Serving The Chicagoland Area Since 1998
We’ve now come to the time of year when furnaces fire up and stay running for long stretches at a time. But as you get ready to enjoy a cozy home, you may detect an acrid odor coming from the vents. Does this mean there’s something seriously wrong with the furnace, possibly something that’s a safety hazard? Do you need to call our technicians to come fix it?
We’ll take a look at what these burning odors may mean, and what to do about them.
The weather is finally starting to cool down along with other signs that fall has truly arrived (i.e. Halloween merchandise in all the stores). If you have a heat pump to provide comfort for your house, now is a good time to switch it over to heating mode to see if it’s working correctly. If the heat pump comes on and either blows out cold air or room temperature air rather than the warm air you expect, you want to know about the problem now rather than when the serious cold weather arrives.
The early fall is the best time of year for homeowners to prepare for the winter ahead. One crucial task for cold weather preparedness is to schedule heating maintenance from a professional HVAC technician. (And yes, as we talked about last week, this must be done every year.) Maintenance provides numerous advantages: energy savings, protection against emergency breakdowns and repairs, and extended equipment life. But some homeowners still feel on the fence about signing up for a regular maintenance program. We’d like to address some of the common questions that people ask about one of these programs.
We’re still enjoying the summer weather, but now is also a good time to think ahead toward the end of the year and period when you may need to rely on your whole-house generator in case of an extended power outage. Sometime during the next few weeks is an excellent period to arrange for your annual generator maintenance.
As the temperature heats up now that summer is here, you can expect to run your air conditioner far more frequently. But high heat isn’t the only enemy of comfort during the summer. High humidity is also a serious problem. Because of the extra moisture in the air when relative humidity rises above 60%, it becomes harder for the human body to release heat through the skin by evaporating sweat. So even though high humidity doesn’t raise the temperature around you, the air will feel much hotter because extra heat is trapped inside your body.
The cost to run an air conditioner during the summer can be pretty steep. However, it usually doesn’t have to be as high as it is. Aside from making sure that your AC is well-maintained so it doesn’t waste energy (schedule professional maintenance ever year to take care of this!) there are a number of other ways you can help to lower your electrical bills while staying cool over the next few months.
The summer’s almost here, and that means some blistering hot days ahead. Do you trust that your home’s current air conditioning system will make it through the heat and get to the fall without suffering a major malfunction? If you’re not sure, or if your AC is older than 15 years, now is an ideal time to arrange for a new installation to replace it.
It’s vital that you only call on experienced HVAC professionals to handle the installation job. Don’t let the promises of low costs from amateurs lure you! There are too many risks involved in having non-professionals try to install something as complicated as a central air conditioning system. Below are 4 mistakes that amateurs often make:
This is one of the most common confusions that people have about their residential air conditioning system: that ice is a normal, expected part of the cooling process. It’s understandable the people would have this misunderstanding. After all, if the AC is sending out cold air, doesn’t it make sense for ice to be involved?
When spring arrives and the temperatures begin to warm up (although the threat of sudden cold weather still hangs around), it’s time to call your local HVAC contractor to arrange for a maintenance visit for your air conditioning system. If you’re already a part of our maintenance program, then we’ll call you with the reminder that your AC is due for its “check-up.” Make sure you schedule the service, since it’s the best way to see that your air conditioner makes it through the season without major mishaps and maintaining its energy efficiency.
HVAC systems are an excellent addition to our homes, providing indoor comfort year-round. However, they do introduce pollutants into our indoor air, such as dirt, dust, pollen, and other particles that can affect your allergies.
