Best Heating Repair Companies in Houston
When a heating unit starts to fail in the winter, home and business owners face the ominous task of choosing the right company for the repair. The process isn’t one of luxury of or choice it’s a necessity. Failing heating units drive up energy bill and if a heating unit that shuts down, it creates miserable conditions. For businesses, a failed heating unit can cause loss of revenue to do poor workplace accommodations. A working heating unit during the winter is essential to the comfort and safety of your home or business. A heating repair contractor that is unreliable, pricey or too incompetent to do the repairs can be as miserable as the cold. The first step in locating a good heating contracting is searching on the Internet. The Internet has vastly become the excellent recourse in locating a good contractor. There, you will find the business address, phone number and the services they provide. The business owner’s website should also reveal if they service your area. Hiring local usually gives a better opportunity for prompt service. Additionally, you will find reviews from homeowner and business that has used the business. Read the reviews carefully, these folks are very truthful about their experience. Also, check out online review sites such as Yelp or Angie’s List and others. Always remember to talk to your friends, neighbors and other business owners for opinions of heating repair companies. It’s likely someone you know or live close to has had to use a heating repair company. The credentials of a heating repair company are very important. Hire a heating repair company that has all required licenses and permits. Knowing the contractor is educated, tested, update on HVAC codes and bonded. You are protected as long as the contractor is bonded. Which basically states there’s […]
Holiday Season Heating Tips To Preserve Energy
The holidays are a busy time for most families, bringing more guests into your home than normal. With cold weather, extra cooking, and lots of guests you will quickly notice that all of this is going to impact your energy costs. Below are a few easy tips that can help you reduce your energy costs during the holiday season: Keep the oven closed when cooking: We know you want to check on that Thanksgiving Turkey and Christmas ham while it fills your home with a delicious aroma, but every time you open the oven door the oven’s temperature drops as much as 25 degrees costing you more in electricity than you have to spend for the same results. Put off checking whatever it is your baking before you know that it has the potential to be fully cooked. When it is time to check on your food, make it quick and try to use the Match pan size to burner size: When using your stove top this holiday season, make sure that the pans or pots you are heating up fit on the burner. If you place a small six-inch pan on an eight-inch burner, you’re going to end up losing a lot of heat. Conversely, if you place an eight-inch pan on a six-inch burner, it’s going to take much longer than usual to heat your food up. Only Use Dishwasher When Full: The dishwasher will actually use less water than if you wash dishes by hand – and if you have guests over, the last thing you want to do is spend all day washing their dishes anyway. Just make sure you only run the dishwasher when there is a full load – and if you rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, rinse […]
Benefits of Fall AC Maintenance in Houston
Air Conditioning equipment should always be inspected, cleaned and serviced at least once a year. However, experts say for optimum efficiency this should happened twice a year. Ideally, Fall and Spring. Most homeowners have their AC systems checked in the spring. However, in the southern areas of Texas particularly, the Houston Areas, homeowners have found the extended high temperatures have fostered the need for biannual check-ups of Air Conditioning systems. Bi annual check-ups (Fall and Spring) prepare your Air Conditioning Systems for the proceeding seasons, which are generally the harshest for heating and cooling systems. Having your unit serviced in fall presets the service in preparation of winter and spring with summer. Most Air conditioning equipment whether electric or gas, hot or cold push air through the same systems throughout the year. Air Conditioning systems generally have no relief throughout the seasons. In southern states, seasons of warm weather last much longer than the northern states. With a fall service check-up, HVAC technicians provide a checklist of all the tasks to be performed just as during the spring check-up. HVAC technicians arrive with a long checkpoint list of service tasks to perform during the maintenance call. Utilizing special equipment, technicians check for refrigerant leaks. They also perform other routine tasks, which include cleaning indoor and outdoor coils, place oil in motor parts and inspect the fan blower found inside the home. Belts that are used to keep the motor of blower circulating are checked for wear. Additionally, technicians check the thermostat for proper registration and identification of actual temperature. This is essential in any type of climate. If the thermostat does not work efficiently, more energy could be used. Ultimately increasing your energy bill. If needed, technicians will also recharge the refrigerant. Other routine tasks include […]
Houston Thermostat Settings
Many people in Houston have questions and concerns when it comes to their thermostat questions. You may be unsure of what average temperature settings are and how to maintain a an electricity bill that does not completely destroy your budget. So at what temperature should you set your thermostat? -Normal cooling settings in the spring and summer are somewhere between 75 degrees to 80 degrees. While many people with older units or unserviced units will need to go lower in order to get their home to feel cool. -Normal heating settings in the fall and winter are somewhere between 68 degrees to 72 degrees. If your unit is old or does not have well established routes for the air to flow through you may find this is not warm enough to get the home comfortable. Whenever you are looking to pinch pennies and stay within a budget, you should consistently set your thermostat to the highest possible temperature that is comfortable for you in the summer, and the lowest temperature you are comfortable with during the winter. Whenever you choose to do this you will maximize your energy savings. This is because on average every 1 degree of temperature change is equal to about 10% energy savings. So as an example, whenever you change your thermostat setting from 75 degrees to 76 degrees in the summer, this could result in saving you about 10% on your cooling costs. Should I turn my thermostat up during the summer and down during the winter while I am away for the day? Yes, adjusting your thermostat while you are away is a great way to conserve money. However, the Department of Energy suggests a change of no more than 3 degrees either direction if you want to maximize potential energy savings. […]
Best Time To Schedule Your Air Conditioner Maintenance in Houston
There is always a lot of uncertainty surrounding when and how often an air conditioning system should have regular maintenance performed on it. By a general rule of thumb, an air conditioning system should have, minimally, one tuneup performed annually. Now in an environment such as Houston, where the weather stays hot and humid for the bulk of the year, you will be using your home or business’s air conditioning unit heavily. This means, you have the potential to greatly benefit from more than one air conditioner tuneup a year. An air conditioning tuneup is designed to check on all of the essential functions and parts of your air conditioning system. This is done to make sure that if there is a problem with your air conditioner, it is caught early on, before the problem can lead to a high end repair, or a full blown replacement. The best analogy for why you need to have your air conditioner serviced is this: Your air conditioner is a complex machine that relies on many different parts to work in harmony together in order to properly function, much like a vehicle. If you were to buy a new vehicle, and drive that vehicle every single day without ever changing the oil or having your vehicle inspected, it would not take long for your to start having a serious problem. Your lights would go out, your oil would be completely used and you vehicle would start to operate less efficiently. You would not only notice a severe decline in the performance of your vehicle, you would greatly decrease the lifespan of your vehicle. The best time of the year to have your air conditioner serviced for general maintenance and a tune-up would be right before the warm spring season and […]
