Therefore, here are a few ways that you can alleviate the symptoms of summer allergies by ensuring that your indoor air quality is high:

• Check your air filter monthly, and change as needed. A dirty filter will allow dust and dirt to build up in your system. Ensuring that you have a clean filter is a simple, inexpensive way to keep dust and other irritants and allergens out of your home’s air, while also taking good care of your cooling and heating equipment. Use the most efficient filter recommended by your system’s manufacturer. If a family member has significant allergy problems, consider an electrostatic filter that connects to your ductwork.
• Clean your home regularly to avoid dust getting into your air. Dust with a damp cloth, which will trap particles rather than release them into the air. Use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filter. Take rugs, couch cushions and throw pillows outdoors and beat them with an old tennis racket to dislodge dust. Wash sheets and pillowcases every week, and shake blankets, comforters and bedspread outside.
• Regularly scheduled HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) maintenance will give you cleaner air, greater comfort and energy savings while ensuring that your equipment is in good working order. You’ll also extend the life of your system. The federal Energy Star program says that regular HVAC maintenance is akin to a car’s yearly tune-up. Prudential’s Planned Service provides two visits per year to coincide with both the cooling and the heating seasons. You’ll also get priority service and discounts.

Leave your summer allergies outdoors and enjoy breathing clean air with fewer contaminants in your home. It’s the place where you should feel the most comfortable. For more on summer allergies and other issues concerning home comfort, give us a call at Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning. We have served Greater Louisville and Southeast Indiana since 1947.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

Heat pump essentials
For greatest efficiency, your heat pump requires unobstructed airflow, correct refrigerant levels and clean and lubricated components that are in good working condition. While you should have an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) professional conduct the technical aspects of proper heat pump maintenance, in between services calls you can take these steps:

• Check the air filter regularly, particularly during peak seasons.
• Use a can of pressurized air to blow debris from the indoor evaporator and blower wheel.
• Ensure that your air-supply registers and return grilles are not obstructed by debris, furniture or other objects.
• Ensure there is no vegetation near the outdoor unit, such as weeds or shrubs. During the heating months, don’t allow snow and ice to accumulate near the unit.

Planned service
Maintaining planned service with a professional HVAC company will go a long way toward saving energy, minimizing repairs and extending the life of your system. During proper heat pump maintenance, your HVAC contractor should:

• Clean the indoor evaporator and blower wheel.
• Measure air speed, and adjust, as needed.
• Check electrical connections and components.
• Check for refrigerant leaks.
• Check refrigerant levels, and charge, as needed, to manufacturers specifications.
• Clean the drain pan, and check your heat pump’s drainage system.

There are many more procedures that are performed, but this gives you an idea of the importance of regular service. For instance, a worn electrical connection stresses the heat pump, which may cause ice accumulation at the evaporator. This reduces efficiency, and contributes to excess moisture for the drainage system. If the drainage system is not cleaned regularly, water may overflow and cause damage to your home.

With proper heat pump maintenance, you’ll ensure energy savings, greater comfort, and prevent unnecessary damage. For more details, contact Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning Co.. We’ve served the Greater Louisville area and Southeast Indiana for 65 years.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

The two major factors that lead most people to buy high-efficiency equipment are the reduction in energy usage and utility bills. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, households that use air conditioning regularly use roughly 2,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year to cool their homes. This results in carbon dioxide emissions of around 3,500 pounds and sulfur dioxide emissions of around 31 pounds. By reducing energy usage, homeowners reduce the emissions they are responsible for and have a positive impact on the environment.

Perhaps more important to many people is the positive impact less energy usage has on their utility bills. With most households that use air conditioning (A/C) regularly spending $1,000 or more per year on cooling and heating costs, it’s no surprise that homeowners are interested in finding ways to reduce those costs. By upgrading to high-efficiency air conditioning, you can see as much as a 40 percent reduction in your utility bills.

The best way to know if the air conditioning system you’re looking at is high-efficiency is to look for the Energy Star label. Energy Star is a rating given only to equipment that meets certain standards for energy efficiency. Equipment with the Energy Star label is around 14 percent more efficient than models without the label.

To maximize efficiency, you want to find the air conditioning system that is the appropriate size and efficiency rating for your home. Factors like the size of the home, ductwork configuration, and your insulation levels can have an effect on which unit will work best. The installation professionals at Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning Co. have the training and experience to help you find the most cost-effective and energy-efficient A/C for your needs.

For more information on high-efficiency HVAC systems in Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana, contact Prudential 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 upgrading to high-efficiency air conditioning and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

Who needs an attic fan?
Before doing anything else, you should evaluate your attic’s ventilation. If you’re not sure how to tell, take a peek at your shingles. Common signs of an overly hot attic are bulging shingles or asphalt shingles with curled up corners. You also should inspect your vents for clogs. If your vents aren’t managing the heat and humidity successfully in your attic, even when free of debris, you may need an attic fan.

What are my options?
You can choose from two basic styles of fans to control your attic’s heat and humidity. You can install roof fans by inserting the fan into an opening cut near the peak of your roof. For a simpler installation, which will not disturb your roof shingles, you may consider a gable wall fan. If there is an existing vent in your gable, you can mount the fan behind it, which eliminates your need to make any structural alterations.

How will I benefit?
Installing a fan to manage the heat and humidity in the attic comes with its benefits. Attics can reach temperatures as high as 150 degrees, and this heat can account for approximately 20 percent of your energy bill. Cooling the attic will lower your energy expenses and improve your comfort. Additionally, you may save money over the long run due to the fact that a hot and inadequately ventilated attic can decrease the life of your roofing materials.

For more expert advice on attic ventilation and other matters related to home comfort, contact the professionals at Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning. We’ve been serving the Greater Louisville, Kentucky and Southern Indiana areas since 1947.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

• Horizontal loops are the most basic of geothermal installations. In a horizontal loop installation, trenches about four to six feet in depth and potentially hundreds of feet in combined length are dug in your yard, and coiled loops of pipe are then laid in the trenches and buried. Obviously, such a system requires a fairly big yard, and would cut through any existing landscape work.
• Vertical loops eliminate the two down sides of horizontal installations by digging deeper rather than digging farther. The pipe loops are installed vertically in holes that are hundreds of feet deep but only a few feet across. Though they require very little land area and do not disturb the surface much, vertical loops are generally much more expensive.
• Pond loops, or lake loops, require your home to be next door to a fairly deep body of water. The same loops of pipe are then placed underwater instead of underground. Essentially no digging is required, so if a pond or lake loop is feasible for your home, it can be one of least expensive geothermal installations you can choose.
• Open loops are sometimes also an option if you have a pond or lake nearby, though they can also be used without surface water if you have a good groundwater supply. The pipe used for open loops does not actually form a loop; instead, the body of water or underground water table are used to complete the loop. For instance, water can be drawn from one well, returned to the ground through another well, and flow through the ground between one well and the other.

So which of these geothermal installations would make the most sense for your home? At Prudential Heating and Air Conditioning, we have the experience and expertise to help you decide. We’d be happy to help, so contact us today.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

There are four main heat pump efficiency terms you should get to know. HSPF and SEER are typically used with air-source heat pumps, while EER and COP are more often used for geothermal systems.

• HSPF: Heating seasonal performance factor. HSPF rates the heating efficiency of air-source heat pump systems. HSPF is given in BTUs (British thermal units) per watt-hour. The “seasonal” part of the name indicates that HSPF measures the average efficiency over the entire heating season.
• SEER: Seasonal energy efficiency ratio. The SEER number tells you the average cooling efficiency of heat pumps (or any air conditioning system). Like HSPF, SEER tells you the number of BTUs per watt-hour. The difference is that SEER is related to cooling rather than heating BTUs.
• EER: Energy efficiency ratio. The difference between SEER and EER is that EER is not “seasonal” — it tells you the cooling efficiency under a specific set of weather conditions (95 degrees and 50 percent humidity, to be precise).
• COP: Coefficient of performance. Unlike the other three heat pump efficiency terms, COP does not use BTUs or watt-hours. Instead, it simply looks at how much useful energy is provided versus how much is consumed. For instance, if a furnace were 100 percent efficient, it would provide the exact same amount of heat energy as it consumed in fuel energy, and its COP would be 1.0. Heat pumps can easily supply more heat energy than they consume in electrical energy, though, and have COP ratings typically between 2.0 and 4.0.

If you have any questions about these heat pump efficiency terms or other HVAC terms, please contact the experts at Prudential Heating and Air Conditioning.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

Here are some features that raise the SEER rating and will keep you more comfortable in our humid climate:

• Variable-speed motors: Also known as electronically commutated motors, variable-speed motors use less electricity than single-speed motors inside the indoor blower. The motor runs more quietly and at a slower speed, which removes more humidity from your air. Drier indoor air feels cooler and increases your comfort.
• Dual-speed compressors: The compressor is part of the outdoor condenser and it’s the part that circulates the coolant through the outdoor and indoor coil for your A/C. The compressor only runs at top speed when the weather is at its hottest, saving you money when temperatures are not extreme.
• Thermal expansion valves (TXVs): If a system with a dual-speed compressor doesn’t work for you, opt for a TXV when choosing a new A/C. These valves sense outdoor temperatures and open and close based on how much refrigerant is needed for cooling. You save electricity, since the compressor doesn’t need to operate at full speed throughout the season.

The following features don’t increase the SEER, but they do help you stay more comfortable indoors throughout the cooling season and can save electricity.

• Filter sensors: These tell you when to change the air filter for the blower. Clogged filters make the air conditioner run longer and contribute to increased wear and tear throughout the whole system.
• Fan delay switch: This switch lets the blower motor run a few minutes longer than the outdoor condenser, circulating all the conditioned air through the ducts.

If you’d like to learn more about SEER and choosing a new A/C, contact Prudential Heating and Air Conditioning. Buying a new air conditioner can be complex, and we’d be happy to guide you through the process.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

When you run your air conditioner with a dirty air filter, the airflow slows down and the evaporator coil inside the handler can freeze, since there isn’t enough air going through it. The refrigerant doesn’t pick up enough heat from your home, and the coil starts to freeze. As the frost builds on it, the outdoor condenser and compressor continue to run and your electric bills escalate. When the frost on the coil does melt, it can overrun the drain pan and leak water inside your home.

You’re not alone if you forget to check your filter. Many people do. We recommend that people check their air filters when their electric bill arrives. When you do replace or change it, you have options for improving its quality. Filters carry MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) ratings that do a good job of protecting your blower’s parts.

MERV ratings range from 1 to 16 for residential purposes; higher numbers mean the filter traps smaller particles. Before choosing a filter with a rating greater than 8, be sure that you check with an HVAC professional first, because denser filters slow the airflow through the blower, just like dirty air filters do. But instead of depositing the dust and dirt inside the blower, they trap it on the outside of the filter. Denser air filters trap more particles, so if you choose higher rated filters, check them more often.

If you’d like to learn more about how dirty air filters harm your equipment, contact Prudential Heating and Air Conditioning. We’ve been serving the greater Louisville and southern Indiana region since 1947.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

• Turn off the lights: You might prefer to leave a few lights on for security purposes, but there’s no need to leave them all blazing 24/7. Just select a few lights and hook them up to a timer or motion sensor so they only turn on when you need them to.
• Take care of your refrigerator: How you deal with your fridge and freezer depends on how long a trip you’re taking. If you plan to be gone for a month or more, you can completely empty out your refrigerator, unplug it, and prop the doors open to prevent mold growth. If you’re taking a shorter vacation, simply get rid of highly perishable items and set your refrigerator on its highest temperature setting.
• Reduce air conditioner use: If you like, you can leave the air conditioner on to prevent heat damage in your home. Just set the thermostat at 85 degrees, so it only runs on hot days. If heat damage isn’t an issue, you can unplug the A/C altogether.
• Turn off your water heater: There’s no need to have hot water on hand if nobody’s there to use it. Turn off the water heater at the circuit breaker panel or fuse box.
• Unplug unnecessary electronics: Most electronic devices — including computers, TVs and stereos — draw power simply by being plugged in, so anything that doesn’t need to be on while you’re on vacation should be unplugged.
• Hook your swimming pool pump up to a timer: Set it so it only runs for six hours a day instead of around the clock.

To learn more about cutting energy costs while you’re on summer vacation, contact Prudential Heating and Air Conditioning. We’ve been serving the Louisville area since 1947.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!     

• Your equipment is aging: The efficiency of air conditioners begins to degrade rapidly after the equipment is more than a decade old. If your equipment is getting on in years, you may find that the frequency of repairs is increasing. This is not only frustrating, it also increases the amount of money you put into keeping your old equipment ticking.
• Energy bills and repair costs are going up: With age, cooling equipment naturally loses its efficiency. That means hiked energy prices might not be the only reason behind your increasing energy bills. Consider the vast improvements in energy efficiency that newer equipment can achieve. The decision of whether to repair or replace your air conditioner is even easier if you have already had to repair the system two or three times in the past couple of years. Stop throwing good money at bad and replace your A/C.
• Your home has comfort problems: If some rooms in your home continue to feel hot, stuffy or humid — despite the fact that your A/C is running almost continually — there could be something wrong with the equipment. These comfort problems are certainly reason enough to repair or replace your air conditioner. Then, even if the A/C itself isn’t the cause of the problem, a technician can inspect the ductwork and insulation levels in your home that could be adding to your discomfort.

For a chance to learn more about installing a high-efficiency air conditioner in your Louisville home, please contact Prudential Heating and Air Conditioning. We have a wide selection of Energy Star-qualified cooling equipment for you to consider when you’re ready to make an upgrade.

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

Prudential Heating & Air Conditioning services the Greater Louisville and Southern Indiana areas. Visit our website to see our special offers and get started today!