Does Turning My Thermostat Down Lower Cool the House Faster?

August 15th, 2016

The simple answer to this question: No, turning the thermostat as low as possible won’t speed up cooling your home.

This is a common misunderstanding people have about both thermostats and air conditioning systems, and it results in an unfortunate waste of energy and additional strain on ACs that can shorten their lifespan and make repair needs more frequent. We could just tell you to maintain a higher thermostat setting in the 70s (78°F is recommended for general comfort) and leave it at that, but we believe that informing our customers helps both them and us. So below we’ll explain in greater depth why setting the thermostat too low is unhelpful and can backfire on you.

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Why Shouldn’t I Just Buy a Portable Dehumidifier for My Home?

August 8th, 2016

Anybody who has lived through a summer in Louisiana knows just how humid it gets here at that time of year—and high humidity makes the summer heat turn almost unbearable. A dehumidifier in a home is a great investment when it comes to both comfort and taking some of the strain off the air conditioning system. With the indoor relative humidity balanced between 30% and 50%, a house interior will feel 8°–10° cooler! Plus, the house will have fewer issues with mold growth, mildew, and water damage.

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I Need Help: My AC Keeps Tripping the Circuit Breaker!

August 1st, 2016

Even if you don’t know much about electricity or how the appliances in your homework, you know that they shouldn’t be causing the circuit breakers in the electrical panel to trip when they turn on. You especially don’t want your air conditioning system to start tripping its circuit breaker during the summer, since it will cause the AC to stop working and leave you without the cooling you desperately need.

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How to Choose the Right Air Conditioner

July 25th, 2016

If your current AC is not working just as promised, or you find yourself in need of a new model installed from scratch, then you’re probably looking for answers. What type of AC would match your home’s needs? What do you need to do to make sure that you choose wisely this time and don’t waste your dollar on an inefficient system? Do you want a system with ducts or ductless? It’s best to get in touch with a professional early on in the process. But here are some things to start thinking about.

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It’s a Scorcher Summer: Will Your Air Conditioner Survive the Heat?

July 18th, 2016

It’s going to be a long hot summer! If you’ve looked at the upcoming weather forecast and gotten nervous about all those days that will clock in at 100°F and above, well, you’re not alone. If you have a durable air conditioning system to manage the temperatures in your house, you can breathe a lot easier, however…

But wait… what if the AC can’t handle all that heat? What if it overheats and breaks down?

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Should There Be Ice on My AC’s Evaporator Coil?

July 11th, 2016

The short answer: No.

The long answer below.

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Is It Better to Run the AC All Day Even When I’m Not Home?

July 4th, 2016

You’ve probably heard this advice before regarding the best way to run an air conditioning system: you should set your air conditioner to stay on all day (at a high temperature, such as the upper 70s) while you’re away from home, rather than leave it off and turn it on only when you get back home. The logic behind this piece of advice is that this 1) makes it easier to quickly cool down the house when you return, and 2) uses less energy, because an air conditioner drains more power at start-up than when running regularly.

But is this actually true?

No, it’s not. We’ll explain below.

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Make Sure You Keep the Area around Your AC’s Condenser Clear

June 27th, 2016

We’ve written before about some of the maintenance jobs that you can do on your own over the summer to take the best care of you air conditioning system. The most important is to always schedule a professional inspection and tune-up for it during the spring. Another is to regularly change the air filters to prevent clogging from harming the air conditioner’s energy efficiency. In this post, we’re going to address another job for the summer that will protect and benefit your AC: keeping the outside condenser clear of debris.

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Why Is My Air Conditioner Having Trouble Keeping the House Cool?

June 20th, 2016

The heat has definitely arrived for the summer, with temperatures during the last week rising over 90°F. The humidity isn’t helping, with relative humidity levels much higher than 60%—the point when the extra moisture in the air makes it much more difficult to stay cool. You’ll certainly be relying on your air conditioning system a great deal to keep your home livable.

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The Importance of Maintenance for Your Commercial Air Conditioning

June 13th, 2016

We’re already in the middle of June, and the official start of summer is next month. When July arrives, we can expect to experience sweltering and humid temperatures. Is the air conditioning system that cools down your commercial business prepared to handle these conditions?

You need to be able to answer with a solid “yes,” because one of the last things you want occurring on the hottest day of the year is for your business to clear out because of a busted AC!

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