Air Conditioners

Raise Your House’s Value – Keep Air Conditoners Serviced

2012-03-27T13:30:57Z

Home improvement has always been a popular interest of people. Many people add onto their house or upgrade it, while many people want to fix it up for cosmetic reasons. There is always something that needs to be done when you own a house. This article can help you to find out which improvements are the easiest and can net you the most return for your money.

Don’t throw out left over wallpaper! Instead use it to add color and pattern to your home. You can cover a whole headboard in a bold print to make a big statement. Or, use smaller pieces for the recessed areas of doors or cabinets. Paste scraps in a patchwork pattern on wall or door trim for a great border effect. Be creative and thrifty by using wallpaper leftovers in your projects.

Do not underestimate the value of a high quality door. It is the first and last thing your guests will see. You can lose a great deal of heat through a poorly fit and uninsulated door. If your door frame or locks are old or poorly made, you lose security and peace of mind.

One way to prevent insects from entering your home is to adjust the surrounds of your home. Make sure there are no piles of straw or leaves around the outer walls of your home. Insects will hide in these patches of straw and leaves and move into your house where the house meets the ground.

TIP! Consider your quality of life before visual aesthetics when starting home improvements. A pond in your front yard might be nice, but having your child fall in and drown would be horrifying.

One of the most overlooked areas of home improvement is the ceilings. Update your old popcorn ceilings! Hire a contractor to scrape the popcorn off the ceilings and add a smooth finish. Maybe think about adding some crown moldings during the ceiling renovations. Moldings add a sophisticated and custom look to any room in the house.

Give a quick update to your kitchen by wiping down the cabinets and either adding or changing the cabinet hardware. Giving your kitchen cabinets a new set of knobs or handles can really enhance the look of your kitchen without costing a lot of money. With so many styles of knobs and handles available, you can change the character of your kitchen quickly and easily.

One way to prevent bugs from coming into your house and to save money on heating and cooling costs is to seal any cracks or openings in your house. Simply apply caulk to baseboards, around and inside windows, and any other places. After the caulk has dried, bugs should have a hard time getting in, and air should have a hard time escaping.

TIP! Ceiling fan installation is a fantastic and cost effective home improvement project that you should consider. Ceiling fans are great for circulating the air in the home, and keeping the home cool.

If you have decided to replace your roof with metal you can take your time in doing so because there are many to choose from. Make sure you pick the one that will save you in heating and cooling costs, that are fire resistant, water and snow proof, and last longer.

Extend the life of your hot water tank by draining it completely once per year. Water tanks that are never emptied may have several inches of sediment in the bottom, which can contribute to premature wear on the tank. Shut the gas or electricity supply off before draining the tank by using the valve located at the bottom.

If you are the proud owner of an asphalt driveway you need to keep on the lookout for cracks and repair them as soon as possible to keep your driveway in good shape. Keeping your driveway clean and free of debris is the first step in good driveway maintenance.

TIP! Never install non-operable windows during a home improvement effort. Except for picture windows or large, exotic glazing, every standard-sized window should be capable of opening.

Improving your home with an upgrade to outdated appliances can be a beautification to your home as well as a money saver over time. Energy efficient appliances can save you hundreds of dollars a year, and that can pay for the upgrade in less time than you might think.

When renovating your kitchen, avoid tiled counters. Tiled countertops are less sanitary than granite or mock-stone countertops, because food and other contaminants can build up in the spaces between the tiles. Tile countertops can also crack or even shatter if a heavy dish is dropped onto them, unlike countertops made of more modern materials.

TIP! Consider using white or light colored tiles if you are replacing your roof. The lighter tiles will reduce the heat that your attic absorbs, keeping the house cooler and reducing the need for you to run central air conditioning.

Air Conditioning

Keep your fans circulating, or invest in some if you do not currently use them. Rooms are kept more cool with the circulating air created by fans. In addition, if you use them instead of air conditioning on those days that are not scorching, the amount of energy you consume is reduced, allowing you to enjoy lower electric bills.

Improving the air quality inside your home can be an invaluable home improvement for both your health and the resale value of your house. The first step would be to replace any old carpets or have them professionally cleaned, as they could be hiding contaminants, allergens and unpleasant odors. Secondly, if your budget allows, install an energy efficient air conditioning system.

Consider your quality of life before visual aesthetics when starting home improvements. A pond in your front yard might be nice, but having your child fall in and drown would be horrifying. You might want to install a desk, but the money could be be better spent on installing air conditioning in a Florida home.

TIP! Make sure you keep the filter for your air conditioning unit clean. If the filter gets clogged up, the air conditioning unit will have to work harder to cool your house, using up more energy.

In order to save money on air conditioning costs during the summer, try installing ceiling fans. Ceiling fans recirculate air within a room, cooling it down without the need for turning on a central air system. They are relatively easy to install and can be installed in place of your lighting fixture.

To make sure that you’re always getting the most out of your air conditioning units, always remember to clean those filters. Especially if you have a large central machine attached to the home, it’s vital that the filter remains clean so that the machine doesn’t have to work too hard and burn itself out prematurely.

Consider using white or light colored tiles if you are replacing your roof. The lighter tiles will reduce the heat that your attic absorbs, keeping the house cooler and reducing the need for you to run central air conditioning. Running your air conditioner less will save you money on your electric bill.

TIP! Keep your fans circulating, or invest in some if you do not currently use them. Rooms are kept more cool with the circulating air created by fans.

Installing ceiling fans will reduce your energy bill, add value to your home and improve the look of your home. Ceiling fans circulate and cool the air in your home, especially during summer nights. This can really help to lower the cost of air conditioning. Ceiling fans also add a touch of style unlike any other accessory!

An excellent home improvement and way to save money is to install a whole-house fan. These are excellent sources of energy savings because they typically use one-tenth the electricity of an air conditioner. If you live in an area where air conditioning is not necessary year round, this is a great alternative to central air.

In order to get the most out of your air conditioning and heating system, clean or replace your air filters. Dirty air filters can reduce air flow in your vents, causing your system to work harder to cool or heat your home, therefore using more energy and costing you more money. You can find replacement filters at your local hardware store or even sometimes at your local supermarket.

If you don’t already have some, install some ceiling fans in all your rooms. You can use these to cool rooms and circulate the air, reducing the need to use your air conditioning unit. This in turn will save you money on your electric bill and most likely increase the life expectancy of your air conditioner.

As previously explained, home improvements have always been a popular interest because people are looking to improve their houses or to increase the value of their homes. Homes always have something that needs fixed. By using the tips in this article, you can find the right home improvement tip that suits your needs and skills.

Whole House Dehumidifier

2011-09-23T22:25:03Z

If the level of humidity in your home is out of control and you feel you need dehumidification in more than three rooms you should consider purchasing a whole house dehumidifier.

You should also consider buying one if the allergy sufferer in your home has little control over their symptoms.

A whole house dehumidifier, along with decreasing the level of humidity in your home, can decrease the amount of allergens as well. These allergens like to live in a warm environment with a lot of moisture.

This moisture clings to everything, especially your carpet and upholstery. Dust mites love carpet and upholstery and they are probably everywhere because of the carpet and upholstery you have in your home. Housecleaning is a chore that no one likes to do but if you clean frequently you should be able to help keep the allergens under control.

Now, we can’t live without our furniture but we can live with hardwood floors or laminate flooring and area rugs. Keeping these things clean can also reduce the amount of dust mites you find in your home. You can’t see them but they are there.

Too much humidity in your home can cause you to feel sticky and uncomfortable. It also can cling to your walls and woodwork and cause mold and mildew to form. This happens frequently in your bathroom and should be dealt with immediately. You can kill mold an mildew with a mild bleach solution in a spray bottle.

When choosing a dehumidifier for your home you should first, measure the rooms that the dehumidifier will be handling and make sure that the unit you buy is big enough and powerful enough to control the humidity throughout your house.

The correct square footage matters. That is how the units are sold, by how much square footage they can handle. So, be sure to measure correctly and then multiply the length of the room by the width of the room and add all the room measurements together then buy the dehumidifier that has a range and that number is at the top of that range.

Do not be confused by all of the smaller portable units. They are only good for single rooms or areas and can be rolled from one room to the other with little effort. A dehumidifier that can control the humidity in your entire house is a bigger unit that is permanently situated near your ductwork system connected to your furnace and air conditioner.

The unit is connected directly into the ductwork so the vents in your house help disperse the drier air to all the rooms in your house. If the dehumidifier runs a while and you notice that things are getting a,little too dry then just reset the dehumidifier to a higher humidity setting.

You will not have to worry about carrying and dumping the water from your whole house dehumidifier either. It will have a drain running from it to the floor drain in the basement, or depending on where it is situated in your basement it could possibly drain to the outside of the house.

Quiet Dehumidifiers Do Exist!

2011-09-18T20:25:01Z

Dehumidifiers are nice for removing humidity from the air of your home. Reducing the level of humidity will make your home feel cooler and more comfortable in the warmer months of the year and help you save money on cooling costs.

If you need the dehumidifier in your basement then how loud it runs will not bother you too much. But, if you need to run the dehumidifier in the rooms of your home where you spend family time you might want to shop around for quiet dehumidifiers.

If possible, choose a dehumidifier with multiple fan settings. This way you can run the dehumidifier on it’s lowest setting and it will be a little quieter than on the higher fan settings. They will use less electricity on these lower settings, too.

Make sure the quiet dehumidifiers you research, and ultimately buy, can be programmed by you to set the level of humidity you want in the rooms of your home. Some even will reset themselves to your pre-programmed settings even after the power goes out. This is an awesome feature. No muss, no fuss.

Portable dehumidifiers can easily be moved from room to room. Just do not try to move them with a full bucket or you will risk spilling the collected moisture.

Rule of thumb is that you want about a 50% humidity level in your home to be comfortable. You can set the dehumidifier to this level and in a couple of days that level should be achieved. Then the dehumidifier should cycle on and off to maintain that level.

Most dehumidifiers made today are equipped with an automatic shut off feature. This is essential if you are going to place your dehumidifier in a room with carpet or another type of flooring that should not get wet. When the collection chamber is full the unit will shut down until it is emptied.

Quiet dehumidifiers

If you have “gone green” you could probably use the water that is collected to water house plants or even your outside garden instead of pouring it down the drain. Use it to help fill up your rain barrel, or wash your car. Use your imagination, I am sure you could think of something to use the “free” water you get from your dehumidifier.

Keep your budget in mind. Dehumidifiers can cost from less than one hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the brand, model and size of the unit you want or need.

Just make sure that the dehumidifier you choose will handle the correct amount of square footage you need, too. If you move it from room to room the rooms need to be relatively the same amount of square footage to ensure proper dehumidification.

Anyone can get used to some noise in their homes, but if you don’t have to then why do it. Constant noise can be annoying to some people and cause an undo amount of stress on them. Buying quiet dehumidifiers will not only decrease the humidity of your home but your stress level as well.

How Does Central Air Conditioning Work?

2011-09-10T07:44:59Z

No doubt you are know that air conditioner units come in many forms, including portable air conditioners, dual hosed and single hosed units, heat and cool units, window and through the wall units, evaporative coolers and absorptive chillers. What we are looking at here is just another method, but how does central air conditioning work?

All primary home air conditioning systems tend to work on similar principals and central air conditioners are purpose built to cool the entire home. They use ducts to disperse and recycle cooled air throughout rooms on a continuous basis. Some models may also move chilled water via pipes and heat exchangers.

Frequently, you will find a split system where the condenser and compressor are located outdoors and connected by refrigerant lines to a coil (or evaporator) in the in the air handler unit. Such a unit basically resembles a metal box that may comprise of a blower, filters, heating/cooling elements, humidifier, mixing chamber, controls and vibration isolators. With a singular ‘packaged’ system, everything is normally located in a single outdoor unit.

In a split system, heat from the home is transferred to the outside using a compressor cycle that works similarly to a refrigerator. A refrigerant fluid is passed through an expansion device which changes from liquid to gas when it absorbs heat and is then released outdoors at high pressure as vapour before changing back from gas to liquid. The fluid will then return to the expansion device and the process repeated. The air in the home is cooled as it travels over the evaporator; the moisture removed from the air and disposed by the unit via the normal household drainage system.

Central air conditioning has a few benefits over other systems as the air is drawn through a filter. This filter extracts any dust and lint particles cleaning the air as well as cooling it. Additionally, specialist filters can also remove microscopic pollutants which can affect health. A further benefit is that noise is reduced as the unit is external to the building.

Central air conditioning is an efficient system but you do need to try and get the highest SEER rating you can afford (the range is 10 to 17). (SEER refers to the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio.) If the unit carries the Energy Star label, it will have a SEER of at least 13 for a split system and 12 for a single unit.

Hope the above helps!

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3 Good Reasons To Buy A Portable Air Conditioner

2011-09-10T08:08:10Z

SPT TN-12E TechniTrend

Ignore the fact that portable air conditioner units can look like something out of Star Wars, you need to make your decisions based on real facts, some of which are presented here.

Visit a few blogs and forums on the Internet, as you will find them full of information and you will find that people voice similar concerns. These include concerns about price, energy consumption, noise levels and venting.

Keep in mind that the average portable air conditioner unit is run for 750 hours each year in the USA and that they use a fair amount of energy. The Energy Efficiency Rating (or EER). Basically, the higher the EER rating the more energy efficient the unit will be. EER ratings of 8 for example, are at the low end of energy efficiency but these tend to be older units. The average rating today appears to be around 12 which is good.

Before you buy your portable air conditioner units, check the number of amps available to the room you intend to cool. Basically, if you buy a unit that uses 14.5 amps and your circuit is 15 amps you could end up blowing the fuses!

Looking at noise levels, portable air conditioner units that deliver 14,000 Btu’s or less normally tend to noise levels around 50 decibels. To compare, this is similar to the noise that most refrigerators will generate.

The jury is still out as to whether a dual hose unit is superior to the single hose formation when it comes to venting. While a single hose unit will drain some of the cool air it produces from the room, a dual hose system will help eliminate this problem. However, a dual hose system tends to be slightly less efficient for reasons such as the use two internal fans.

Portable air conditioner units tend to have one of three methods of disposing of the water extracted by the dehumidifier module. i) Automatic evaporation will eliminate the need for any drains or reservoir pans but just how reliable this system is will vary from model to model. ii) Some models will use a direct drain via a hose attached to the unit which can be a problem unless the unit is used near a drain or a bucket! iii) You can simply empty the reservoir yourself that seems like the easiest option to me.

The price of your unit should be looked at in conjunction with efficiency, as a highly efficient unit will offset any higher price over time. A cheaper model that is not as efficient, over time, will cost more. Remember that portable air conditioners are usually more inefficient than comparable window units although they tend to cost twice as much.

Portable air conditioner units do have at least one huge advantage, you can move them where they need to be and store them away when you don’t.