1.  You have a leaky duct system.  No matter how energy efficient your furnace, heat pump, air conditioner, or thermostat are, none of them can save you any money if you have a leaky duct system.  Some of your conditioned air will escape through those leaks before it makes it into your home, causing the home to have less comfort and taking longer for the thermostat to get to the correct temperature.  This is the number one reason why programmable thermostats end up not saving a homeowner money.

2.  You have improperly programmed the thermostat.  So many factors can play into this, but you will want to make sure that you have programmed it for energy savings for long periods of time, 8 hours or more, while you’re away from the home or asleep.  That will allow the maximum savings possible.

3.  You have set the thermostat to 85 to heat your home or 40 to cool your home.  And yes, those might be extremes, but they don’t heat or cool your home any faster.  All they will do is cause your unit to run constantly trying to reach those impossible temperatures, which in turn puts stress on the unit and shortens its life expectancy.

4.  You override the programming on a consistent basis.  The programming is there to save you money, but it can’t do its job if you won’t let it.  If you find yourself adjusting the thermostat by a degree or two every day and using the hold function to keep it there, re-program your thermostat for the temperature that you find yourself preferring.  That way you will have more comfort and can still save money.

5.  Unless you did the work yourself, one thing you may not be able to help is how your thermostat was installed.  Improper placement within the home or on a wall, as well as the settings that were programmed during the installation, can affect energy savings.  If you are doing everything right and suspect that the installation of the thermostat is off, you will need to get a licensed heating and cooling company to check it out for you.

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To save yourself the diagnostic fee, we recommend being proactive and changing the batteries in your thermostat every year.  It wouldn’t hurt to make a party of it and change the batteries in your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detectors too.  Note that not every thermostat requires batteries, so if yours has been running for years without the batteries needing to be changed, it’s possible you don’t have to worry about it.

Possible signs that you need to replace your thermostat batteries include a low battery warning, unusual behavior from your heating or cooling system, and after the batteries finally die, a blank screen and no response from your units.  These also could be the indication of a more serious problem, so if you change the batteries and still have no heat or air conditioning, give us a call to schedule an appointment with a technician who can diagnose what might be causing your system to not work.

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Every heat pump system has an outdoor unit, the heat pump, and an “indoor” unit, which is either an air handler or a gas furnace.  The location of the indoor unit can be inside the home, garage, attic, or crawl space.  The majority of the time that your thermostat is calling for heat, the heat pump is used to produce it.  However, when the temperature drops near freezing or below, the heat pump cannot work as efficiently, so the air handler is used to produce the heat instead.  When that happens, you will see “aux” show up on your thermostat screen, which means that that auxiliary heat has been automatically turned on to produce the most comfort in your home.

The most common time people see this happening is during winter mornings when they first get up and the temperatures are still below, at, or slightly above freezing.  This is completely normal operation, but there can be concern if it stays in auxiliary heat even when the temperature has risen.  Behavior like that can point to a problem with the installation of the system, a mechanical failure in the heat pump or air handler, or a faulty thermostat.  You can run the system in auxiliary heat until a technician gets to your house, but you do not want to have it in that mode indefinitely, since it is much more expensive to use the indoor unit to solely heat your home instead of the cost efficient heat pump.

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You may have heard a technician tell you that you have a crack in your heat exchanger.  While this may not initially sound too alarming, once you understand just how bad that it can be for the health and safety of your family, you might think twice before turning the furnace back on.

Gas furnaces work by burning natural gas, venting it through a series of metal tubes called a heat exchanger, and then blowing air over the heat exchanger to warm it to be distributed into your home.  A by-product of burning natural gas is a poisonous gas– Carbon Monxide.  In a properly working furnace, this poison should be captured in the heat exchanger, where it is safely vented into the atmosphere, however, when there are cracks present, the carbon monoxide can escape into the stream of air being blown into the home and contaminate the air you are breathing.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning is something to take extremely seriously.  At high levels, it can kill you within minutes.  At moderate levels, you can experience dizziness, headaches, confusion, and nausea.  If a technician tells you that you have a crack in your heat exchanger, we would strongly urge you to listen to their recommendations to replace either the heat exchanger itself or your furnace.

Become one of the millions of people who are taking part in the ENERGY STAR pledge.  They are pledging to reduce the amount of energy that they use both at work and home.  Whether its your lightbulbs or your heating system, take a look at the ENERGY STAR Pledge website for more information about how you can save energy too.

Did you know that you can get a $250 Puget Sound Energy rebate and up to a $1500 Federal Tax Credit just for putting in a new ENERGY STAR Heating or Cooling system?  You can read more about it here on our website:  Tax Credits for HVAC Equipment

Next week in our series on ENERGY STAR:  Take The ENERGY STAR Pledge

Source: www.energystar.gov

Replacing your old heating and cooling equipment with new energy-efficient equipment is guaranteed to save you money on your utility bills.  However, you need to make sure that the company that is installing your new equipment is doing it properly.  Improper installation can reduce system efficiency by up to 30%!  Make sure you ask the following questions before committing to a company:

• How did you size the equipment for my home?  If the system is too big or too small, it will work harder than it should and shorten the length of its life.  You want to make sure that a heat loss calculation has been performed on the house by your contractor to determine exactly what the right size of equipment is for you.
• Do I have any leaks in the duct system?  The contractor should evaluate the duct system to identify leaks and then seal them.
• How do you ensure a proper refrigerant charge?  If your cooling system has an improper refrigerant charge, it can cause failure of components, which results in costly repairs.
• Do you have a Quality Installation Checklist?  A contractor that has a checklist to ensure that the installers are doing the install correctly is definitely a company you should look for.

Next week in our series on ENERGY STAR:  Rebates and Tax Credits

Source: www.energystar.gov

Glen J., AAA Heating & Air Conditioning Senior Technician

Q:  We recently moved into a newly built house and noticed that our furnace turns on and off frequently.  It will quickly get the house to the temperature we want it and shut off, but then turn back on again shortly afterward to start heating again.  Is this something we should be concerned about?  — Samuel Z., Maple Valley

A. It is possible that the furnace the builder put in the house is improperly sized.  Quite surprisingly, many homes, both new and old, have furnaces that are too large or too small for the space.  If the furnace is too small, it will run constantly because it is trying to keep up with the demands for heat that are put on it.  However, if a furnace is too large, it heats the home quickly and then shuts off quickly.  Because it is an inconsistent heat, the temperature falls soon, and the furnace is forced to come back on briefly to put out more heat.  It sounds like that could possibly be the problem at your home.  I would recommend scheduling a service technician to perform a full diagnostic on your furnace to determine if that truly is the cause or if there is more to the issue.  I would be happy to come out and take a look at it for you.  Just call our Kent Heating and Air Conditioning office at 253-630-9224 and they can set up an appointment for you.

If you have a question for Glen, our knowledgeable Senior Technician, submit it using our communication form and you might just be featured on our blog!

If you are looking to replace or install new ENERGY STAR high-efficiency heating or cooling equipment, you need to find a good company to work with.  Reputable companies will:

• Perform an on-site inspection of the work you want completed and provide a detailed proposal in a timely manner
• Demonstrate to you that the company is licensed and insured to repair and install heating and cooling equipment
• Have many years of experience as a business in your community
• Provide examples of quality installation of energy-efficient heating and/or cooling equipment work, with names of customers you can contact
• Complete and submit warranty information on your behalf
• Leave all equipment manuals and provide documentation of installation procedures, such as an AHRI certificate
• Clearly explain the benefits of regular maintenance and help you set up a schedule to keep your system operating at its best

Next week in our series on ENERGY STAR: Energy Star Quality Installations

Source: www.energystar.gov