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Spring 2016 Newsletter

Good Air Conditioning Starts with Installation

Your air conditioning is a vital part of your home during the summer months. In order to get it to work at its best, you need proper planning at the installation stage: choosing a system that fits your home and can provide the most efficient air conditioning for your circumstances. Preparation with a trained professional is key.

If you’re in the market for a new air conditioner, you need to consider your options carefully. Obviously, the right company should be there to perform the installation, but it goes further than that. Air conditioners aren’t like other appliances where you can just measure the size, find some features you want and plug it in. Ideally, your air conditioner will last for many years, and in order to do that, it has to meet the needs of your home precisely.

The good news is that it’s fairly easy to do so. All you need is the right company as your guide and a few key tips on what to look for in an air conditioning system. That, coupled with a proper installation, will allow you to make the most of a considerable investment and ensure that you have plenty of quality air conditioning to keep cool this summer.

Sizing

Air conditioners have power loads that determine the amount of cooling they emit. That power level needs to be carefully evaluated to best match your home. Most people can guess that an underpowered system won’t be able to cool your home efficiently. What you may not suspect is that overpowered systems won’t either. By cooling the house too quickly, they trigger a condition known as short cycling, where the air conditioner turns on and off rapidly throughout the day.

AC units spend much more money turning on and off than they do running steadily. An overpowered system will end up costing you more and may require frequent repairs. Sizing means measuring your home’s square footage as well as evaluating things like insulation and sunlight exposure to arrive at the precise power level that’s right for your home.

Efficiency

On top of sizing, you also need to consider your system’s efficiency, measured by a SEER rating. SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, and the scale is fairly simple to understand: the higher the rating, the more efficient the system. Once you’ve decided on the power levels for your new air conditioner, you can begin looking for the most efficient model in your price range.

Why a Heat Pump May Be the Best Decision You Ever Made

Heat pumps have improved over the last few years, making them more efficient than ever. If you’re looking for solutions to heating and cooling your house year–round, you may want to look into the options they offer. It could save you a great deal of time, money and worry.

A heat pump offers an alternative to separate heating and air conditioning units, combining the features of both into a single system. It works according to the same principles of air conditioning, but with a twist that allows it to heat your home as well as cool it. In the past, heat pumps worked best in places with mild winters like Florida and California. Recently, however, great strides have been made in the technology, and it’s not unusual to see heat pumps in places with much colder winters. If you’re in the market for a new system, you might want to think about the benefits that heat pumps offer. A good technician from a reliable company can explain the details to you and help you make the right decision for your home.

How They Work

Heat pumps follow the same principles of air conditioning. Refrigerant is cycled through a series of coils and valves that first compress and liquefy it (releasing heat into the surrounding air) and then expend and revert it to gas (which pulls heat from the surrounding air). In traditional air conditioners, the first part takes place outside, releasing the hot air away from your home, while the second part takes place inside, allowing the cool air to be blown through your ducts with a fan.

With a heat pump, that process is essentially reversible, allowing the refrigerant to cycle the other way and the various valves and coils switch their function. The hot air can thus be released inside your home and the cool air outside, allowing you to heat the home as easily as flicking a switch.

The Benefits

That may be all well and good, but why does a heat pump make more sense than a traditional air conditioning and furnace combination? In the first place, it costs less to run in the winter, since it’s merely transferring heat instead of consuming fuel to create it. That means lower bills in the wintertime without losing any of your heating power. Heat pumps are also quieter and safer, since they don’t generate trace gasses or run the risk of a fire in the event something goes wrong. If that sounds like a good fit for you, talk to a professional about your options.