We’re probably going through the last spell of “cold” weather here in Southern California, and that means you’re in the final stretch of depending on your furnace on a regular basis. It’s also a time when a furnace is more likely to have malfunctions because of the accumulation of strain during the season. That fall maintenance visit seems distant, especially when you’re getting ready to schedule AC maintenance.
It’s a wise idea to keep a close watch on your furnace for signs it may be in trouble. Or in this case, a close listen. Odd sounds are one of the ways you can tell you may need professional repairs for your furnace.
Up to $1,500 Rebate for the Replacement of Your Older, Less-Efficient Central AC!
Older air conditioning (AC) units are expensive to operate, maintain, and fix when they break down.
Don’t get stuck in the heat! We’re offering a rebate up to $1,500 to help you replace your old, costly central AC unit before it breaks down. Older heat pumps may also be eligible.
This is BIG! Rebates like this don’t come along often. If your system is older or has not been consistently maintained over the years this offer is perfect for you. But remember rebate money is allocated on a first come basis. Call now to get your application in quickly!
Kilowatt install of heat pump systems in Studio City, CA
Why the big push to replace?
Three-quarters of all homes in the United States have air conditioners. Air conditioners use about 6% of all the electricity produced in the United States, at an annual cost of about $29 billion to homeowners. As a result, roughly 117 million metric tons of carbon dioxide are released into the air each year.
Air
conditioners employ the same operating principles and basic components
as your home refrigerator. Refrigerators use energy (usually
electricity) to transfer heat from the cool interior of the refrigerator
to the relatively warm surroundings of your home; likewise, an air
conditioner uses energy to transfer heat from the interior of your home
to the relatively warm outside environment.
An air conditioner
cools your home with a cold indoor coil called the evaporator. The
condenser, a hot outdoor coil, releases the collected heat outside. The
evaporator and condenser coils are serpentine tubing surrounded by
aluminum fins. This tubing is usually made of copper.
A pump,
called the compressor, moves a heat transfer fluid (or refrigerant)
between the evaporator and the condenser. The pump forces the
refrigerant through the circuit of tubing and fins in the coils.
The
liquid refrigerant evaporates in the indoor evaporator coil, pulling
heat out of indoor air and cooling your home. The hot refrigerant gas is
pumped outdoors into the condenser where it reverts back to a liquid,
giving up its heat to the outside air flowing over the condenser’s metal
tubing and fins.
Throughout the second half of the 20th century,
nearly all air conditioners used chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as their
refrigerant, but because these chemicals are damaging to Earth’s ozone
layer, CFC production stopped in the United States in 1995. Nearly all
air conditioning systems now employ halogenated chlorofluorocarbons
(HCFCs) as a refrigerant, but these are also being gradually phased out,
with most production and importing stopped by 2020 and all production
and importing stopped by 2030.
Production and importing of today’s
main refrigerant for home air conditioners, HCFC-22 (also called R-22),
began to be phased out in 2010 and will stop entirely by 2020. However,
HCFC-22 is expected to be available for many years as it is recovered
from old systems that are taken out of service. As these refrigerants
are phased out, ozone-safe hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are expected to
dominate the market, as well as alternative refrigerants such as
ammonia.
Ceiling fans are common parts of many homes in Southern California, and for good reason. A ceiling fan during the summer helps immensely with the heat, and at a much lower cost in electricity than running an air conditioner. Homes still need to have an effective central cooling system for the intense summer days, but a ceiling fan helps people feel cooler so the AC won’t need to run as much. On average, ceiling fans make it feel as if the temperature in the room is up to 10°F cooler than it is.
But here’s a little secret: those same ceiling fans in your house that you use throughout the summer—they can also help in cooler winter weather. Many homeowners don’t know this, but it’s a simple trick.
Well, that depends on who told you. You will eventually need a new furnace for your home, since even the most durable furnace heating system ever constructed will wear down over time until it’s no longer worth keeping around. But if someone who isn’t an HVAC professional told you something like, “Once your furnace is ten years old, you should replace it,” that’s not useful advice and may be flat wrong.
The only people whose advice you can trust when it comes to a central heating system like a furnace are licensed professionals. These are the folks with the training and history to help you make an informed decision. If you have reason to believe that heater repair in Burbank, CA isn’t enough to keep your furnace going and it’s time for a new heater, call our experts and we’ll help you make the decision. We aim for customer satisfaction and won’t try to sell you on any service you don’t require.
Summers in Southern California are long and hot, with the
heat often extending well into October. Air conditioning systems get extreme
workouts during this time—so much so that it may seem as if a home’s air
conditioner is always running from July onward.
But there’s a difference in an air conditioner that runs
frequently and one that is actually running constantly and never powering
down.
The compressor is the workhorse of an air conditioning
system. It’s like the engine—without it, nothing happens and an air conditioner
becomes a central fan blowing around room temperature air.
What happens when the compressor in your AC stops working
and it can’t be repaired? This is a serious situation, and you’ll have a number
of options to consider—one of which is to have the entire air conditioning
system replaced. Is this the best option, or are the other choices more cost-effective?
We experienced a colder than usual winter here in Southern California. That may sound funny to someone who lives in a part of the country where temperatures are below freezing for most of the season, but it certainly felt cold to us to have temperatures in the high 40s during the day. We’re all eager to get to the warmer weather… and that means some of us may not be planning for it.
We think it’s more important than ever to remind our customers and future customers about scheduling maintenance for their air conditioning systems in spring. Our maintenance plan makes it easy to have this essential job done (we’ll even send you a reminder!), so if you haven’t had a look at what the program offers you, take some time right now. We promise you, it’s worth it!
We’ve had a longer cold spell here in Southern California than we often get. Of course, it’s nothing compared to the awful deep freeze that recently struck the Midwest. But it’s still cold to us, and if you use an electric-powered heating system like a heat pump or an electric furnace, you can expect to see an uptick on your electrical bills. That’s normal: just check electrical usage with previous bills to see that the rise in costs corresponds to more use.
This post is about dealing with abnormally and inexplicably high electric bills. What might be causing these spikes? We can help you investigate this, although for real repair work and other jobs, always call on a professional electrician in Burbank, CA.
Air conditioning is a standard part of life in So Cal. Most modern homes here are built with ACs in mind, and the regular hum of an air conditioner’s compressor is as much a part of the soundtrack of the summer as the crash of waves on the beach.
But people often don’t know much about the marvels of contemporary air conditioning. We’d like to share some facts about air conditioning that may alter how you look at them.
As Southern California settles in for the regular warm weather—and gets ready for the hot weather that’s not far off—air conditioners are going to start doing steady work. We hope you already scheduled maintenance for your air conditioning system, since this is the best way to ensure the finest possible performance from the system through the middle of the year. If you haven’t, you only have to call us and sign up for our maintenance club.
If your air conditioner is already running and you’ve notice that it’s not sending out cool air from the vents, that’s a problem. There are a number of possible reasons for this, and some of them will require that you call us for air conditioning repair in Burbank, CA. We offer emergency repair support when you need it!
We’ve had a longer cold spell here in Southern California than we often get. Of course, it’s nothing compared to the awful deep freeze that recently struck the Midwest. But it’s still cold to us, and if you use an electric-powered heating system like a heat pump or an electric furnace, you can expect to see an uptick on your electrical bills. That’s normal: just check electrical usage with previous bills to see that the rise in costs corresponds to more use.
with ACs in mind, and the regular hum of an air conditioner’s compressor is as much a part of the soundtrack of the summer as the crash of waves on the beach.
