We Recommend Wi-Fi Thermostats—Here’s Why

Monday, January 23rd, 2017

wi-fi-thermosataThe poor thermostat! It’s often the most overlooked and neglected part of any home’s heating and cooling system, even though it’s one of its key components. After all, the thermostat is the control panel for the HVAC system, the place where a homeowner interacts with the air conditioning and heating. But since the thermostat is such an unassuming device, designed to blend in with the home décor, people often take it for granted.

But ignoring a home’s thermostat can mean trouble. An inferior thermostat will lead to poor comfort and increased energy waste. As we wrote about a few weeks ago on this blog, simply taking the time to properly adjust the thermostat during the year can help lower your energy bills. Imagine what a major thermostat technology upgrade can do!

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Should I Have an Air Purifier or an Air Filter Installed?

Monday, January 16th, 2017

Last week we addressed an important part of looking for an air filtration system: understanding their efficiency ratings. A quick re-cap for those who came in late: if a filter is put into a home’s HVAC system that is too efficient, it will impede airflow and end up putting immense strain on the blower, leading to high energy bills and a system shutdown.

We also briefly brought up another issue that we want to go into deeper today, which is using an air purifier as a way to eliminate smaller particles when an air filter powerful enough cannot be installed.

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Understanding the Efficiency of Air Filters

Monday, January 9th, 2017

Winter is often the trouble time for homes when it comes to indoor air quality. A house needs proper insulation to keep heating systems from wasting energy because of drafts. But that also means stuffy air filled with plenty of unwanted particles swarming through the house. Air filters (not the filter in the HVAC system, which isn’t for air quality) are one of the best ways to solve this problem.

Here’s the tricky part, however: there is no such thing one-size-fits-all air filter. Air filters have different efficiencies, and going for the strongest efficiency you can find for air filters is a bad idea!

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Don’t Let Warm Weather Trick You: Schedule Heating Repairs!

Monday, January 2nd, 2017

We’ve been enjoying a warm stretch of weather here at the end of the year and the start of the new one. It’s been warm enough that it’s easy to think that you might not really need your heating system working in top shape.

But winter is far from over. The average low temperature in January is in the mid-30s, and you can expect that we’ll experience a few weeks of weather when heating systems will need to put in steady work. If you noticed trouble with your heater during December, you can’t afford to ignore it and hope the system will get through the rest of the season. Always schedule heating repairs as soon as you notice problems… no matter the time of year.

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