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Finding The Source

Attempting to find the source of a roof leak can be similar to solving a mystery. You should be on the lookout for dark, discolored trails that show that water has passed over the wood rafters. The key is to trace the dark path to its highest point, which should be under the source of the leak. It may be necessary to relocate any electronic items and furniture around the area.

Fixing It

In many cases, roof leaks are caused by localized damage, including cracked or missing shingles. If this is the case, repairing the damage can be as simple as replacing the shingles. Always remember to complete any roof repairs on a sunny day when the roof is completely dry. Also, be sure to wear rubber-soled shoes since they provide the best traction when working on a roof. If the cause of the leak is more complex, it is in your best interest to immediately schedule an appoint with a roofing professional for an inspection. This will prevent further damage from taking place.

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Finding the source of a pesky roof leak is not a terribly difficult task but you must be patient and methodical. In some cases, you may be able to repair the damage on your own. However, if the cause of the leak seems complex, you should contact a roofing professional.

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We often get customers asking what the price is to install Air Conditioning in their home.  To be able to answer that, we need to ask you a few questions first.

1.  What is the purpose of the air conditioning?  There are three routes you can take with your cooling.

• Cooling for your entire home.  If you want to have cooling throughout your entire home, a traditional air conditioner could be a good option for you.
• Cooling for your entire home, plus heating in the winter with significant energy savings.  Many customers choose to upgrade to a heat pump, since it not only provides cooling during the summer but also heating in the winter along with significant energy savings.
• Cooling for a room or two.  Regardless of whether or not you already have air conditioning, chances are that you have a few rooms that get warmer than you would like during the summer months.  A great way to fix that is to provide room spot cooling through ductless mini-split systems.  They will cool down the spaces that need it with much more energy savings than a traditional air conditioner.

2.  What is the size of your home?  A larger home means that a larger air conditioner is necessary, which marginally increases the cost.

3.  What is the Heat Gain within your home?  Heat gain is how much heat your house holds in as the day gets warmer.  Insulation, windows, and age of the home contribute to the calculation.  For example, a poorly insulated home with a southern bank of windows would gain more heat throughout the day than a well insulated home with a bank of northern windows.  The more heat your house gains, the larger the air conditioning unit that is needed to be able to counteract that heat.

4.  What is the condition of your duct work?  You should always get your ducts sealed and insulated if you have leaks or cracks in them.  If you don’t, your cooled air is released into your crawl space or attic instead of your home, wasting energy and causing the air conditioner to run longer.  Some companies compensate by giving you a larger unit, but our company will seal and insulate the duct work for you.

5.  What efficiency are you looking for?  Just like you can get cars with great gas mileage or poor gas mileage, the same thing goes for air conditioners.  Air Conditioners have various SEER ratings, anywhere from 13 to 23, with 13 being the lowest energy efficiency and 23 being the highest energy efficiency.  With a 23 SEER Air Conditioner, you’re going to have lower utility bills, which will save you money over time, but you also have a higher cost up front for the unit itself.

After taking all of those factors into account, a new Air Conditioning system will cost anywhere from $3,500 to $10,000, depending on what type of system you ultimately choose to get.  A visit with a Comfort Advisor will help you determine what is best for your needs and what will fit within your budget.

Quaint Sunroom

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Clean and Simple Sunroom

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Bright And Colorful Sunroom Design

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Sunroom With Forest View

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Cozy And Inviting Sunroom With Sofa

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Loft Sunroom

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Home Office Sunroom

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When the weather turns warm, the last thing you want is for your air conditioner not to work.  It’s a hot and miserable situation to be in.  Most of the time a licensed technician needs to perform a diagnostic to determine exactly what is wrong with your air conditioner or heat pump, but there are several checks you can go through to try to turn on the cooling yourself.

Is your breaker in the on position?  Check the breaker assigned to your air conditioner on the breaker box inside your home to see if it is in the on position.  Certain events like a power surge or power outage during the winter can make the breaker trip off and homeowners won’t notice it until they need the cooling.  However, if you notice that the breaker trips frequently, you will need to get a technician out to your house to diagnose why that is happening since it is not normal behavior.

Has filter been changed or cleaned in the past 3 months?  Even though your outdoor unit is the one providing the cooling during summer, your indoor unit is distributing the cooled air to the whole home.  If you haven’t changed or cleaned the filter in the past 3 months, the filter will eventually restrict enough airflow that the indoor coil section of your air conditioner can ice over, which will not allow the system to cool your home. Changing the air filter may allow your air conditioning to come back on.

Is the thermostat set to auto or cool?  If you have the thermostat still in the heat setting, it will not be able to cool your home, so make sure to switch it into the auto or cool setting depending on the features on your thermostat.

If those checks still don’t turn on your air conditioner, it’s time to call a licensed heating and air conditioning company who can send a technician to diagnose what is wrong with the system.

There are several different types of air filters you could use in your home’s heating system.  Two of the most common are the pleated paper filter and the electronic air cleaner.  We have received many questions about which one is better, so we thought it was time to put them to a showdown.

Paper Pleated Filter

Pros: Inexpensive, easy to find, you can put them in yourself

Cons:  If not changed every 3 months, they can get clogged as time goes on and restrict airflow, which can eventually cause damage to the furnace.  You have to keep purchasing them every few months for the duration of the life of the unit.  They also are not as effective at removing as many particulates as an Electronic Air Cleaner does.

Electronic Air Cleaner

Pros:  Electronic air cleaners are the most effective at filtering the air in your home.  They are also the best filter for improving your home’s indoor air quality by reducing airborne allergens and particulates. You save money over the long run by not having to buy filters every few months, you simply clean the filters instead of replacing them.  Not to mention that they are better for the environment since you aren’t throwing away filters every few months.

Cons:  A homeowner can’t install the electronic air cleaner themselves– a licensed HVAC contractor would need to do the work.  An electronic air cleaner is more expensive upfront, but can save you over the long run since you simply clean the filters instead of buying new ones.

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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Carpool

Consider carpooling with a coworker who drives a hybrid this Earth Day. Not only will this cut down on emissions during your daily commute, you will save on gas money.

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Plant A Tree

Plant a tree on April 22 to show your appreciation for the environment. Trees improve our air quality by filtering harmful pollutants, including ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide. Trees also give off the oxygen we need to breathe.

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Switch Your Light Bulbs

Pop in some energy efficient light bulbs throughout your home. This is a small change that will save tons of energy.

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Sign Up For Paperless Billing

If you haven’t done so already, handle all your bills through the Internet. This is an excellent way to save some trees. Additionally, some of your bills may be marginally reduced if you choose to go the paperless route.

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Ride Your Bike To Work

Riding your bike to work has multiple benefits. Not only are you reducing pollution, but you are saving money and getting exercise, which is known to enhance your mood. Hopefully this means a more productive day at work.

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As you can see, there are some great things you can do this Earth Day to contribute toward a more sustainable environment. Some simple changes can really go a long way in preserving our precious natural resources.

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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