Changing Dirty Air Filters Increases Performance of Your Furnace

The most important thing a homeowner can do to keep their furnaces running efficiently is to check and change the air filters on a regular basis. 

The purpose of a basic furnace filter is to protect your system from dirt and debris that could affect the performance of your system. Some more advanced filters are used to stop airborne particles like dust and other unhealthy microscopic particles from being distributed into your home’s air. It’s natural that all of that material will build up on your filter over time.

When your filter gets too dirty, your furnace has to work harder. Unclean air is redirected to other parts of your unit because it is not able to pass through your filter. This can lead to unnecessary repairs due to build up and damage to different parts of your furnace.

When air is unable to easily pass through your filter, your furnace has to work extra hard to make up for the loss of air flow. As a result, your unit uses more energy and your utility bills begin to grow.

It’s very easy to avoid the consequences of a dirty air filter. Mark your calendar to check your filters on the first of every month, especially during the times of the year that you’re using your furnace the most. One simple test is to hold your filter up to a light and see if light is able to pass through. If not, it’s time to clean or change your filter, depending on the type that is installed in your unit.

If you have any questions about dirty air filters, or would like to have your furnace inspected by a trained professional, contact Sandium, your South Bay Area HVAC company. 

Autumn = Furnace Maintenance

Most everyone is ready for fall as soon as the leaves start to turn colors. Summer is over and for the most part we are all ready for some cooler weather. If you are a Bay Area homeowner, it also means it’s time to do some furnace maintenance as you get ready for the temperatures to begin dropping.

Many Bay Area residents don’t have or use central AC so your furnace may have been sitting idle for several months, but even if your system has been operating in cooling mode, it’s still time to make sure it works efficiently when switched over to heat.

Here are some tips for fall furnace maintenance:

1. Change filters or make sure your reusable filters are clean.
2. If you have a heat pump, check to make sure it is free from lawn debris or overgrown shrubs.
3. Call your service technicians at Sandium.Com to service your system thoroughly so you are prepared for the cold weather to come.

So enjoy autumn —go pick up a pumpkin spice latte, but don’t forget cold temperatures are on the way — schedule your furnace maintenance.

How Much Can You Save With a High Efficiency Furnace?

We’re getting into the coldest days of the year now, and a lot of homeowners are being faced with an important decision: my 20 year old furnace is dead, what kind of furnace should I buy? Should I get the cheaper model or the more expensive one that has the higher efficiency rating? Is two stage operation or a variable speed fan worth the extra cost?

A good place to start is to figure out your current heating costs. If you use natural gas, what other natural gas appliances do you have? If you’re only other natural gas appliance is a hot water tank, this will typically consume $200-$300 in gas every year. A gas stove will typically consume less than $50 in gas a year. The rest should be used by your furnace.

Another method to determine the energy costs of your heating is ask for your month by month energy costs for the last year (or more) from your utility company. The difference between your gas costs in the winter and the summer provides a good estimate of your heating costs.

Next, you must estimate what percentage you will save with a high efficiency (90% efficient) or ultra high efficiency (95% efficient) model versus a now minimum standard 80% efficient model. This involves subtracting the lower efficiency rating from the high efficiency rating and dividing the result by the higher efficiency rating. The result is: A 95% furnace should use about 16% less energy than an 80% efficient model and a 90% efficient model should use about 11% less energy.

Finally, you can multiply your annual heating costs by the savings percentage to estimate how many years it will take to earn your investment back. People with lower heating costs (smaller houses, warmer climates) might find a furnace that costs $1000 extra will only save them $40 a year, and people with higher heating costs might find it can save them $300 a year.

Other issues are deciding whether to pay more for two stage operation or a variable speed fan. If you run your fan continuously in the summer for a mild cooling effect, a variable speed fan will pay for itself in a few years in energy savings. Otherwise, these are luxury items that will make your home more comfortable for a cost.

To schedule an appointment to discuss new furnaces for your home or work place please visit Sandium.Com

Article courtesy of Improvement Web

My House Is Clean, Why Do I Need An Air Purifier?

Why should we bother with air purifiers? Most people are good housekeepers and yet we hear and read about how home conditions are in such a poor state. So, just how could it possibly be dirty and when you spend time every day cleaning?

Among the many concerns is present-day family homes are such tight specifications that what gets in cannot escape. They may be far more energy-efficient than 2 decades ago but that also raises home air pollution. You're reducing electricity yet you're polluting your own home.

Ones strict cleaning routine may make the use of an air purifier more essential. This is because of the housecleaning solutions and chemicals you're using.

An air purifier is a piece of equipment which aims to free air from contaminants. The popularity of air purifiers spur from the results from environment researches which state that the air inside houses are dirtier than the air outside homes.

Here are a couple other reasons that your house may be polluted without an air purifier. The household pet is certainly a big source of home pollution since pet dander contains allergens. Having an air purifier within the bedrooms that the pets stay is very advantageous. If you allow them in your bedroom run an air purifier frequently and wash your bedding every single day whenever possible. Vacuum a couple of times per week and run your air purifier on high for a few minutes once you get finished with the vacuum cleaner.

Forced air furnaces can also be a culprit given that they re-circulate airborne dirt and dust, usually containing allergens from pet dander and other airborne pollutants. Changing the filters of whole home filters early in the year and fall is crucial, and it is better still if you add electrostatic filters to them.

Continuous bedroom fresheners are another source of home air-borne pollutants that an air purifier would be able to assist you with removing.

Cigarettes is another really common pollutant that also has some severe health risks. Whenever possible people who smoke should go outside. At the very least they should smoke in non key parts of the house. Air purifiers are particularly helpful for people that need to reduce second-hand smoke.

Outdoor pollutants that have entered such as industrial discharged particles, gases, and other odor connected to industry. These pollutants have entered and have no way to escape this means you breathe these with every single breath.

The type of house air purifiers that you use is dependent upon which kinds of home pollutants you're most concerned about. Different air purifiers work on different types of pollutants. Some tend to be better with getting rid of air borne particles and others are better as absorbing smells, cleaning chemical smell and gases. Several of your top of the range air purifiers will do a equally good job with all types of indoor pollutants.

House air purifiers (specifically those with HEPA technologies and activated carbon) can be of great assistance. By putting a top quality unit in your bedrooms and main living areas, your house will be as clean as it looks. It'll also end up being far healthier given that the air purifiers have taken the majority of allergens from the air you're breathing.

To learn more about air purifiers please visit Sandium.Com

What Are The Ideal Indoor Humidity Levels For Bay Area Homes?

Humidity plays an enormous role in how comfortable you feel within your house and the quality of the air you breathe. In case your indoor humidity gets too high or as well too low, it can impact the wellness of your family and drive up your power bills.

 

So what would be the effects of low and high humidity and what are the best indoor humidity levels for your home?

 

The effects of indoor humidity in a warm climate

 

It’s recognized that the humidity outdoors is a great deal greater throughout warmer weather, as well as the identical is accurate for the humidity inside your home. Nonetheless, you will find numerous negative effects of high humidity inside your household.

 

Mold, bacteria, fungi, dust mites along with other contaminants thrive in high humidity levels. When they do, it may make your loved ones sick and aggravate symptoms of asthma and allergies. High humidity levels also make it really feel like it is warmer than it truly is, which leads many people to enhance the use of their air conditioners and drive up power bills.

 

The effects of indoor humidity in cold weather

 

Humidity levels are much lower in the presence of colder temperatures, and this also creates a number of side effects within your home.

 

When the air is as well dry, it may lead to numerous health-related troubles from respiratory difficulties, to nose bleeds, to dry and itchy skin and eyes. Low humidity also can warp and crack the furnishings within your house.

 

Low humidity levels are also bad for power savings mainly because you really feel colder when the humidity is low and are you are likely to turn up your furnace far more frequently.

 

What are the ideal indoor humidity levels for the house?

 

The perfect indoor humidity levels within your household are usually in between 30 and 55 %. It’s very best to shoot for a humidity level of 45 %, as that has been cited because the excellent comfort level for most individuals. You could manage your indoor humidity by utilizing a dehumidifier during the cooling season along with a humidifier through the heating season.

If you have any questions about ideal humidity levels for your home please visit Sandium.Com

HVAC Zoning Gives You Control over the Temperatures in Your Home

Most Bay area homeowners spend a lot more time in particular parts of their homes than they do in others. So it does not make much sense to heat and cool just about every a part of your house in the very same way. A Heating and air conditioning zoning method is the perfect answer to this problem.

What exactly is HVAC zoning?

A zoning system for the air conditioner, furnace or heat pump enables you to have precise control over the temperature in different regions of your house. You'll be able to divide your property into various zones and set each and every zone to a designated temperature in accordance with how your family makes use of that a part of your home.Similar to the way  a programmable thermostat adjusts temperatures in line with when you are at house or sleeping, a zoning program can focus your conditioned air on the rooms which you use the most.

How does HVAC zoning operate?Every single zone that you just designate in your residence receives a damper either inside the air duct that leads to the zone or near the air register in the zone. The damper opens and closes in accordance with whether or not the zone calls for conditioned air. When the damper is open, air is permitted in to heat or cool the zone. When the damper is closed, the zone receives no conditioned air.Each zone receives its own thermostat which you can set to your liking. When a thermostat detects that a zone desires to be heated or cooled, it sends a signal to a central control panel that asks for the HVAC unit to send conditioned air. Its damper is then opened to permit the air into the zone.Once each zone inside your property has reached its desired temperature, your HVAC unit shuts off and stops sending conditioned air.

What are the key advantages of HVAC zoning?

HVAC zoning comes with a few terrific benefits. For one, it permits you to have maximum control over the comfort levels inside your household.You will feel significantly much less hot and cold spots using a zoning system mainly because your HVAC unit is able to give a lot more consideration to each and every separate part of your house.

HVAC zoning also saves power due to the fact your heating and cooling units only work as tough as they must in an effort to satisfy each and every zone. That signifies they will not have to waste power on conditioning rooms that you simply do not devote quite a bit of time in.

If you have any questions about HVAC Zoning or if you would like a zoning system installed in your home please visit Sandium.Com

How Does a Heat Pump Work?

Everybody is familiar with furnaces and air conditioners, but did you know that South Bay Area homeowners have yet another option to heat and cool their properties? It is called a heat pump, and it’s an incredible way to cut down on your home’s power consumption.

So how does a heat pump operate and what are the pros and cons of installing one?

What is a heat pump?

A heat pump is usually a heating and cooling unit that transfers heat from one particular place to a different. Heat pumps is usually applied in place of an air conditioner along with a furnace, simply because they may be capable to both heat and cool a household.

You'll find 3 most important varieties of heat pumps: air-source, ground source and water-source. The name of each of these heat pumps describes the outdoor source that may be made use of to heat or cool your property.

How does a heat pump work?

 When a heat pump is utilized to heat a home, it absorbs current heat from the outdoors air, the ground or even a nearby water supply and transfers it in to the dwelling.

In an air supply heat pump, outdoors air is drawn into the heat pump exactly where it passes over liquid refrigerant coils that absorb the heat from the air. The heated, gaseous refrigerant then goes by a compressor where it increases temperature even more and moves for the indoor coils inside your property. There, the heat is made use of to warm the air in your dwelling and the refrigerant turns back into a liquid and repeats the cycle.

Within a ground or water source heat pump, pipes are buried underground or in a nearby water source exactly where the temperature remains consistently warm all through the year. Water or refrigerant is pumped by way of the pipes plus the underground heat is absorbed and transferred into your home inside a equivalent manner as an air supply heat pump.

No matter the type of heat pump, the approach is basically reversed when it is actually used to cool your home.

What are the pros and cons of using a heat pump inside your Bay Area home?

The biggest advantage of heat pumps is that they may be exceptionally energy efficient. Once they are utilised to heat a house, they simply transfer existing heat as opposed to employing energy to generate heat. Heat pumps perform most effective in milder climates, which makes them an extremely efficient alternative for the South Bay Area region. When you install a heat pump, you also possess the comfort of utilizing one device to heat and cool your home.

The biggest drawback to a heat pump would be the expense of installation. Having said that, this cost is normally created up in future energy savings.

Visit Sandium.Com to learn more about how a heat pump system can save you money in the long run.