Fall is Here! Time to Prepare for Winter

We have officially entered the fall season. The weather is changing as well as the color on the trees and it’s my favorite time of year. However it is also a time of year were many people while enjoying the fall colors forget about preparing for the winter just ahead.

Pre-Winter Maintenance

Have you done the pre-winter maintenance? Checked your humidifier for proper operation? Replaced the bulbs in your UV light? Changed your filter and had the furnace and hot water tank combustion compartments cleaned? What about covering your air conditioner with a proper fitting cover has that been taken care of too?

Programmable Thermostat Location and Use

There has been a lot of talk about how much money programmable thermostats can supposedly save the average homeowner, but can a programmable really save you as much money as they say it can? Energy Star states that the average homeowner can save about $180 a year when properly using a programmable thermostat, but the problem is that most of us invest in these pricier thermostats but never use them correctly. You have to find a program that works best with your schedule and actually set the thermostat to run that program! If your schedule changes you have to adjust the program. This is the only way you will see these kinds of savings on your energy bills.

Blower Motor Breakdown

The blower motor is one of the most important parts within your HVAC system. It works all year round with both the furnace and the air conditioner, and when there is something wrong with your blower it will either make a lot of noise or no noise at all. Without a functional blower motor, you will never feel the heating or cooling being produced by the furnace or air conditioner because the blower motor’s job is to circulate air across the heat exchange or the cooling coils and then deliver it to the home. When the blower motor is broken, homeowners will usually call with one of these two complaints:

• It Sounds like there is a Helicopter Landing in My House: The blower motor is encased in a cage and unless the motor is properly balanced within the cage, it will make a lot of extra noise. The noise made by an unbalanced blower is caused by the blades knocking into the sides of the housing, and when this happens, the entire motor, blower, and housing will probably have to be replaced.

Why Should I Invest in a Wi-Fi Thermostat?

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past five years you have probably heard about programmable thermostats and the benefits they could potentially have for your home and your wallet. Unfortunately, very few people actually see the savings that a programmable thermostat can provide. Programming a traditional programmable thermostat is very tedious and if you don’t know what you are doing you might never figure it out. You are more likely to simply use the thermostat like a non-programmable digital unit because the programming is so difficult to set. However, programmable thermostats have been changing. Touchscreen capabilities coupled with Wi-Fi access is the new standard in programmable thermostat technology.

Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Programmable Thermostat?

Are you getting the savings you expected from your programmable thermostat? If not, you are not alone. Most homeowners invest extra money in a programmable thermostat but then fail to use it properly. Half of the problem is a lack of education on the part of the contractor that installed the thermostat and the other problem is the design of the unit. They are not designed for ease of use and any homeowner that has a busy day to day life is not going to have the time to fiddle around with the program every time they have a schedule change. What we really needed was an easy to use thermostat that could be adjusted from anywhere and Lennox Home Comfort Systems delivered.

Easy and Innovative Temperature Control

The new and improved icomfort™ programmable thermostat is now Wi-Fi enabled! This feature expands the capabilities of this impressive thermostat making this a programmable thermostat that you can actually benefit from having installed in your home.  There are some of the features included in this high-tech yet easy to use thermostat:

Get Your Humidity in Balance with Your HVAC

As this winter comes to a close, ask yourself a question. Have you noticed any new squeaks in your hard wood floors? If the answer is yes, you probably have a humidity imbalance in your home. You may say that you don’t even notice the squeaks in your floors, but allow this problem to continue and selling your home may become very difficult. Taking actions now to prevent further damage is easy and affordable. Not taking action will leave you with a costly repair on your hands once the problem gets out of hand.

Keeping Humidity in Balance isn’t Easy

Keeping humidity and temperature in balance is not as easy as you may think. The furnace dries out the air in the home during the winter, and sometimes the air conditioner cannot keep up with high humidity that occurs during the summer. Your HVAC system needs a little help. When the air is allowed to dry out, the wood in your floors also dry out and shrink. The excess moisture in the summer will cause the wood to swell and over the years the wood will become brittle and warped. Keeping the humidity between 35 and 55 % and the temperature in the home between 60 and 80 degrees will prevent this from happening.

Temperature Differential Causing Discomfort

The thermostat is in control of one of the most important systems within the home: the HVAC system. This system dictates your comfort level and allows you to choose the temperature that you find most comfortable. However, there is a setting on the thermostat that can disrupt this comfort if it is not set appropriately. The temperature differential can give the thermostat a few degrees leeway before turning your HVAC system on or off. This could allow your homes temperature to fluctuate drastically all while the thermostat continues to read the original set temperature.

Resetting the Differential

Let’s say that you are most comfortable at 70 degrees during the winter season. You set the thermostat and go about your day. Every time the furnace comes on the house gets to feel uncomfortably warm. In between cycles when the furnace is off, the home becomes uncomfortably cold. The temperature differential is probably set at three degrees. That means that the temperature can get as warm as 73 degrees and as cold as 67 degrees before the thermostat responds to the temperature. This is what is causing your discomfort. Check with your thermostat manual for instructions to change the differential and set it back to one degree. This will give you the temperature you desire and eliminate this source of discomfort.

Upgrade without Installing Duct Work

So you are finally ready to get rid of that old boiler, and upgrade to forced air heating. Some homeowners want forced air because they want to install central air conditioning and others want to upgrade simply for improved energy efficiency. However, installing duct work in a finished home can cost thousands alone and can greatly disturb the home. There is a better way to get forced air in your home with a mini split ductless heating and cooling system.

Solving Your Heating and Cooling Problems

A mini split ductless heating and cooling system is very unique. Through the use of one centralized condenser you can heat and cool each room in the home individually. Wall mounted systems are installed in the target rooms and a remote control can individually adjust the temperature to the desired levels in each space. This system solves many problems all at once, including:

Changing Your Filter and Identifying Problems

Many people have questions about changing their furnace’s filter, and when searching for an answer you will find a lot of mixed information out there. There are no clean cut answers that can be applied to every home and everyone must assess their own situation in order to determine what is best for their heating and cooling systems.  You will hear many people give the blanket answer, “Change your filter every 30 days,” but filter manufacturers have no way of knowing where your unit is installed, the age of the furnace or the condition of your duct work.  Therefore, we recommend following these simple steps in order to determine what is best for your particular situation:

• Check the filter at least every 30 days even if your filter manufacturer states your filter can be last longer.  Depending on the state of the air quality in your home you may not be able to get much more than 30 days of safe use per filter. Keeping a dirty filter in the system can cause air flow and air quality problems that can have serious consequences for the condition of your furnace. If the filter can last longer and it is still clean at 30 days, you can keep it in, but don’t forget to keep checking it every 30 days!

Go Green with this Winter’s Savings

Though the snow may be falling now, so far this winter has been very mild by comparison to years past. This has left many homeowners with much fuller pockets than usual and that money needs to be put to good use. That means that we need to find good investments to ensure that this money is well spent. Investing this money in your home is a great place to start and spending it in improving the homes energy efficiency is even better! Going green has many benefits for the environment and for your wallet. Take a moment to look at your last energy bill. Odds are the cost was much lower than you were paying at the same time last year. How would you like to pay that much on your energy bills every year! Making energy efficient upgrade could make that possible!

3 Wise Energy Efficient Investments:

• HVAC Replacement: Replacing the furnace and air conditioner could be your best bet at this time. Air conditioners are out of season and therefore at amazingly low prices, and if your furnace and air conditioner are in bad shape, replacing them could be all that your home needs to make low energy bills a common occurrence in your home.