Kilowatt Heating, Air Conditioning and Electrical Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Van Nuys’

What Happens When Your AC Condenser Stops Working

Monday, May 15th, 2023

The outdoor portion of your air conditioning unit is also called the condenser. It is where heat and humidity get transferred so that they can exit your home and make more room for cold air. If your condenser is not working properly, this heat and humidity could get trapped inside the system and cause major problems.

The good news is, you can stay ahead of condenser problems by identifying when something is wrong and fixing it sooner rather than later. If you think that you need AC repair in Van Nuys, CA, our team is here to help. You can keep reading to learn more about why it is so important to address condenser issues early and prevent damage from spreading. 

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Another Hot Summer Ahead, So AC Maintenance Is Vital!

Monday, April 3rd, 2023

Spring is here, and summer is just around the corner. Another year of hot temperatures will sweep across our area, so you want to make sure that you invest in AC maintenance sooner rather than later. If you wait until later in the spring or into the summer, our team and other AC teams in the area will be swamped with calls about broken ACs. 

When you stay ahead of AC maintenance in Van Nuys, CA, you don’t have to worry about the inconvenience of an emergency repair needs popping up unexpectedly. Keep reading to learn more about how AC maintenance can help you this summer, and for many summers to come. 

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A Few Heat Pump Malfunctions You Might Run Into

Monday, April 18th, 2022
outdoor-condenser-units-fence

We think heat pumps are excellent choices for Southern California homes. They can work year-round meeting the cooling and heating demands of a house, and because of our mild winters, they don’t suffer from efficiency issues when in heating mode (a problem heat pumps can encounter in extremely cold climates). 

If you have a heat pump for your house, we want you to enjoy its benefits for as long as possible. Below are a few of the more common heat pump malfunctions you may see that can interfere with your comfort and the heat pump’s energy efficiency. Turn to our professionals to handle the repairs that will solve these troubles. 

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Understanding the Flame Sensor in Your Furnace—And When It Needs Repairs

Monday, January 10th, 2022
open-gas-furnace

We like to reassure our customers that gas furnaces are built to high standards of safety, and it’s not difficult to keep a gas furnace running without health hazards. As long as you have your furnace regularly maintained and schedule any repairs it may need promptly, you shouldn’t have any concerns about running the heater safely.

One of the key safety features in your gas furnace is the flame sensor. We’ll examine what this part does to maintain safe furnace operation, as well as when to know you need to call for heating repair in Van Nuys, CA to fix or replace it.

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Important Electrical Safety Advice for an Older Home

Monday, December 27th, 2021
cloth-wiring

Although most homes in Southern California would be considered “new” compared to those on the East Coast (where there are still many inhabited homes built at the beginning of the twentieth century), there are still a significant number that are more than 40 years old. That’s considered an older home when it comes to important home services, such as electrical safety. 

We’re older home specialists when it comes to electrical and HVAC needs, and we’ve helped many homeowners with the improvements they need for better, safer living in a vintage house. If you are living in a vintage home, you’ll find this list of safety advice a great help. We’re the electrician in Van Nuys, CA you can count on to meet all your electrical needs, from general to highly older-home specialized.

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How Does a Tankless Water Heater Work?

Monday, October 4th, 2021
Tankless-water-heater

It works great! We recommend looking into getting one for your next water heater installation.

Okay, obvious comment aside, people who haven’t owned a tankless water heater before are often curious about just how these systems work. They’re used to the standard type of water heater that most homes have used for a century: a large tank of water that’s kept hot (either with gas burners or electric heating elements) and ready for use whenever there’s demand for hot water. Remove the tank from the equation, and how does a water heater work?

We’re here to explain the basic operation of a tankless water heater. This information can help with your future water heater purchase decisions.

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Should I Shut Off My AC When I’m Away From Home?

Monday, August 23rd, 2021
hand-setting-thermostat

The central air conditioning system is one of the biggest consumers of electricity in a house. When the AC goes into active cooling mode and powers the compressor, it can use on average 3,500 watts per hour. The only appliance that might use more is an electric water heater.

Because AC’s can take up such a significant chunk of your electrical budget during a hot So. Cal summer, it makes sense to limit how much you have it running. This is why we recommend keeping the thermostat at around 78°F during the day: it’s a comfortable temperature that won’t force the air conditioner to run too long.

What about when you’re away from home? It sounds like it makes sense to just turn the AC off so it won’t use any power. The situation isn’t so simple, however. Unless you plan to be away from home for several weeks, we advise you to keep the air conditioner on—but not necessarily at the same settings.

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Get Ready for Summer Weather With AC Maintenance

Monday, May 3rd, 2021

Do you want to bring your home life to a halt this summer because you need an emergency AC repair in Van Nuys, CA—or elsewhere in our service area? Of course you don’t, although you can always rely on our technicians to come through for you in case this happens. 

But we’re here to talk about repair prevention today, and that’s only part of what you’ll get when you have your AC maintained before the summer heat arrives. 

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Are Electric Furnaces Much Safer Than Gas Furnaces?

Monday, March 8th, 2021
American-Standard-Unit

If you do an online search on electric furnaces, you’ll find this question often pops up: “Do electric furnaces create carbon monoxide?” That people are asking this shows that many homeowners are unaware of the important basics of how different types of furnaces run. We want to clear up some of these misunderstandings and address the broader question of whether or not an electric furnace is a far safer choice than a natural gas furnace for home heating. 

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Why Your Furnace Keeps Shutting Down

Monday, November 16th, 2020
furnace_repair_for_homes

This was the first weekend in Southern California of true cold seasonal weather. That may not seem cold to other parts of the country, but it’s cold for us! This means you probably turned on your furnace this weekend for the first time in … well, it’s been a bit, hasn’t it?

We hope you had a smooth switch over to using the furnace. But you are reading this post, after all, and that means the furnace is already giving you problems by shutting down early and not getting the house warm.

Before we go further and look at the reasons you may need to have furnace repair in Van Nuys, CA from our technicians, a quick reminder about heating maintenance: if you haven’t scheduled it, that might be the reason you’ve got a furnace acting questionably. Never miss out on having this job done during the fall, since you’ll be able to head off problems like the ones we’re going to look at below.

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