Upgrading heating and cooling systems in an old house can be a challenge because these buildings aren’t designed to accommodate modern HVAC systems. In this blog, local HVAC company Schmitt shares an overview of the best ways to heat and cool old houses.
Uneven temperatures in your home can be very frustrating, especially if you don’t know what’s causing them. These shifts in indoor temperature can manifest as hot or cold spots around your home. This blog from HVAC service company Schmitt Heating & Air Conditioning shares the most likely causes of any hot or cold spots, as well as how to eliminate issues with temperature fluctuations.
Humidity control is an essential part of maintaining good indoor air quality. It’s important to note that indoor humidity levels are relative to the season; therefore, they vary throughout the year. In this blog, residential cooling company Schmitt shares an overview of why maintaining proper indoor humidity levels is so important.
If you’ve ever used a computer before and happen to feel the side of a single CPU after hours of work, you know how quickly it can overheat. Multiply that by a few orders of magnitude and you can understand why high volumes of demand are causing servers to overheat. This overheating can lead to malfunction, equipment damage, and crashes. To avoid all these, proper air conditioning and ventilation is a crucial part of any decently sized server room.
According to a 2015 study conducted by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Center for Health and the Global Environment, SUNY Upstate Medical University, and Syracuse University, poor indoor air quality is linked to poor productivity in the workplace.
Taking good care of your air conditioning’s air filters is one of the easiest and most effective ways of maintaining your HVAC system. Among other benefits, your system will perform better and will last longer. Here’s a look at why you should prioritize air filter care.
Your HVAC system is an amazing invention. It keeps you cool in summer and warm when the weather starts to cool down. Though your HVAC system is crucial to maintaining home comfort for you and your family, it is not exactly the most attractive piece of machinery. To improve the look of your home’s exterior, try concealing your outdoor HVAC unit. With the DIY tips we have listed below, you can easily camouflage the AC unit without impairing the functionality.
Concealing your outdoor AC unit doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Here are our favorite DIY tips for hiding your outdoor HVAC unit:
1. Fence it.
Create an adorable picket fence or lattice to surround your air conditioning unit. Add a statement piece, such as a wooden heart, in the middle of the fence or hang other decorative outdoor decorations from the outer side of the fence so that it becomes a part of your living space.
2. Make Something Grow.
If you have a green thumb, then you would be thrilled with a vertical garden. Essentially, you cover the surrounding area of your air conditioning unit with wooden pallets which can feasibly grow your flowers or greenery inside the crevices. This is a great way to create a tiered planting space for herbs, small florals, or succulents.
3. Hedge it.
Plant hedges or other plants around the air conditioning unit to help keep it concealed. If real plants are not your thing, consider an artificial outdoor boxwood hedge. This option is quite simple, but still gets the job done. When planting hedges or hiding the unit behind potted plants, make sure that all of the shrubbery is at least one foot away from the unit to avoid debris clogging the unit.
4. Create an edifice.
Make a faux brick wall or other barricade between your AC unit and the rest of your backyard. You can make this wall out of a variety of materials, including two-by-fours, pallets, or other types of wood. Again, make sure that there is room for the unit to breathe and be maintained.
Remember: In any case, you need to make sure NOT to attach anything directly to your outdoor condenser unit or block it in so that it cannot be accessed by an HVAC technician. In the event that your air conditioning breaks down or requires inspection, this area will need to be cleared. Make sure your beautification can be moved!
Regardless of how you want to beautify or conceal your air conditioner, there are plenty of options out there to look into. It never hurts to use your creative knowledge, either. You can start something trendsetting! For all of your other HVAC needs, contact us now.
It is vital to optimize indoor air quality when operating any heating, cooling or ventilation system. Home and business owners can only accomplish this when they abandon popular IAQ myths.
1. Misconception: Air only becomes seriously polluted outdoors. Truth: It is not uncommon for indoor air to contain more than nine times as many contaminants as outdoor environments.
2. Falsehood: Ozone makes humans healthier. Reality: While it is true that ozone combats some types of bacteria and unwanted chemicals, things that produce ozone also generate unhealthy pollutants.
3. Untruth: A permanently installed gas detector will not significantly improve safety. Actuality: When properly maintained and calibrated, this type of detector truly can alert people to the presence of harmful gases.
4. Misconception: Every gas detector contains the same exact components. Truth: Different models use varying methods to detect gas. It is vital to thoroughly research and compare them.
5. Falsehood: The sensors on these detectors never need replacement. Reality: Sensor lifespans vary by manufacturer and the kinds of gases that they detect. Some last only 12 months; others need replacement after a decade.
6. Untruth: It does not matter where the detector is located. Actuality: People should install gas detectors near potential gas leak sources. Avoid placing them near open windows or vents.
7. Misconception: Detectors consume energy, so they raise power bills. Truth: A gas detector can actually cut electricity usage by controlling ventilation fans. It will only activate them when they are needed.
8. Falsehood: Indoor air quality is not a serious concern. Reality: People often stay indoors for as many as 22 out of 24 hours, so this is the most important type of air quality.
9. Untruth: Eco-friendly buildings benefit the environment but cannot make people healthier. Actuality: Green indoor materials enhance IAQ by releasing fewer gases as they age.
10. Misconception: Indoor air quality improvements remain very hard to achieve. Truth: Although they may prove costly, IAQ enhancements are quite possible with the help of skilled technicians.
By casting aside these IAQ myths and taking steps to improve air quality, building owners can prevent a wide range of health problems.
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Most people benefit from air conditioning either at home, at work, or both, virtually every day in the summer if they live in a warm climate. But probably most of us, however, have no idea about the process behind this technology that keeps us comfortable.
How do Air Conditioners Work?
The process is actually simple. Hot air flows over cold, low-pressure evaporator coils, allowing refrigerant inside to absorb heat as it changes from a liquid to a gas. The air conditioner, via a compressor, converts the refrigerant gas back to liquid again, which causes unwanted heat. That heat is then dispersed to the outdoors via the condenser coils and a second fan. The gas in the closed system converts back to a liquid, with the process starting all over again. In a central air system, refrigerant chills indoor air, with the resulting gas continually compressed and cooled back to liquid.
The major parts of a central air conditioning system are he evaporator that receives liquid refrigerant, the condenser that facilitates heat transfer, the expansion value to regulate refrigerant flow into the evaporator and the compressor that pressurizes refrigerant.
The cold side of the unit has the evaporator and fan that blows air over chilled coils and through the building. The hot side has the compressor, condenser and a second fan that vents hot air from the compressed refrigerant to the outside. The expansion valve sits between the two sets of coils and regulates the amount of liquid refrigerant that moves into the evaporator. When refrigerant enters the evaporator, it experiences a pressure drop that expands and turns back into a gas.
Variations of this application include window system air conditions that have the coil system on the outside of the unit and, chilled water, sometimes known as chillers and cooling tower air conditioning units used for larger commercial applications. Some of the these larger systems use chilled water that is piped through the building and connected to air handlers to achieve comfortable air, while others used cooling tower technology that creates a stream of cold water running through a heat exchanger to cool hot condenser coils.
If you would like to improve air quality, maybe this will help you. This advice may not completely get rid of air pollutants but it may help some.
The first thing that you can do to help improve indoor quality is to reduce individual sources of emissions and pollution. One thing that you can do for example is if you have a gas stove you can decrease the amount of emissions by adjusting it. Source control can be very cost effective. It is also more cost effective than ventilation.
Even though ventilation may cost you more money, another thing that you can do is ventilation. Doing this will improve air quality in your home. You will save money though when you don’t mechanically bring the fresh air into your home. You can open your doors and windows, use attic fans, or run a window air conditioner.
It is important that you bring in fresh air especially when you are doing indoor activities that bring in high levels of pollutants. Things can include painting, cooking, heating with kerosene lamps, sanding, and welding. If you can, it may be a good idea to do some of these activities outdoors.
One more thing that you can do is look into air cleaners. Some of the air cleaners that you will find remove particles. They are usually designed to remove gaseous pollutants.
Air cleaners work more effectively if the pollutant is not very strong. If the pollutant is powerful, the cleaner may not work very well. Check to find out which air cleaners work the best to get rid of pollutants.
There has been some suggestions that houseplants reduce some levels of chemicals. It hasn’t been shown though that they remove a significant amount of pollutants in offices and homes. Getting plants though for your house a good thing to do though.
So for those who want to improve air quality, call to check your indoor quality and then work on the things that can improve it. You will find that there are a lot of things that you can do to improve the quality of air around you.
