinking
As heatwave season approaches, there’s still time to invest wisely in more comfort with better health and lower utility bills. How? Through a ductless mini-split system that provides separate temperature control in up to four rooms instantly, steered by occupancy requirements that vary throughout the day.
Discreet Design
Easy to install and maintain, mini-split systems have only two main components, connected by a narrow conduit. The outdoor compressor/condenser is kept conveniently out of sight, often in a rear service area, while up to four indoor handling units can be tucked up against ceilings. Often only seven inches deep, most evaporators are housed in sleekly unobtrusive jackets that blend seamlessly into any style of decor.
Many models offer connecting conduits in several lengths, so the outdoor compressor can be located unobtrusively up to fifty feet away from an indoor evaporator that is cooling rooms at the front of a building.
With fans operating at relatively low speeds while still providing excellent cooling in each zone, mini-split units are quieter and smoother-running than traditional AC systems!
Fast, clean installation
With no bulky ductwork required, installing a mini-split system is a minimally invasive process that requires only opening a small hole in an outside wall, just big enough for a three-inch conduit housing the power cable, suction tubing, refrigerant pipe and condensate. In addition to lower installation fees,with less mess and disruption, this simple structure also keeps maintenance and repair time and costs down.
Perfect for small apartments, add-on extensions and stand-alone buildings like porches, greenhouses and work sheds, mini-split systems offer fingertip heating and cooling control for added convenience. Temperatures can be adjusted instantly anytime from anywhere in the room, with a convenient remote device.
Needing only a single tiny hole, mini-split systems offer better security than window-mounted or through-the-wall air conditioning units that offer easy access for intruders!
Flexibility
When daily schedules are unpredictable, a mini-split system is a cost-effective choice that ensures maximum comfort through flexible use, with less energy consumed and lower monthly bills. Installed individually in each room and switched off until needed, spot conditioning ensures that individual units cool rooms rapidly, but only when they are in use. When equipment operates on demand like this, outlays on repairs and replacements are lower, while extending the working life of the entire system.
With evaporators properly located, mini-split systems provide efficient whole-building air treatment that can be accurately tailored to specific family or office schedules, through individual thermostats in each room or zone.
Energy-efficient mini-split systems avoid the unnecessary outlays typical of central forced air systems, where duct losses may bump up energy consumption by 30% or more!
Year-round use
Adding even more versatility to your ductless mini-split system, a heat pump ensures that this equipment operates throughout the year, for both heating and cooling purposes. While maximizing the benefits of your initial investment over each twelve-month period, this smart decision can also upgrade the overall energy efficiency of your home or office.
Professionals protect your investment
There’s no place for amateurs, when planning a major investment in sophisticated equipment designed to keep families and employees comfortable and healthy for decades to come. By working with a licenced and insured specialist like the heating and cooling companies featured on CIHVAC.com, you can be confident that only certified employees will be assigned to your job.
A qualified installer sizes each indoor unit correctly, picking the best installation locations. Remember: in addition to costing more, a poorly positioned or oversized system wastes energy (and pumps up monthly bills) through short-cycling, while failing to provide adequate humidity and temperature control.
A certified installer knows the best location for the outside condenser unit, allowing it to breathe freely and at least three feet away from any obstructions, while making sure there is a condensate run-off drain nearby. Multiple condensers must be spaced widely enough to ensure that they do not interfere with the airflows of neighboring units, and surrounding plants must be pruned back to ensure high-efficiency operations.
Award-winning services at budget-friendly prices from HVAC companies that have been taking care of families and communities in your local area for years.
Talk to the experts
If you think a mini-split system might meet your needs, you need to talk to a licensed contractor you can trust, backed by ample experience in this field. So schedule a consultation with one of the contractors featured on CIHVAC.com starting today!
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Virus-Proofing your Home against Airborne Coronavirus
August 23, 2021
Virus-Proofing your Home against Airborne Coronavirus
Can top-quality air filtration COVID-proof your home?
Although even the experts at the World Health Organization can make no promises – evidence is mounting steadily that the coronavirus spreads through minute droplets in the air. This means that proper ventilation and air filtration are two more useful weapons in our personal battles against the pandemic.
During the summer months, it was easy to spend plenty of time outside, where the fresh air reduces the concentration of infected droplets. However, we are all being forced indoors as the days grow shorter, spending more time in enclosed areas with more people, at work, at school and – above all – at home.
Cleaner indoor air ally
Together with surface cleaning and social distancing, masks and hand-washing have so far proved the best protection against this invisible enemy. Now it seems that the HVAC industry is stepping up as a new public health partner, keeping students, workers and their families safer through effective air filtration devices.
So far, these demands have come largely from the commercial sector, as schools and businesses seek new ways of keeping people safe. But as parks and gardens become less inviting, families are also eager to add this new layer of defense to their multi-tiered precautions against this disease.
Safer homes this winter
And they are quite right to be concerned: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just reviewed its guidelines, confirming that coronavirus is an airborne infection, carried on invisible particles that can drift far more than just six feet through the air. And in most busy homes, it’s hard to stay more than arm’s length away from other family members all the time.
When we sneeze, cough, eat or even just speak, we all release respiratory droplets that drop relatively quickly onto the floor or other surfaces. However, even tinier droplets form aerosols that waft invisibly through the air – and if they come from someone who is COVID-positive, they can be easily inhaled, infecting other people even some distance away.
The good news
These airborne viruses can be filtered out of indoor air. Although not a silver bullet that eliminates the virus through a single appliance, proper filtration is a key factor that should be added to the four main precautions already in place throughout society as a whole: wiping, washing, masking and distancing.
As the pandemic spread during the summer months, many people opted for breezy open windows and HVAC systems running in ventilation mode, in order to dilute possible virus loads in each room. But with winter on the way, these precautions are no longer feasible. People always need fresh air, of course; but during the winter months, warmth is paramount, especially for families caring for immuno-compromised relatives, as well as vulnerable seniors and babies.
Trapping the virus
There is now widespread agreement among the experts that MERV 13 filters are fine enough to trap even tiny aerosolized coronavirus particles. The Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value rating system establishes that MERV 13 filters must catch 90% of particles in the 3 to 10 micron range – which is a common size for virus-rich particles floating in the air.
At the industrial level, business and schools have been busy upgrading their HVAC systems to this quality. On the domestic side, a portable air filter is a low-cost option for keeping families safer in their homes.
Gearing up for the worst
Recent research shows that much of the coronavirus spread is now occurring in homes, perhaps because people let their guard down and relax in these familiar settings. It’s a perfectly natural reaction to the high-stress world outside, where every lift button, every door handle is a possible threat to our well-being. A practical way of preparing for difficult situations – like a family member testing positive – is to invest in a portable HEPA filter with a MERV 13 rating. Costing only a few hundred dollars, these air purifiers not only trap almost all virus-bearing particles (so fewer colds as well!), they also remove other pollutants and allergens like dust, dander and even smoke.
Getting through this pandemic together
Teamwork is the best way for us all to keep well while battling through this difficult winter. While scientists are seeking vaccines, and hospitals are caring for the sick, the HVAC industry is working overtime to provide appliances that protect people in their workplaces, classrooms and homes.
And at the individual level, each of us must do our part by slowing the spread of the virus through personal precautions in public – and now in private as well. So talk to your local HVAC contractor about budget-friendly ways of protecting your family against COVID-19.
So be smart, stay home – and stay healthy!