ServiceMax Blog: Archive for April, 2018

Dare You Switch to a Heat Pump This Spring?

Monday, April 23rd, 2018

sun-and-snowflake-badgeThe question in the headline may sound a bit melodramatic. But when it comes to home heating and air conditioning in Wilmette, IL, you don’t want to take chances. The summers are too hot, and the winters to intense, for you to end up with a subpar comfort system in your home. You’ve probably lived most of your life in homes that use a combination of an air conditioner and a furnace. Perhaps you’re accustomed to a boiler for winter heating and window units for cooling. Whatever the situation, you used two separate appliances for heating and cooling. A heat pump changes that—it’s a single appliance that provides central both heating a cooling. That’s a big change, and you don’t want to make the leap to using one unless you’re certain it’s the best move for your home.

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An Electrical Caution if Your Home Was Built between 1950 and 1990!

Monday, April 9th, 2018

electrical-panel-repairsWe hope we caught your attention with the headline, because if you live in a Chicagoland home built within that range, you may have a serious fire hazard in your home and not be aware of it.

The trouble is with panels installed between 1950 and 1990 by a now-defunct manufacturer called Federal Pacific Electric Company (FPE). These panels may contain Stab-Lok circuit breakers, which are defective and a serious fire hazard. Millions of these circuit breaker boxes were installed in homes throughout North America between 1950 and1990. Although these malfunctioning panels are responsible for thousands of fires every year, they were never issued a former recall after tests uncovered the defects. Professional electricians urge homeowners who live in houses built before 1990 to check if they have a FBE electrical panel with Stab-Lok breakers and call for an immediate replacement if they do.

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