Save money using Attic Fans to cool the Entire Home.
 
Attic fans can be lifesavers during the summer months. It is not unusual for attic temperatures to soar above 170 degrees during the hottest part of the summer. One of the items used extensivley to fight these high temperatures is the ridge vent. Rige vents can disperse heat more effectively than the attic fan alone.  Not only can these attic fans reduce the temperature of the attic,  additionally they provide ventilation for the entire house.  This makes the overall temperature of the house more comfortable throughout the summer months..

During the summer,  built up heat in your attic can react like a giant radiator and spill over into the rest of your home causing an increase in your utility bills due to the need for additional air conditioning.  During the winter months the attic is certainly cooler, and increased moisture can result in mildew,  mold,  floorboard and beam damage.

The most effective way to solve these problems is thru simple ventilating.  Natural ventilation using attic fans can increase air flow significantly.  When the air in the attic hits pre-set temperatures the fan will remove the hot air and pull in the cooler air.  During winter months the humidistat will remove moisture in order to perevent dampness and moisture accumulation. 

Attic fans can be designed to ventilate your entire house. Some times central air can be expensive and inefficient, especially in older homes. Attic fans sometimes work on the same principle as opening a window, pulling in the cooler outside air and moving it through the entire house. The newest invention in heating and cooling is the solar attic fan. These fans are installed on roof tops and collect natural energy from the sun.  The use of solar power to cut down on utility costs is enviromentally friendly and reduces overall costs.
 
For your ventilating needs always consult a professional.  Smiley Heating and Cooling is ready and willing to help you in anyway possible.

 

How air conditioners work.

Today's air conditioners are more efficient and more comfortable than ever.

Smiley Heating and Cooling is dedicated to providing you cool, comfortable clean air whenever and whereever you need it. The air conditioner in your home is a relatively high investment and Smiley can help you decide exactly what type and size cooling unit you need for your particular size of home.

Below are listed some of the different air conditioning packages that are available.

Split System Air Conditioners
Ductless Split Systems
Package Air Conditioners
Window or Wall Units
Evaporative Coolers

As you have seen, air conditioners come in all sizes and shapes.

How an Air Conditioner Works

To help explain how an air conditioner works we can use the example of evaporation. If you were to hold your hand close to your mouth, lets say about 6 inches, now blow on your hand.  It should feel cool, even though the temperature of your body is warmer than the air around you, the air passing across your hand will feel cool. The reason for the coolness, is caused by a factor called evaporation of the moisture on your hand.

From earlier school, we remember that they taught us that when a liquid evaporates, it absorbs heat.  In an air conditioner we use a liquid called refrigerant. You may be more familiar with the term Freon.  This refrigerant (freon) moves through the air conditioning system by a compressor.  The refrigerant is sent thruough a coil called the condensor and this is where it is cooled down to remove heat. The removal of the heat from this liquid freon turns the gas back into liquid.

So bottom line is that your indoor unit which we call the air handler passes air across the indoor evaporator coil, and that absorbs heat from the air into the refrigerant (freon) in the coil. Now the refrigerant flows out to the outside where it passes thru the condensor coil.

So bottom line is that an air conditioner does not make cool air, it simply removes the heat from the air resulting in a cooling of the air.

Air conditioners are available in many sizes, capacities and prices. The most common type which  I am sure you are familiar with is the window air conditioner. The window unit is a simple and relatively inexpensive way to cool a small area.

Author
Tom Chambers

How Heat Pumps work.
 
I will be providing you a detailed explanation as to how a heat pump works. If you have some difficulty following along with the  explanation which will get pretty technical, please refer to a previous article that I have written titled How an Air conditioner works.

To begin in the simple mode, a heat pump is very much like an air conditoner. As a matter of fact, an air conditioner looks and works just like a heat pump when the heat pump is in the cooling mode… In other words, it is doing exactly what an air conditoner will do when cooling.

However the heat mode is another story, as it must reverse its role and becomes a heating device.. The air conditioner can never reverse itself and become a heating device. Believe it or not, even when its freezing weather outside, the heat pump absorbs heat from the zero degree air outside and converts that energy to heat for us to use on the inside of the house. I know it sounds impossible to extract heat from zero degree air, but it is not black magic, as we have been doing this for many years.

Basically we pass refrigerant through the outdoor coil, and as the outside air passes over the outside coil, the freon absorbs the heat from the air even at relatively low outside temperatures. After the refrigerant passes through the outdoor coil we run it thru a compressor which will increase the temperature of the refrigerant to the point that it actually gives off heat when passed through the coil that is located inside the house.

Now don't get me wrong, its not easy to get heat from zero degree air, so as it might be expected, the heat pump works better  in warmer air than in cold air, but it is still able to extract heat from relativly cold air.  Now since its efficiency does decrease rapidly in regard to gathering heat from the cold air, on the very coldest days, we sometimes are required to kick in a back up heat. This backup heat is generally electrical in nature similar to the base board heat many of us are familiar with. The blower pushes air across the electrical heating coils any time the heat pump is having difficulty keeping up and provides heat when the heat pump is no longer able to extract sufficient heat from the cold air.

So you might ask, if the heat pump needs an electrical backup source, why don't we just use the electrical source to begin with and do away with the very expensive heatpump? The reason is very simple, as the heat pump can produce as much as 3 to 4 times more heat for the money as electrical base board heat or other souces of electrical heat, and heat pumps are rapidly becoming more and more efficient every year.

We can find heat pumps of all sorts today… such as window units, package units, split systems and PTACs. A good way to tell if your outside unit is a heat pump or air conditioner, is to look inside the outside unit. If it has a switching valve, then it is a heat pump. The switching valve is used to allow the refirgerant to flow in one direction for heating and in the opposite direction for cooling..

Ok so you say what is a switching unit… for the laymen, here is another easy way to determine if the unit is a heat pump or air conditiioner… Look at the thermostat… if the thermostat has a backup or secondary heat, then you can be relatively sure that your unit is a heat pump. However if its an air conditioner unit then it must have another source to heat the home . It is usually a gas furnace or other method.

A different sort of heat pump is called a Geothermal Heat Pump.  This type unit does not have the outdoor unit with the fan. Normally this system has a method whereby water pumped from an under ground well passes over the coil. This allows the refrigerant to extract heat from the water drawn from the well.  Without a doubt, the geothermal units are the most efficient systems currently on the market.  They work especially well since the temperature of the water from the well is at a constant temperature, compared to the extreme changes of the outside air which a normal heat pump must deal with.

The geothermal heat pumps are expensive compared to a regular heat pump, but they are more efficient and less troublesome.  Of course there is an added expense of digging and maintaining one or two wells, as normally the water is pumped from one well and returned to the other. If you cannot find an outside unit, then most likely you have a geothermal system.

Smiley Heating and Cooling is expanding in the Elizabeth City area of North Carolina.

Author
Tom Chambers

 

Will a Programmable Thermostat Save You Money?

Have you ever considered upgrading your old mechanical thermostat to one of the new fangled Programable Thermostats?  It can save you a ton of money over the long haul and in this article I will show you how.

In the past the electronic thermostats were relatively expensive but recently the have become more affordable and actually pay for themselves in short order due to the savings in energy costs.

 

Some of the more complicated programmable thermostats control seperate zones and divide the house into two or more sections with each area having its own thermostat. In some cases they actually open and close dampers in the ductwork to provide the most efficient transfer of the warm or cool air.

 

Many of the programmable devices can be set to bring the temperature of the room up 30 to 40 minutes before you wake up so as the have the home warmer when you get up.  If you are out, it can lower the temperature and then again before you return, it can smoothly bring the temperature back to normal by the time you return home.

If you are interested in saving some energy costs directly, generally for each degree you reduce the temperature will save in the ball park approximately three percent off you heating bill each year. If you can handle dropping temperature at night by 6 or 7 degrees, and pull up some more cover, the heating bill can be further reduced by $120 to $130 per year.

Some think that a programmable thermostat will improve your heating and cooling unit. That could not be further from the truth, and is only a wives tale. But if managed carefully, it will allow you to maintain your temperature at the absolute optimum condition.

Without a doubt, the programmable thermostat is the least expensive part of your HVAC unit. Generally the cost ranges from  $30 and $150 for the actual part. If used properly, it can pay for itself in short order.

Smiley Heating and Cooling can provide you thermostats for your every need.

Author

Tom Chambers

 

Don't forget to have your Central Heating and Air Conditioning checked out before the extreme cold weather arrives.

We would like to be able to turn our central air conditioning and heating units on and have them deliver the exact temperature from the time they are turned on till the time they are turned off.. Realistically that is not how it works, some systems give us a lot of problems in regard to providing sufficient heating and cooling to meet our needs. Many folks prefer it very hot or very cold and that strains the systems to their limits.  This high level of usage causes the systems to break down more frequently.  This sometimes explains why one household has significantly more maintenance service calls for heating and cooling than other similar households.

Due to these factors, it is important for us to determine whether the heating and air conditioning units HVAC is running efficiently, or running poorly.  Certainly when it is putting out hot or cold air it is working, but is it working too hard. If it is working harder than the design allows, it will fail more frequently and cause extensive repair bills.

Sometimes we compare your heating and cooling unit to your car. When the motor runs efficiently it fails less and gives us more miles per gallon.  A heating and cooling unit is very similar. If we provide the system with regular maintenance and care, it will last longer and operate using less energy. Therefore it costs less to operate and uses less electricity therefore less power costs.

When a central heating and cooling unit (air conditioning or furnace) is properly maintained, it should last between 12 and 15 years with minimum down time.  In some cases the HVAC system will last many more years than this… Some have been known to run for 30 years with absolutley no problems. However this is truly the exception and not the norm. If your HVAc system runs for 30 years, consider yourself blessed.

Later in this article you will find many maintenance tips that will allow your heating and cooling system to run longer with less emergency maintenace requirements.  I would like to offer some suggestions that will keep the unit from running too hard. For example if you keep the intake filter clean the system can get air more easily and the unit will not be required to work as hard. Less hard work for the mechanical systems means less wear and tear and longer life overall. Make sense?  I thought it would.

Pay close attention to make sure that your system is draining properly, and that draining is normal, and is not to be considered to be a leak.. However you must inspect to make sure the draining is not a leak. The first thing is to make sure that your unit is not leaking and is draining as it should. If too much water is allowed to remain in the system, or oppositely that too much is allowed to escape, then your air conditioner is not running as it should.

Check all hose connections for cracks or leaks, and make sure the condensate tube is able to drain without restrictions. Change the filter frequently at least every 4-6 weeks would normally be considered sufficient. If afamily member suffers from allergies either minor or severe, then a clean filter is a must and will be very beneficial to them.

If you have any questions or just simply want someone to check out your system to make sure it is operating efficiently, feel free to call Smiley Heating and Cooling for your every need.  You will find our specially factory trained technicians all over Hampton Roads from Chesapeake, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, Newport News and in the North Carolina area we are rapidly expanding into Elizabeth City, Hertford, Edenton, Chowan County, Gates County, and even Camden Courtyard.  Our rapid expansion means that we need more and more technicians.  If you are a top quality technician, please contact us for a confidential interview.

Smiley Heating and Cooling has now expanded into the Suffolk, Va area and is ready to provide unsurpassed service as they always have.

Author
Tom Chambers