Posts Tagged ‘Air Conditioning Installation’

 4 Reasons to Install a Ductless AC

Monday, June 20th, 2022

ductless-heat-pumpNew technology has allowed more people to be able to consider the possibility of getting real temperature control in their homes. In previous years, anyone in a home that couldn’t support ductwork either had to make do with fans or window air conditioners. Now, these same individuals have a new, better option: a ductless AC.

If you haven’t considered a ductless air conditioning installation in Beaverton, OR before now, it may be a good idea to do so. These systems offer home comfort opportunities that may have seemed impossible before now. Read on to learn more and see how you can cool your home off this summer—with or without ducts!

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Ready for a New AC? 3 Factors to Consider

Monday, May 23rd, 2022

If your air conditioning system is on its last legs, it’s important to start planning now for a replacement. Sometimes it can be easy to tell if your AC is on its way out, but other times it can be challenging to determine if you need to replace it.

We can help you figure out if and when you need an AC replacement and also take care of the job. Here are three key factors that will alert you to when an air conditioner needs to be replaced soon.

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Your AC System Options

Monday, June 7th, 2021

The heat of summer is fast approaching. This is great news for those of us looking to catch up on last summer’s missed outdoor adventures. After you return from those adventures, you probably want to enter a home that is a nice cool haven from the heat. This is going to be tough if you don’t have an air conditioner or if your current one isn’t operating.

Don’t force yourself to sweat your way through summer. Instead, reach out to our team to help with your air conditioning installation in Oregon City, OR so you can enjoy a working system to keep you comfortable.

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Why You Need Professional AC Installation

Monday, September 28th, 2020

air-conditioner-surrounded-by-savings

As we’ve seen over the past week or two, our weather can be pretty wild at times. Having a reliable air conditioner in your home is going to be a great help in ensuring that you stay comfortable during any surprise heatwaves that might come our way even as the summer ends. If you need a new system in your home, it will make things a lot easier to schedule a professional air conditioning installation in Milwaukie, OR.

We want to make sure that you know how important it is that you have a professional be the one to perform your system installation. A pro will know exactly how to install your system so that it can start out on the right foot.

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3 Factors to Consider with a New Air Conditioning Installation

Monday, April 27th, 2015

A good air conditioner is a staple of your home, and while routine maintenance can make yours last a long time, sooner or later every AC unit needs to be replaced. Here in Portland, OR, spring makes an excellent time to replace an older or faulty air conditioner before the summer months bring heat and humidity with them. Because it represents a significant investment in your home, however, the decision to replace your air conditioner should come only after careful planning and consideration. Here are 3 factors to consider with a new air conditioning installation. (more…)

What Are My Options for Air Conditioning Installation?

Monday, April 6th, 2015

It’s still cool in our part of the world, but it won’t be long before it’s time to switch the thermostat from heating to cooling. If you are in need of a new air conditioner for the coming summer season, whether for a brand new installation or to replace an aging one, you’ll want to take some time to consider your available choices. There are a number of options for homeowners when it comes to air conditioning, and taking some time to review them with a trained professional helps ensure that you’ll purchase and install an air conditioning system that will fit your needs and the needs of your home for a long time. The experts at Clean Air Act can help you every step of the way, so call us today and schedule an appointment.

AC Options

Here are the air conditioning choices available from Clean Air Act:

  • Traditional split systems – this type of whole home air conditioning has an outdoor unit that contains the compressor, condenser and condenser fan, and an indoor unit that contains the evaporator and air handler. Ductwork is necessary to deliver the air.
  • Heat pumps – heat pumps can heat and cool your home and do so by transferring heat from one location to another, using refrigerant to facilitate this process. Heat pumps do not use any fossil fuels, just a small amount of electricity, and they can be ducted or ductless systems.
  • Ductless air conditioning – ductless air conditioners can be AC-only or be part of a heat pump system and provide ductless heating and cooling. Ductless air conditioners have an outdoor unit very similar to that of a traditional split system AC, but use independent indoor blowers to deliver the cool (or warm) air.
  • Geothermal cooling – geothermal systems utilize heat pumps, so they offer both heating and cooling. When it comes to cooling, the heat pump of the geothermal system absorbs the heat inside your home and transfers it to the system’s ground loop, where it is released into the surrounding soil. In the winter, the ground loop absorbs the surrounding heat, transfers it to the heat pump where it is concentrated, and then the heat is dispersed throughout your home.

Not sure which system will fit best with your home in Portland, OR? Call us today and schedule an appointment!

Air Conditioner Sizing: Why It’s Important

Friday, August 22nd, 2014

When selecting an air conditioner for a home, one factor installers must give serious consideration is the system’s size. In this case, “size” doesn’t mean how much space the cooling system takes up (although that is, of course, something they must consider) but how powerful it is in term of cooling capacity.

Correctly sizing an AC is more important than you may realize. You need your air conditioner to have enough cooling power to keep your home at the right temperature, but an AC that is too powerful will also cause serious problems. This one of the reasons that it’s vital for only professionals to handle installation for an air conditioner—any mistake can lead to a poorly working system that will need to be replaced.

For skilled technicians to size and handle air conditioning installation, look to the experienced teams at Clean Air Act.

When An Air Conditioner Is Too Small…

An AC that cannot provide sufficient cooling capacity will fail to keep the temperature in a home at a comfortable level. It will also unevenly distribute cooling, so that more distant rooms will contain hot spots. The AC will run longer than it should, trying to make up for its lack of cooling power with constant operation, and this will cause the system to age rapidly. It will also significantly raise your utility bills. You may think that a smaller system will save your money, but in the long-run it will cost you money.

When An Air Conditioner Is Too Large…

It may seem odd that an oversized air conditioner can present problems. Why not just turn it down? But the problem with an air conditioner that is too large for the space it is required to cool is that the system will begin to “short-cycle”: it will lower the temperature in the nearest rooms so rapidly that the thermostat will register it has completed the cooling cycle and shut off the compressor early. The compressor will then turn back on shortly after, only to shut down again… and so on. This constant “stop-start” has the same damaging effect you would expect to occur with a car engine doing the same thing: it will wear down faster. Short-cycling also wastes energy, since air conditioners draw the most power when the compressor starts up. The system won’t provide even cooling, either, since the cooling will shut off too soon for the conditioned air to reach the rest of the home.

Have Your Air Conditioner Sized Professionally

In both cases, there is little that repairs can accomplish to fix these problems. You will need to replace the under- or oversized system and start over.

You can avoid this major hassle and expenditure by making sure to hire only experienced technicians to size an air conditioner. Trained installers will perform a heat load calculation for your home to determine exactly the amount of cooling load necessary to keep it comfortable. After that, the installers will have no trouble selecting the AC that will do the ideal job.

Make your first call for air conditioning installation in Beaverton, OR to Clean Air Act. We will make certain that you receive the right AC to keep you comfortable any time of the year.

3 Factors Involved in Sizing a New Air Conditioner

Friday, May 30th, 2014

How large an air conditioning system should you have for your home? The right answer isn’t, “As large as will fit and that you can afford.” An AC that is too large for the house it is supposed to cool down will encounter as much trouble as one that is undersized. The undersized system will struggle to reach the right temperature and run wastefully, while an oversized system will constantly turn on and off before completing its cooling cycle (short-cycling), draining energy and quickly wearing down.

The process of finding the right size air conditioner for a home is called sizing. Although you can attempt to size an AC on your own, you shouldn’t: the amount of factors involved in determining how much heat a home traps and how much cooling is necessary to overcome it is detailed and intricate, and you should leave this job to HVAC professionals.

For your new air conditioning installation in Beaverton, OR, make sure you have the team at Clean Air Act helping you. We will make sure you have the best installation possible.

3 important factors in AC sizing

There are many factors in sizing, but here are three of the key ones.

  1. Insulation: The insulation in a home prevents outside heat from moving inside. The better insulated a house is, especially the attic (which serves as a massive heat sink that can climb to 120°F during the summer), the less an AC will need to work to cool down a house. Older homes with less insulation often need larger ACs.
  2. Windows: Radiant heat finds a way into your house through the sunlight coming through windows. When assessing windows for the purpose of sizing an air conditioner, installers take into account not only the number of windows, but also their shading and the directions they face. East- and west-facing windows will permit in large amounts of heat, while north and south windows will experience much less.
  3. Appliances and lights: Basically, anything in your home that creates heat. (We won’t lump people in with appliances, but the number of bodies in a house will enter the calculation later.) Installers evaluate how much heat on average comes from your light fixtures, refrigerator, laundry machine, electronic devices, etc. and balance that against the amount of cooling power necessary from an air conditioner.

Once the installers have finished this process, which is known as a heat load calculation, they will have a strong idea of how large an air conditioner you need to keep you comfortable without causing trouble with short-cycling and energy drain.

It’s easy to get started: you only have to call Clean Air Act and talk to our specialists in air conditioning in Beaverton, OR. We strive to the highest levels of customer services and will dedicate ourselves to providing you quality comfort.

Duct Size and Central Air Conditioning

Monday, August 13th, 2012

Having proper duct size is vital to having a Portland air conditioning system that functions appropriately.  If the air ducts are too small not enough cooled air will reach the intended rooms, if the ducts are too large the air will not have enough force to make its way from the AC to the room vents.  As such there are some AC industry standards for duct sizing which should be followed by any Portland air conditioning professional.

Air Duct Sizing for Central AC Systems

While there are many misused rules of thumb in the AC industry, there are also some newer standards which have been put into place such as “Manual D” methods of design that have already begun to improve performance of AC systems in homes and offices.

There is a difference between what is needed for an AC system supply ducts and return ducts.  Supply ducts tend to need smaller ducts while return ducts will often need to be larger.

Proper air duct sizing greatly depends on the square footage of the building being cooled, the air conditioner capacity or BTUs, how many ducts will be utilized, where they are positioned, and how many vents there are.  Additionally, the entire system will need to be properly balanced so that the AC works efficiently.

Duct sizing is based on the air volume that will be produced and the velocity at which it will be flowing through the ducts.  Determining the proper combination of these factors with the AC that will be used is essential to having a duct system that works efficiently.  A good rule of thumb for proper air flow is to have anywhere from 600 to 900 feet per minute of air flow flowing through the ducts.  To reach this, the cubic feet per minute will be determined, which will then be compared with a standard friction rate of 0.1 inches of water per 100 feet.  This calculation will result in an appropriate duct size for either rectangular or round ducts based on the size of the building and how powerful the AC is.

Air ducts should be properly sized prior to being installed.   Call The Clean Air Act, Inc. today to learn more about AC installation!

 

Features to Look for When Buying an Air Conditioner

Monday, August 6th, 2012

Air conditioning systems have come a long way from the loud window units you may remember from years past. If you’re in the market for a new central air conditioner in Portland it can be overwhelming trying to navigate through all the new models and technologies available to you. The important thing to keep in mind is not what the “best” air conditioner features are, but what features are the best for you. New and improved options are only relevant if they’re options that you’re actually interested in. At The Clean Air Act Inc. we want to make sure that you get the air conditioner that’s right for you and your home. Here is some information to give you an idea of what features are available and whether or not you will benefit from them.

Programmability

The ability to program your air conditioner’s output is a great way to fight inefficiency. Programmable thermostats paired with zoning technology will help you cut down on your energy use and reduce utility costs. By breaking your home into cooling zones, each controlled individually from the thermostat, and cooling your home only during the necessary times of day, a programmable system can really reduce the energy and monetary concerns of running your air conditioner.

Versatility

Take into account any comfort issues you know to exist in your home. If your home is consistently, uncomfortably humid, think about an air conditioner with a dehumidifying feature. Should indoor air quality be a priority for you, look into systems that continuously filter air even when the cooling system is off. Fresh air intakes and exhaust settings also allow air to be vented without cooling. With so many options available there is no reason for you to wind up with an air conditioner that will not satisfy all your comfort needs.

Keep Your Home in Mind

When it comes to a home cooling system you must keep your home’s needs in mind as well as your own. If you have preexisting ductwork then a central forced air system will be an easy installation. If you do not have the room for ductwork there are ductless mini split systems available that require only a conduit to connect the outdoor components to indoor blowers. For historic houses, look into small-duct high velocity systems to avoid virtually all renovation. There are enough air conditioning options out there to suit every individual and every home.

A home cooling system is an investment. Don’t rush into a decision. Take your time, consider your options and available features, and get the air conditioner that’s right for your Portland home. The Clean Air Act Inc. is here to answer any questions you may have, so call us anytime.