Heating and Cooling

Get Your Home Ready for Winter – Replace Your Heater in the Summer!

Summer fun and sun probably don’t conjure up thoughts about heater replacements. However, there are several reasons why this time of year—with the birds singing and the air conditioner humming in the background—may actually be the best time to think about upgrading your heating system.

Is It Time For A Change?

Furnace life expectancy varies according to how well the unit’s maintained plus the local climate and average annual days of operation. Generally speaking, a gas-fired furnace that is standard in most residences today can be expected to last 15 to 20 years. As that time frame elapses, heating performance can decline, and furnace energy efficiency may no longer meet current standards, causing higher monthly bills. Increasing wear and tear often forces decisions about whether to invest more money in expensive repairs or upgrade now to a new, more reliable and efficient unit.

Here are some more reasons that this summer may be the best time to consider heater replacements:

• Off-season prices and selection. Once the weather starts cooling down, furnace demand will increase and prices naturally rise. In summer, conversely, demand is low, dealers offer more attractive prices to keep volume up and a wider selection of units—including last year’s models at substantial discount—is available.
• Taking your time. Summer weather offers time to shop around and consider all the available options at your convenience. Conversely, if you put off replacing a heater until it unexpectedly fails during the coming winter, you’ll probably be under pressure to make a snap decision. That’s never the best time to shop.
• Maybe you want a package deal? Central air conditioners typically have a shorter expected service life than a gas-fired furnace. If your A/C unit has also seen better days, replacing both the furnace and the air conditioner at the same time may be the most viable option as well as get you a better deal. Unit prices may be lower and installation costs less when you are replacing the entire system.

When indoor temperature control becomes an issue, closing HVAC registers seems like a no-brainer. After all, by keeping conditioned air out of certain rooms where you don’t need it, you can keep the rest of the house comfortable plus save money by not wasting unwanted heating or cooling.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Your HVAC units and ductwork system are designed and engineered to work together to deliver a specific volume of air to each and every room based on the square footage of the room. That careful equilibrium can be affected by closing one or more registers. Here are some of the unintended consequences that can result:

No energy savings.

Your HVAC system doesn’t know whether all registers in the house are open or not. It just keeps producing the same volume of heated or cooled air—and consuming the same amount of energy—until the thermostat setting is achieved.

Inconsistent comfort.

Supply air volume into each room is controlled by adjusting internal dampers located inside the
branch ducts. This ensures appropriate airflow volume to maintain consistent temperatures whether a room is located close to the system blower or far away. Closing one or more supply registers disrupts airflow balance and temperatures throughout the entire system. Rooms closest to the blower may receive too much airflow while rooms far away may not get enough.

Pressure imbalances.

Supply registers may be closed to stop airflow but return registers remain open at all times. Therefore, the return system continues to draw air out of the room even when there is no supply air entering. This discrepancy depressurizes the room and/or part of the house. A depressurized room draws unfiltered cold or hot outdoor air into the room through small structural cracks and gaps. This infiltrating air destabilizes room temperature and can degrade indoor air quality.

More wear and tear.

Closing supply vents increases static pressure inside the supply ductwork which in turn stresses the system blower, potentially leading to shorter service life of that component.

With the change in seasons come new threats to your HVAC system. One such threat comes in the form of fallen leaves. It’s hard to imagine that fallen foliage could give your HVAC system so much trouble, but it can happen if you’re not diligent about outdoor HVAC unit protection.

The Trouble With Fallen Foliage

Your HVAC system’s outdoor cabinet, which contains the condenser coil and compressor, is tasked with expelling latent heat collected from inside your home. To accomplish this, your outdoor cabinet uses a powerful fan to draw cool air from the bottom and sides of the unit, which it then uses to disperse warm air through the top of the cabinet.

With this setup, it’s easy to see how fallen leaves can impact your HVAC system. Leaves that pile up at the bottom of the unit can choke off crucial airflow, making it difficult for your HVAC system to disperse latent heat. Such blockages can also cause a noticeable drop in HVAC system efficiency, making your unit use more energy for declining levels of performance.

Airflow blockages caused by fallen leaves can even damage portions of your HVAC system, including the condenser coil and A/C compressor.

How to Protect Your HVAC System

Outdoor HVAC unit protection is essential for keeping your heating and cooling system in great shape this fall. Fortunately, there are plenty of proactive steps you can take to keep your unit safe:

• Regularly rake your yard of fallen leaves and other debris. Keep raked leaves bagged up to prevent the wind from blowing them everywhere.
• Thoroughly inspect and clean your outdoor HVAC cabinet. Use compressed air to blow out any leaves and debris found within.
• Trim back overhanging limbs to keep leaves from falling through the fan vent.
• Use an HVAC cover to protect your unit when it’s not in use.

After a blazingly hot summer, most homeowners are looking forward to the cooler months of the year. At some point, your heating system will come into play and that’s when things will really heat up (pardon our pun). Before you go ahead with turning on your heater for the new season, follow these tips:

Turn On the Pilot Light

Since it’s been a while since your heating system has been up and running, there’s a good chance that your pilot light needs to be lit once again. If you don’t know how to do this yourself or want to have your system checked at the same time, call a qualified technician. Which brings us to our second point.

Hire a Qualified Technician

Heating systems are built to last, but they still need to be serviced if you hope to keep them running efficiently and effectively for as long as possible. An inspection by a qualified technician should be scheduled once per year to make sure this happens.

Clean or Replace the Air Filter

When your system’s air filter gets dirty, the system won’t run as well as before, not to mention that contaminants will be expelled back into your air. You can prevent this by cleaning or replacing the air filter every 1-3 months, depending on how quickly it gets clogged up.

Switch to a Better Thermostat

Manual thermostats are things of the past and have been replaced by programmable models that allow you to set the days and times of your HVAC system’s operation. Many of these also offer options like wi-fi connectivity and weather updates.

Test your Alarms

Your home should be equipped with multiple smoke alarms and at least one carbon monoxide alarm per story. You can test each one by pressing a small button that’s usually located on the front of the unit and replace the batteries, if needed.

Manual J load calculation is the gold standard in the HVAC industry for properly sizing a heating and cooling system. Bigger is not better when it comes to HVAC systems. Conducting the load calculation eliminates the risk of over-sizing or under-sizing it.

The load calculation determines how much cooling or heating your home will need when the weather is at its hottest or coldest. Homes with high levels of energy efficiency don’t need as much capacity, which helps you save energy and money.

What’s Involved

The load calculation involves going through your home carefully to evaluate and calculate how energy efficient it is. The HVAC professional will assess the insulation levels, air infiltration rates, and the heat gain or loss from the windows. They take into account the floorplan design and your family’s preferred temperatures and lifestyle.

The Manual J load calculation software returns a value that helps you and the technician arrive at the best size for your home. Manual J has sister software that helps the technicians find the best size and configuration for the ductwork. Ducts that are too small are noisy and those that are too large won’t have the air pressure they need to deliver the conditioned air at the required velocity.

The Benefits

A central HVAC system that has been sized carefully will last longer, give you more comfort and use less energy. When you oversize the new equipment, it’s much more likely to break down more often, drive up energy bills and provide less even cooling and heating.

When the system is too large, it starts and stops more often and runs in shorter cycles. Cooling equipment uses a lot of electricity when it first starts, which stresses the parts and drives up electrical bills. If it’s too small, the system won’t be able to effectively cool or heat your home during weather extremes.

Despite the important job it does in improving indoor air quality and making your home more comfortable, your HVAC system — or the outdoor compressor/condenser section of your air conditioner, to be exact — probably isn’t your favorite landscaping design element.

Sometimes, homeowners find the outdoor HVAC unit is in the way when they’re trying to landscape the yard, or when planning an entertainment area where a noisy compressor won’t be so intrusive. Here are some suggestions that should help.

Maybe the condenser is just too noisy when it turns on. Noise usually originates from an older compressor, as newer units are quieter. Your best option may be to replace it with a newer model. If that won’t work for you, there are several other solutions.

1. Build a fence around it.

Experiment by putting plywood boards around the unit to see if this solves the noise problem. If it works, erect a permanent fence of solid, interlocking design, at least 3 feet from the unit, allowing for air flow. Build an entrance so the HVAC tech can gain access. Some manufactured products are available that you can assemble around the unit, but make sure you’re buying a model that cuts the noise. Some of these fences are even available in attractive designs that will fit well in your landscape.

2. Move the unit.

This may be a rather expensive solution, but moving the condenser could also answer concerns you have about how the unit doesn’t fit in with your landscaping design. You will be limited as to how far away you can locate the unit.

3. Landscape around it.

While this won’t help with noise, it could make the unit seem less intrusive in your landscape. For example, you could erect a trellis in front of the unit and grow climbing roses or vines; don’t plant anything that might shed seeds or fruits that could damage the unit.