Some of Your Choices for Heating Installation in Winnetka, IL

January 13th, 2015

If you need new heating installation in Winnetka, IL, you’re in luck. There are many options available for you to choose from, so you can have the level of comfort you need, as well as added features like zone control and energy if desired. While the prospect of a new heating system that fits your needs may be exciting, picking a system can seem overwhelming.

At Malek Heating & Cooling, we offer professional heating installation in Winnetka, IL for any of the following units. If you need professional advice and quality service, put your trust in our skilled team.

  • Radiant Heating: A radiant heating system requires a large tank, called a boiler, to heat water. The common name for the system is deceptive; the hot water travels through a set of pipes under the floor or to an endpoint like a baseboard heater and gives off convective and conductive heat. Many people describe this heat as more comfortable than forced-air heating systems because it fills a room with warmth.
  • Furnaces: However, furnaces are more common with heating installation in the U.S., partly because of the lower cost and partly because it’s much easier and takes less time to install if you already have a working set of ducts. Furnaces use combustion to generate heat and send it to a heat exchanger. A blower fan brings cool air into the furnace and moves the warm air back into the house through the duct system.
  • Heat Pumps: Heat pumps actually work just like air conditioners, except that they have the ability to both heat and cool. Refrigerant travels through the system, absorbing and removing heat either from the indoors to the outdoors in the summer, or from the inside to the outside in the cooler months. It’s important to note, however, that you may need an alternate heat source when temperatures drop below freezing.
  • Ductless Heating: A ductless unit is essentially a heat pump that doesn’t need ducts. These systems have individual air handlers dispersed throughout the home that blow air directly into any room or zone.

Comparing some of your options can be difficult. While any of these systems allows you the option of zone control, it generally only comes standard with some radiant systems and ductless units. Boilers may save quite a bit of energy, but heat pumps are also considered some of the most efficient heating systems. If you’re still on the fence, call Malek Heating & Cooling today for professional service and to talk about your needs for heating installation in Winnetka.

Continue Reading

How to Decide Between Electric and Gas Furnaces

January 7th, 2015

It’s a good thing to have options, especially when it comes to whole-home systems, but sometimes the choices can be confusing, overwhelming or both. When it comes to choosing a furnace in Skokie, IL, homeowners have two main choices: electric or natural gas. Each can heat your home sufficiently, but choosing one will depend on your needs, the available resources of your home and your preferences. One of the best ways to ensure that you choose the right heating system for your home is to work with an expert. The trained and certified specialists at Malek Heating & Cooling can help you with any furnace installation from start to finish. If you are ready for a new heater, call us today!

Electric Furnaces

Electric furnaces have come a long way over the years. While they were once considered to be inefficient, they have since become some of the most efficient furnaces available. Additionally, they have a slightly longer lifespan than combustion furnaces.

Electric furnaces work by generating heat from a component called a heating element. This component has a number of tightly-wound metal coils that, when electrified, become red-hot and generate heat. Once the air around the heating element has reached the right temperature, the furnace’s fan turns on and blows air over the heating element and pushes the warmed air into your home via ductwork.

One of the biggest benefits of an electric furnace is that it doesn’t require any kind of fossil fuel for operation. Not all homes have access to a natural gas line, so this can be an important factor to consider.

Gas Furnaces

Gas furnaces are some of the most common heating systems around, making them very easy to repair and replace as parts are readily available. Additionally, the convenience of fueling via a gas line means you’ll have a constant flow of fuel for your heating system. Gas furnaces provide heat for your home via combustion; an element known as the burner heats another element known as the heat exchanger. As with an electric furnace, once the air around the heat exchanger reaches the right temperature, the warm air is blown into your home. Gas is the cleanest-burning of all the fossil fuels, making them the most environmentally friendly.

Which Is Best for You?

First, you need to see if you have the availability of a gas line in close proximity to your home; if not, you may have to consider an electric furnace. Second, you’ll want to consider your preferences: some people prefer the quick, efficient heating of a gas furnace while others may want to stay away from fossil fuels. Your furnace will be with you a long time, so if you need help in choosing a new furnace for your home, make an appointment with the experts you can count on: Malek Heating & Cooling.

Continue Reading

The History of “Auld Lang Syne”

January 1st, 2015

There are numerous different traditional songs associated with Christmas—but there is only one song that comes to mind immediately when people think of New Year’s Eve: “Auld Lang Syne.” It is hard to find a New Year’s Eve party where people won’t leap into singing “Should old acquaintance be forgot…” as the first stroke of midnight sounds. This tradition encompasses the globe, with almost every culture that celebrates New Year’s on January 1st breaking into song with the same set of lyrics.

Where did this song come from? And what do the words “auld lang syne” actually mean? The best place to ask these questions is Scotland. The Official Gateway to Scotland website calls the song “one of Scotland’s gifts to the world, recalling the love and kindness of days gone by, but in the communion of taking our neighbor’s hands, it also gives us a sense of belonging and fellowship to take us into the future.”

The melody of the piece originates from Lowland Scots folk song tradition. It was legendary Scottish Romantic poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) who created the words we know today, however. During the later years of his life, Burns dedicated much of his work to collecting Scottish folk tunes and giving them new life. The first mention Burns makes of “Auld Lang Syne” is in 1788, when he calls the song “a glorious fragment.” Burns wrote new lyrics to the old melody, and used the words “auld lang syne,” which is Scottish for “old long since,” and which can be translated into standard English as “long, long ago” or “days gone by.” The phrase was already known in earlier Scottish poems and folk songs, and appears to be the equivalent of “Once upon a time…” for Scots fairy tales.

Soon after Burns introduced the song to the public, it spread across Scotland as a New Year’s custom, and then to the rest of Great Britain. Scottish immigrants took the song with them as they moved across the globe, and by the middle of the 19th century it was a holiday tradition throughout the English-speaking world. By the close of the 20th century, it was a global phenomenon to ring in the New Year.

We imagine that you’ll end up singing or hearing “Auld Lang Syne” at some point this New Year’s (maybe you’ve already heard it while watching It’s a Wonderful Life). All of us at Malek Heating & Cooling would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy coming year in the tradition of the song.

Continue Reading

5 Facts about Santa Claus

December 25th, 2014

Many holiday traditions involve the story of Santa Claus, the lovable old man who spends most of his time at the North Pole taking a single evening to deliver presents and candy to children everywhere. But since Santa Claus is so elusive (unless he happens to be visiting your local shopping mall), how do we know so much about him? Where exactly does his journey begin? Our holiday guide details 5 of the most common traditions associated with Jolly Old Saint Nick.

  1. The Origins of Santa: The name “Santa Claus” comes from St. Nicholas (a name which became Sinter Klaas for short in Dutch), a Christian Bishop from 4 A.D. who was known for giving his fortune away to those in need in Turkey. Santa Claus’ first associations with gift-giving comes from Holland’s St. Nicholas’ feast day, during which children would leave out their shoes overnight and find presents waiting inside the shoes on the next morning.
  1. The Stocking by the Chimney: While many people associate Holland’s shoe tradition with the origins of hanging a stocking, this isn’t entirely accurate. Hanging stockings instead comes from the legend of a time St. Nick helped a man afford to marry off his daughter by throwing a bag of gold down the chimney, which landed in a stocking that was hanging up to dry.
  1. St. Nick’s Outfit: Santa got his fashion sense from a wooden cutout handed out during a meeting of the New York Historical Society in 1804. But it wasn’t until a 1930s Coca Cola advertisement that his traditionally blue, white, and green outfit was transformed into a big red suit.
  1. Leaving Cookies out for Santa: Food was traditionally used as ornamentation during the holidays in medieval Germany as apples and cookies commonly adorned the home at wintertime. When the Christmas tree became a common symbol of the season, edible treats began to vanish, a phenomenon which became attributed to Santa Claus’ snacking habits.
  1. Why Santa Drives a Sleigh: Santa gets his sleigh from a tale spun by Washington Irving, the same author who brought us the Headless Horseman. He wrote down an account of a dream in which Santa Claus drives a weightless wagon through the sky, and the stories became so popular, they stuck around.

Here at Malek Heating, we hope that you have a joyful and safe celebration, no matter what holiday traditions you engage in this year. Happy holidays!

Continue Reading

Do I Need a Humidifier for My Home?

December 17th, 2014

People often associate discomfort with high humidity. When the moisture levels in the air rise too high, it makes it difficult for the human body to release heat through perspiration, and this makes warm temperatures feel even hotter.

However, low humidity causes problems with comfort as well, and if your home is suffering from dry air, you may need a whole-house humidifier installed into the HVAC system. A humidifier will not only help keep you comfortable during colder temperatures (by preventing excess heat from escaping your body), it will also help prevent damage to your home and create a healthier environment.

Continue Reading

The Benefits of a Humidifier in Evanston, IL

December 10th, 2014

You may have heard once before that too much humidity makes people feel sticky and uncomfortable.

People often complain about the problems associated with having too much moisture in the air, as it can cause an exaggerated feeling of warmth on a hot day. Your body cannot properly evaporate sweat, and you may notice a stuffy, musty feeling in the home or even the gradual development of mold and mildew.

Continue Reading

How Low Humidity Can Affect Your Household

December 3rd, 2014

Many people are aware that high humidity can be a problem, mostly because of how uncomfortable it can make you feel. Low humidity can be an equal problem, and one of the best ways to reduce the effects of low humidity is with the installation of a humidifier in Evanston, IL. The effects of low humidity may not be as readily seen as those of high humidity, so we’ll describe some issues that can develop from low humidity below. If you opt to install a whole-home humidifier, make sure you hire professionals you can count on. Malek Heating & Cooling has been serving Evanston and the surrounding areas since 1988, so call us today!

Continue Reading

Will Thanksgiving Turkey Really Make You Sleepy?

November 27th, 2014

We’ve all heard it before: you feel so sleepy after a Thanksgiving meal because of the main event: the turkey. For years, people have credited extraordinary levels of tryptophan in turkey as the reason we all feel the need to nap after the annual feast. But contrary to this popular mythology, tryptophan is probably not he largest responsible party for your post-meal exhaustion.

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, which means it’s something that our bodies need but do not produce naturally. Your body uses tryptophan to help make vitamin B3 and serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that sends chemicals to the brain to aid in sleep. But in order to get this essential amino acid, we have to eat foods that contain it.

Turkey has somewhat high levels of tryptophan, but so do many other foods, including eggs, peanuts, chocolate, nuts, bananas, and most other meats and dairy products. In fact, ounce-for-ounce cheddar cheese contains a greater amount of tryptophan than turkey. In order for tryptophan to make you feel sleepy, you would have to consume it in excessive amounts, and serotonin is usually only produced by tryptophan on an empty stomach.

The truth is, overeating is largely responsible for the “food coma” many people describe post-Thanksgiving. It takes a lot of energy for your body to process a large meal, and the average Thanksgiving plate contains about twice as many calories as is recommended for daily consumption. If anything, high levels of fat in the turkey cause sleepiness, as they require a lot of energy for your body to digest. Lots of carbohydrates, alcohol, and probably a bit of stress may also be some of the reasons it feels so satisfying to lay down on the couch after the meal and finally get a little bit of shut-eye.

If you feel the need to indulge in a heaping dose of tryptophan this year, go ahead! Turkey also contains healthy proteins and may even provide a boost for your immune system.

Here at Malek Heating & Cooling, we hope your Thanksgiving is full of joy and contentment this year. Happy feasting!

Continue Reading

Why Is Air Duct Cleaning Necessary?

November 19th, 2014

For most homeowners, air duct cleaning is something that rarely ever gets done. This is usually because they can’t see the benefit to investing that much time and money in cleaning a part of their house that they never see anyway. It’s not like the ducts are some complicated mechanism with lots of moving parts that may need maintenance. They’re long rectangular boxes or tubes designed to direct air flow, and that’s about it.

Continue Reading

Why Is My Heat Pump Still Blowing Cool Air?

November 12th, 2014

It’s officially heating season and time to switch your heat pump from cooling to heating mode. Heat pumps don’t blow blasts of hot air out like forced air systems do, so the air coming through your vents or ductless blower can feel cooler than some traditional heating systems. However, if you feel air that is definitely cool/cold, there may be an issue with your heat pump in Wilmette. Heat pump systems are complicated, so if you experience any type of problem with your system, call Malek Heating & Cooling and schedule an appointment with one of our heating experts.

Continue Reading