Why maintenance?

When homeowners schedule a maintenance visit, the heating and cooling technician arrives with the goal of keeping your system in good operating condition by removing dirt buildup that has gathered in the system over the past year (or more), and looking for components that are succumbing to wear and tear that could cause problems down the line. The service involves a two-pronged approach: identifying potential problems and providing the system with a thorough cleaning.

Why pre-season maintenance?

In truth, annual service can be performed almost any time over the cooling season; however, unique benefits await homeowners who schedule the service in the pre-season. Namely, service at this time helps the air conditioning system operate well from the start, eliminating the chance of a surprise system failure or breakdown mid-season—just when you need the cooling system the most. Having the unit maintained before the start of the cooling season also encourages peak efficiency over the entire season, increasing your potential for energy savings and lower energy costs.

Other benefits of securing preventive maintenance every spring include:

• Fewer repair costs
• Longer system lifespan
• Lower greenhouse gas emissions
• Maintaining the warranty, as most manufacturers generally require seasonal maintenance to activate the warranty

The bottom line when it comes to air conditioning: Maintain the unit once a year, and if at all possible, before the cooling season begins. These two guiding principles help homeowners lock in efficient cooling for the entire season, confident that the unit can reliably deliver a comfortable home.

To schedule air conditioning maintenance before the cooling season begins, contact Trusted Heating, Cooling & Solar. We’ve served southern Arizona and Tucson for over 55 years.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

To check to see if you need to insulate your hot water tank, touch the side of it. If it feels warm to you, insulation can help maintain a consistent temperature and keep more of the heat inside the water heater.

To insulate your tank, you’ll need a water heater blanket that’s specifically made for gas or electric water heaters. Blankets are available at most home improvement stores. You’ll also need duct tape and a utility knife. In less than an hour, you can be well on your way to saving money and energy. Before starting, make sure that an insulating blanket is not prohibited for use with your hot water tank. You can check the manual or with the manufacturer.

The blanket will come with instructions on how to position the pieces. Position the top piece on the top of the water tank and use the utility knife to cut slits that will allow it to fit around the pipes and flat on top. Tape it into place. Wrap the main piece around the water heater and tape into position. Continue to tape the seams shut. Cut portions of the blanket away to uncover the controls and the drain valve.

For gas heaters, you may want to have additional help, as there are specific parts you need to make sure are not covered by the blanket, including the burner area, draft diverter and air intake.

For more expert advice about your hot water tank and other ideas for energy efficiency, contact the pros at Trusted Heating and Cooling. We’ve been serving southern Arizona for 55 years.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Tucson, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about Insulating Your Hot Water Tank and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Who use garage heaters

Garage heaters are useful in a variety of situations. Some of the reasons people want to keep their garage warm throughout Arizona’s winter include:

• Working on DIY projects year-round
• Pets live in the garage at night or during the day
• For comfort when getting into or out of the car

Benefits of garage heaters

As mentioned above, garage heaters are powerful yet efficient. They provide anywhere from 30,000 to 75,000 BTUs/h, which is enough heat to warm up almost any size garage. By selecting the proper size for a specific garage, homeowners can keep their garage warm and energy bill low.

Another major benefit of installing a garage heater is safety. These units are built so they can either run continuously for a prolonged time, or they can be regularly turned on and off. Space heaters, on the other hand, are not powerful enough to heat an entire garage when constantly being switched on and off. Connecting a home’s central heating system to the garage is another poor idea, as this can send carbon monoxide fumes from vehicles’ exhaust into the home. An efficient garage heater safely burns natural or propane gas and is entirely contained in a cabinet-sized unit.

Garage heaters are designed to save space. They’re manufactured to fit in the space a cabinet would require, leaving plenty of room for woodworking, working on a car or a dog’s crate.

For a quality, efficient garage heater, homeowners should contact Trusted Heating and Cooling. We proudly serve homeowners in Tucson and southern Arizona.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

The power of Energy Star

Over the years, millions of consumers have utilized Energy Star to help them identify energy-efficient models, whether they’re in the market for a new HVAC unit, television, fridge or even a ceiling fan. All you had to do was look for the label. Recently, however, better technology in the realm of energy-efficiency has resulted in nearly every eligible product on the market in achieving the standards needed to earn the label.

The new era of Energy Star

Due to the increasingly crowded marketplace of energy-efficient devices, the Energy Star Most Efficient label was created. This label symbolizes the best of the best in energy efficiency. By searching for this label, you can be sure that your home will have a top-of-the-line unit. With stricter requirements, including gas-powered furnaces with AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency) ratings of no less than 97 percent and air-source heat pumps exceeding 65,000 BTU/h (British thermal units per hour), the units deemed Most Efficient will ensure better control over energy usage. Plus, to earn the Energy Star Most Efficient label, units must be certified by a third-party rather than the manufacturer.

The ease of Energy Star

To find out the 2013 Most Efficient products, all you need to do is visit the Energy Star website. Not only will you find a simplified list of the units, but you’ll also be privy to additional requirements and other pieces of information, such as estimated energy usage and operating cost of each piece of equipment.

For more expert advice about the Energy Star Most Efficient label, or for questions relating to home comfort, please contact the friendly professionals at Trusted Heating and Cooling. We’ve been serving the HVAC needs of Tucson and surrounding areas for three generations.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Who qualifies?
This bit of legislation, along with other tax issues, extends the 25C tax provision that originally expired in 2011. However, due to President Obama’s decision to sign this bill into law, these tax credits will now become retroactive. Anyone who has had or will have new qualifying HVAC equipment installed in their home between January 1, 2012, to December 31 2013, will be able to claim this credit. The maximum allowable credit for a single family home is not to exceed $500, though qualified upgrades can be combined to reach that $500 maximum.

Equipment that qualifies
The tax credits apply to many categories of high efficiency HVAC and water heating equipment, as well as some insulation, windows and doors. Some of these include:

• Furnaces and boilers operating on natural gas, oil or propane with a minimum AFUE of 95 are all qualifying equipment. ($150 credit)
• Advanced main circulating fan that utilizes no more than 2 percent of the home’s total annual energy consumption. ($50 credit)
• Air source heat pumps – split systems with a minimum HSPF of 8.5, EER of 12.5 and SEER of 15 ($300 credit), and package systems with a minimum HSPF of 8, EER of 12 and SEER of 14. ($300 credit)
• Gas-, oil- or propane-fueled water heater with a minimum energy factor (EF) of 0.82 or a thermal efficiency of at least 90 percent. ($300 credit)
• Electric heat pump water heater with a minimum EF of 2.0. ($300 credit)

If you have any questions or concerns regarding these tax credits or any other home comfort issues, contact the professionals at Trusted Heating & Cooling. We proudly service homes throughout southern Arizona.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

• Turn off the lights. This is an obvious but often overlooked money-saving tip.
• Close off parts of your house that you’re not using. This could be as simple as closing doors to rooms or storage spaces that you don’t often use. If you have a guest room that’s rarely used, there’s no need to heat it when it’s unoccupied. Keep the doors and vents shut.
• Turn down your thermostat. Lowering the temperature by just 1 or 2 degrees can add up to a noticeable savings over the winter months.
• Take shorter showers. You can also reduce the water flow while you’re showering as an additional money saver. Still not enough savings? Turn the water off entirely while you lather up and then turn it on again to rinse.
• Use the cold water cycle on your washing machine. There are detergents that are optimized for cold water washing that will keep your clothes in excellent shape while they clean and remove stains.
• Wait until your dishwasher is full before you run it. This will save on excess electricity and water.

If you’d like some more tips on how to make your Tucson home more energy efficient so you can take charge of controlling your energy costs, contact the award-winning HVAC professionals at Trusted Heating and Cooling. We proudly serve homeowners throughout southern Arizona.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

• Furnaces create carbon monoxide, which can be deadly if not properly ventilated. For this reason alone, most cities will require you get a building permit for such a project and require a inspection after it’s installed.
• Furnace companies are acutely aware of the complexities involved in the installation of a new furnace and are wary of improper installations sabotaging their products. Some only allow qualified HVAC technicians to buy their best furnaces. Also, they may limit or nullify the warranty for furnaces that are not installed professionally.
• Installing a furnace may require expensive tools an average homeowner is unlikely to have. Here in Arizona it’s likely you’ll be connecting it to a central air conditioner. This requires you have a set of refrigeration gauges and a two-stage vacuum pump, among other things. Additionally, the old refrigerant is harmful to the atmosphere if it gets released. It may be difficult to successfully reclaim it and prevent such pollution without the specialized equipment professionals use.
• Many aspects of the installation require special skills. Copper tubing connections to the central air-conditioner need to be brazed, not soldered. Connecting your new furnace to the existing ductwork will likely require skills in working with sheet metal and custom-offset ductwork. If the furnace is fueled by natural gas, oil or propane, you may need to custom cut and thread pipes.

If you’re thinking about installing a new furnace or have any other HVAC related questions, contact the experts at Trusted Heating and Cooling. We proudly serve the greater Tucson area.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

You seal your house up tight to save on heating and cooling costs, and air can become trapped inside. Your HVAC system then recycles that air throughout your home, carrying dust, pollen and other pollutants along with it. Breathing in polluted air can aggravate respiratory conditions like allergies, asthma and COPD. Additionally, recent studies have linked air pollution to increased blood pressure, inflammation and other negative effects.

How HEPA air purification helps

A high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter removes 99.97 percent of airborne particulates that are 0.3 microns or larger, including dust, pollen, bacteria, pet dander, mold spores and a host of other microscopic pollutants.

There are three capture methods used by HEPA filtration:

• Interception – Particles .04 microns stick to the fibers of the filter as they pass close by.
• Impaction - The airstream projects particles into the filter, imbedding them within the fibers. This usually happens with larger pollutants above .04 microns in size.
• Diffusion - The particle becomes trapped by air or other gases with the filter by the arrangement of the fibers, causing it to whirl around until it’s stopped by one of the other two methods. This commonly affects particles above .01 microns.

An air purification system can even be integrated into a whole-house ventilation system to deliver fresh, purified air to your home.

For more information on air purification systems or for help determining how your home’s indoor air quality measures up, contact the pros at Trusted Heating & Cooling. We proudly serve the Tucson area.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Studies by the National Institutes of Medicine indicate that low humidity and the flu are indeed related in over 50 percent of flu outbreaks over the last three decades. Researchers believe that low humidity levels allow the flu virus to stay airborne for longer periods of time. This makes it more transmittable, as the virus can move from person to person with greater ease.

What does this finding mean for you? While you can’t control the outside temperature and humidity levels during the wintertime, you can control those factors inside your home. Keeping the humidity at comfortable levels not only makes your home feel warmer without cranking the heat up, it also helps to thwart the spread of the flu virus.

You can control humidity and the flu in your home by utilizing humidifiers during the cold, dry spells of southern Arizona winters. Room humidifiers are one option, though professionals often recommend a whole-home humidifier system to control humidity in every room of your home.

Utilizing a humidifier in your home can also combat the flu in other ways. Dry air takes the moisture from your nasal passages, which allows better access for the flu virus to get into your body. An air purifier can also help in destroying any germs that may be circulating through the air of your home.

Contact us at Trusted Heating and Cooling to control your home’s humidity and the flu this season with a humidification or purification system. We’ve been proudly serving the HVAC needs of Tucson and the surrounding areas for over 55 years.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Gas companies often use the following terminology on monthly bills:

• Usage charge - This is reported in the number of therms you’ve used. A therm consists of 100,000 BTUs, or British thermal units.
• Basic service charge - This amount is fixed throughout the year. It’s a fee charged to you as long as your account is active. Some seasonal residents have the gas company turn off their service during the summer when they leave the area.
• DOT safety surcharge - This amount is a small part of your bill levied to defray the costs associated with keeping the transmission pipes safe.
• Applicable revenue taxes – Gas companies charge their users for the taxes associated with using natural gas. The tax varies based on the therms that you use.

Some gas companies make it easy for you to see your usage over the course of a year. Many bills have a graph at the bottom that shows consumption for each of the preceding 12 months. They can also include a table showing the average temperature for the current month, the preceding one and the temperature a year ago. If you see that the average temperature for the current month was warmer than the prior year but your gas bill was higher for the current month, your gas furnace may need professional cleaning and maintenance.

Another way to lower your gas bill and prolong your furnace’s life is to check the air filters monthly and change it when it’s dirty. Some people check the filter when they receive their electric or gas bill to remind themselves of this important task.

If you would like to learn more about running your gas furnace efficiently, contact Trusted Heating and Cooling. We’ve provided HVAC services for Tucson for more than three generations.

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

Image courtesy of Shutterstock