• Improve heat pump air flow by removing all debris and obstructions around the unit.
• Turn off the heat pump at the circuit breaker box before performing maintenance of any kind.
• Trim bushes so they’re at least 12 inches away from the heat pump.
• Pull weeds at the same distance and never allow vines to grow near the pump.
• Do not place anything on the top of the unit.
• If screening or fencing has been built around the unit, it must be lattice type or open for air flow on all sides.
• Do not allow children to play on or near the heat pump. The pump has exposed wires and pipes and the vents can be dented and damaged.

Once you know your heat pump has the proper clearance and airflow, take a look at the metal casing. Most heat pumps come with a high durability paint treatment to inhibit rust for as long as possible. However, paint decays over time and heat pumps operate in a moist environment, which allows them to develop rust quickly.

• Wash the heat pump using a soft nylon bristle brush and dish soap. Scrub all of the vents to remove the debris and staining.
• Rinse the heat pump case using distilled water. Dry the surface with an old towel.
• Apply a quality automotive polish or wax to the case.
• Rub and buff to cover and seal all of the painted surfaces.
• Repeat two or three times each year when you notice the polish has worn off.

Regular tending to your heat pump will allow it to work properly for as long as possible. When you’re inspecting your heat pump, if you notice unusual sounds, frosting of coils, leaks or other problems, contact Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. We serve the Northwest Chicago surburbs.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about heat pumps and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!

The basic level of filtration occurs in your HVAC system with the furnace or A/C filter. Depending on its efficiency level (measured by MERV rating), an HVAC filter can range from the very basic, just keeping the largest dust particles out of your heating and cooling equipment, all the way up to high-efficiency HEPA and UV light filters. The problem with these systems, however, is that if the air in your home is not circulating properly, then air trapped near the bottom of each room will never reach the ductwork filtration. One of the easiest ways to control additional dust and allergens in your home is to install separate electronic air cleaning machines in the parts of your home that you use the most often, such as the living room and bedrooms.

Electronic air cleaning machines work by collecting the dust from the air, or by settling the dust onto nearly surfaces. Either kind can work; it just depends on whether you want to dust your home more often or clean the collection plates on your cleaning unit.

If you would like to learn more about how electronic air cleaning works, or discuss other ways you can reduce allergy symptoms in your Northwest Chicago home, contact us at Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about electronic air cleaning and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!

Most people look to the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) to tell how well a given model uses energy to cool air. The SEER is helpful but in climates like what we have in Chicago, there are some other ratings and features to consider.

• Energy Efficiency Ration (EER) – The difference between SEER rating and EER rating is that the former gives you the total efficiency over a year while the latter tells you how efficient the model operates at full capacity. EER is the “high-temperature rating,” which should be at least 11.6 for an efficient unit.
• Variable Speed Handler – The air handler is responsible for controlling air circulation and humidity. Because they’re not operating at full-go all the time, variable speed handlers are much better at balancing air distribution and removing excess humidity.
• Quiet Operation – The air handler is not the only part that needs to be run quietly. Less noise often means the equipment is higher quality and is operating smoothly.
• Fan-Only Mode – Sometimes you simply need to circulate your air to keep your home comfortable. It’s wasteful to run the entire system during these times so make sure your selection has this option.
• Filter Light Check – Maintaining a clean filter is probably the easiest part of keeping your system efficient but it’s also the easiest to forget. Choose a model with a light to remind you when the filter needs to be cleaned.
• Auto-Delay Fan Switch – With older thermostats, the fan turns off as soon as the compressor does. That means energy is being used to cool air that is never being delivered to your rooms. This feature circulates that air before stopping the fan.

For expert advice on weighing the SEER rating and all the other features, contact Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning. For over 65 years, we’ve been providing expert HVAC service and advice to northwest Chicago and the surrounding areas.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about SEER ratings and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today! 

If you have purchased an A/C unit in the past year, pat yourself on the back. It probably doesn’t use R-22 Freon so you won’t have to worry about a price increase. Folks with older A/Cs, however, need to take heed. R-22 Freon is being phased out and will only have limited availability in its recycled form after 2020, and even that’s not certain. The closer we get to that date, the higher R-22 Freon prices will get. So, even with an A/C unit in tip-top shape, you’ll be paying premium prices whenever you have it serviced. And if your unit isn’t in great shape, it will have to be serviced more often, leading to even higher costs.

Installing a new air conditioner won’t just combat rising R-22 Freon prices; it will help you lower your utility bill as well. New Energy Star-approved air conditioners can be as much as 65 percent more efficient than those built just 10 years ago. With energy and R-22 prices quickly rising, an efficient unit could net enough in energy savings to pay for itself in just a few years.

When you put the two together, R-22 Freon prices rising and newer units being much more energy efficient, that makes a powerful argument for replacing your old air conditioner. If you have more questions about the R-22 phase-out plan and how it’s going to affect you, or you’d just like some professional advice on how to better heat and cool your home, contact us at Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about freon prices and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

• Change your air filters. When the filters in your air conditioner get dirty, it forces your system to work harder, which burns up more energy. Change filters every one to three months during the cooling season. This will have the added benefit of improving indoor air quality.

• Have your air conditioner serviced. HVAC equipment should be serviced once a year to prevent problems and keep it running at peak efficiency. Spring is the best time to schedule your air conditioner for maintenance; that way you’ll know it’s up to the task of keeping you cool in the months ahead.

• Install a programmable thermostat. This device saves you money by automatically adjusting the temperature in your house according to your daily routine. You can stay cool while you’re home, like in the morning and evening, but let your house stay a little warmer while you’re out of the house or asleep. It offers the same sort of energy-saving benefits during the heating season.

• Use appliances wisely. Cook outside as much as possible, and save baking for cool mornings and evenings. Run your washing machine only when you have a full load, using only warm or cold water, and let clothes dry on a line outside when the weather permits.

• Provide shade. Drapes, blinds and awnings help block the sun, preventing the greenhouse effect that heats up your home on sunny days. Planting shade trees around your house is also a big help.

• Use ceiling fans. The average ceiling fan costs less to operate than a light bulb, and it creates a wind chill effect that lets you turn up the thermostat a few degrees without sacrificing comfort. Make sure to turn off the fan when nobody’s in the room to feel the cooling effect.

• Update your lighting. Compact fluorescent light bulbs not only last longer and use less energy than incandescent bulbs, they also produce less heat.

For more information on how you can take charge of your warm-weather energy costs, contact Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning. We’ve been serving Arlington Heights and the northwest Chicago suburbs for over 65 years.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about energy costs and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!

Duct sealing saves money on energy bills, makes your home more comfortable and gives you a safer, more reliable system. During a hot Chicago summer or a bitterly cold Chicago winter, you can’t afford to lose any of the cooled or heated air you’re paying for. Sealing your ductwork can have the following benefits:

• Save as much as 10 percent on your energy bills. The savings result when your heating and cooling system doesn’t have to overwork itself to compensate for lost conditioned air. A duct sealing can often pay for itself in energy savings, a welcome boost in today’s tough economy.
• Duct sealing can prevent “backdrafting,” where combustion gases such as carbon monoxide released by gas appliances get drawn into living areas instead of released properly through ventilation systems. Sealing your ducts reduces this risk and gives you a safer heating and cooling system.
• Provide you with a more comfortable home. Rooms that are too warm in summer or too cool in winter can benefit from duct sealing with more even temperatures. Air previously lost to holes and gaps will be properly delivered throughout your home, ensuring a more comfortable experience in every room.

Seal leaky ducts with mastic-type sealant and metal tape. Don’t bother with duct tape, which is not as long-lasting. For more savings, insulate ducts that pass through areas that do not receive cooled and heated air, such as attics, garages and crawl-spaces.

You may wish to consider consulting a certified HVAC service technician for inspection of your ductwork and for duct sealing, as well as insulation of ductwork. An HVAC professional can also provide regular inspection and maintenance services of your cooling and heating system.

For more expert advice about duct sealing and other home comfort topics, please contact us at Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. Our family-owned and operated business has been serving the northwest Chicago suburbs for more than 65 years. What started out as a pair of brothers in a barn has grown to a business with a staff of more than 30 employees at our current location in Arlington Heights.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about duct sealing and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!

Potential energy savings

The U.S. Department of Energy program, Energy Savers, states that turning down/up your thermostat from your normal setting 10-15 degrees for eight hours a day can save about 10 percent in heating/cooling costs. These savings result when you utilize working hours and sleeping hours for energy-saving modes. Here’s a typical energy-saving program setting:

• Workday (8 hours): plus/minus 10 degrees from comfort setting.
• Evening (6 hours): your normal comfort setting.
• Sleeping (8 hours): plus/minus 10 degrees from comfort setting.
• Early morning (2 hours): plus/minus 5 degrees from comfort setting.

This energy-saving program schedule can save about 20 percent of heating and/or cooling costs. Of course, this can be accomplished with a manual thermostat, if you discipline yourself to set it back and then return it to its comfort settings on a consistent basis. But for most busy people, this isn’t a practical way to save energy. Programmable thermostats reduce the urge to tinker with the temperature settings as well.

Programming options and features

While nearly all programmable thermostats provide four daily temperature settings, they differ in weekly settings. These are the available programs:

• 7-day provides daily programming.
• 5+2 provides separate weekday and weekend programming.
• 5+1+1 provides weekday, and separate weekend programming.

These thermostats are available with many features for easy programming and convenience. These are just a few:

• Extra-large touchscreen for ease of use.
• Keypad lock to prevent unauthorized use.
• Voice, online and smart phone interfacing.
• Advanced start-up to reach target temperature efficiently.

These thermostats are available for the vast majority of heating and cooling systems. You’ll need to match a compatible thermostat to your specific system, including any advanced systems and features you have (such as zoning system, heat pump with auxiliary heat, variable-speed motors, etc.). If you would like assistance, or more information, contact Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. We proudly serve the Northwest Chicago suburbs.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about programmable thermostat and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!

1. Make sure the contractor is NATE certified. NATE, or North American Technician Excellence, is the gold standard in HVAC training and expertise.
2. Ask for recommendations for contractors from friends and colleagues who have completed a project and were pleased with the results.
3. Use Internet resources like Angie’s list to also find recommendations.
4. Cross-check with the Better Business Bureau to ensure that there few if any complaints.
5. Verify their contractor’s license information with the state contractor’s board, including whether it’s up to date.
6. Check proof of liability insurance with the insurance agency that the policy is still in effect.
7. Ask to see current Workers’ Compensation coverage as you don’t want to be sued if a worker is injured.
8. Ask for references from the contractor of names and contact information of recent customers, and politely check to see if the job was done satisfactorily.
9. Have the contractor take you to current jobs and walk you through what they do. If they take the time, it means they may have the level of integrity and passion that you need for your project.
10. Get a copy of the standard contract and read it over carefully to see if it follows the letter of the law. If they don’t do a contract and put it all in writing, you know you’re not hiring a contractor that’s right for you.
11. Last, but not least, interview the contractor to get a sense of how long they’ve been in the area, what type of experience they have, and how they would approach your project. A website can say anything, but actually talking to the contractor can provide a better perception of what type of service to expect.

For satisfactory answers to all of these questions, contact Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Company. We serve the northwest Chicago suburbs.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about hiring a contractor and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!

While this seems like a simple calculation, it’s actually a bit more involved than that. It includes factoring in the following:

Recovery efficiency. This measures how easily heat transfers to the water.

Standby losses. Closely related to cycling losses, standby losses measure the percentage of heat that’s lost each hour in water heaters.

Cycling losses. This is the heat loss that occurs as water circulates throughout the system. This includes the tank, the inlet pipes and the delivery pipes. (For example, think about the heat lost by the water sitting in your pipes after you’ve turned off the hot water tap.)

Once everything is calculated, a water heater is given an energy factor. A higher number means the water heater is more efficient. Does this mean you’ll save more? Not necessarily. Fuel costs vary. So to get the best water heater for your home, you’ll need to consider the fuel used, size, total cost including installation, and the first hour rating.

What’s the first hour rating? Imagine the hour when demand for hot water is the greatest, and it includes three showers, a shave, a load of laundry, and a dishwasher full of dishes. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s website, this would equal 84 gallons. So you would need a water heater with 84 gallons first-hour delivery.

If you have any questions about what kind of energy factor you should be looking for, contact us at Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning. We’ve proudly served the northwest Chicago suburbs since 1946. In addition to heating and cooling, our technicians can assist you in finding and installing the best water heater for your home.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about the energy factor and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!

A heat pump can both cool and heat your home with one system. Put in the simplest terms, an air-source heat pump, the most common variety, works by pulling air over coils filled with refrigerant, and transferring the heat between inside and outside. In the winter a heat pump system will extract warmth from the outside air and transfer it inside, and in the summer it will remove heat from the inside of a home, cooling it off.

Because of the way a heat pump works, it is significantly more energy efficient than a fuel-burning furnace or other types of electrical heating. Most of the increase in energy efficiency comes when the heat pump is in heating mode. A furnace or boiler generates heat through some form of combustion that requires energy to keep it going. A heat pump moves heat instead of generating it, which allows it to achieve energy efficiencies when heating of 150-300 percent. Even the most efficient modern furnace won’t achieve AFUE ratings (which measure heating efficiency) of any more than 98 percent. In fact, depending on temperatures and the space it is heating, a heat pump can save between 30 and 40 percent off your utility bills.

As for air conditioning, most modern heat pumps rival high-efficiency air conditioners for energy efficiency and comfort, and some will do a better job of dehumidifying your home than a standard A/C.

There is one important qualification about using air-source heat pumps in northern climates. While they’re highly efficient heating appliances when temperatures remain above freezing, they lose their efficiency in sub-freezing temperatures. This is why heat pump systems are often outfitted with a backup heating sources, either an electrical element (which can be costly) or a gas-heating option. Talk to your local HVAC contractor about how this sort of system will work in  your home.

For more information about heat pumps and expert advice on all HVAC matters, contact Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning. We have proudly served the Northwest Chicago suburbs for more than 65 years.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about heat pumps and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Ibbotson Heating & Air Conditioning Co. services Arlington Heights, Illinois and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!