Winter is on its way here in Georgetown, TX, and that means that winter colds are coming as well. Colds are prevalent in the winter because the cool air is dry air, which dries out your sinuses and makes your body more vulnerable to germs. This is true for every household, but especially for homes with new babies, elderly family members, or anyone suffering from asthma or similar conditions. You can take steps to keep your home free of those germs with the timely installation of an indoor air quality product. There’s a wide variety available and one of them may be the perfect fit for your family. Here are a few options to consider:
UV Air Purifiers
UV air purifiers use ultraviolet light to target germs and bacteria. The light is harmless to us but lethal to them, and by setting up UV light bulbs at the apex to your duct system, where the little invaders are blown whenever your heater or air conditioner runs, the light can easily target them. Over time, it scrubs the air clean, making your home safer and healthier in the process.
Humidifiers
Cold bugs often strike through our sinuses, and when they dry out, your body is vulnerable. Humidifiers increase the moisture in the air, helping your body protect itself against tiny invaders. Humidifiers also ease the strain on the heating system and cut down heavily on nuisances like static electricity.
Filters
Most heating systems come with filters to strain out dirt and dust. You can help yourself out by changing the filter every 30 days and ensuring that it never gets clogged. You might also consider installing an electric air filter, which provides more comprehensive coverage of dust, dirt, and grit.
If any of these sounds like a good fit for your home, call the friendly pros at Intelligent Air Services today to discuss your options!
Air conditioners rely on refrigerant to cool the air in your Austin, TX home. As air conditioning technology improves, so are older types of refrigerant phased out in favor of newer, more efficient blends of refrigerant. Since January 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency has orchestrated a phase-out of the use of a specific blend of refrigerant called R-22 in all air conditioners bought and sold in the United States.
That poses a problem for anyone with air conditioners using R-22. The phase-out isn’t expected to be complete until 2020, but in the remaining time, this refrigerant blend will become much costlier and harder to find. If your system uses R-22, that means repairs are going to be much more expensive, and since refrigerant leaks are a common problem among older air conditioners, the issue becomes difficult. Indeed, given the drop-off we’ve seen in the use of R-22 during the last two years, the costs have become noticeably high.
Because of that, we believe that replacing an air conditioner using R-22 is a better option than repairing it. Eventually, the refrigerant will no longer be available at all, and unfortunately, air conditioners are set up to operate on one blend of refrigerant alone. The longer you delay, the more it will likely cost you to keep your air conditioner running, and the more you’ll pay in out-of-pocket expenses.
The good news is that there’s still time to act. With fall arriving in the area, you have plenty of time to schedule a replacement and have a new air conditioner installed. The sooner you do it, the better off you’ll be. If you’re not certain whether your system uses R-22, you can check the owner’s manual if you still have it, or speak to a trained service technician to find out if this action affects your home.
Call Intelligent Air Services for the answers to your questions!
As the temperatures cool, the air dries out. This is a matter of basic physics since the ambient moisture in the air shifts from gaseous to liquid form when the temperature drops, leaving much drier air behind. (That’s the reason that dew forms in the early morning, during the coolest hours of the day.) Winters in Round Rock, TX aren’t as cold as they are further north, but dry air can still be a big problem. The solution is a whole-house humidifier installed in your HVAC system, keeping the air comfortable and solving a whole slew of issues in the bargain.
What Kinds of Issues?
Dry air—that is, air with a relative humidity level of around 30% or lower—can cause a number of problems, including:
- Cracked and raw skin, chapped lips.
- Dried sinuses, leaving your body more vulnerable to colds and flu and increasing the spread of germs throughout your household.
- The static electricity created any time you walk across the carpet.
- Higher heating bills, since dry air feels colder than humid air.
- Increased risk of breakdowns and repair calls on your heating system, owing to the higher amount of strain.
Humidifiers to the Rescue
A humidifier is actually a fairly simple device: usually just a pad or a wick connected to a reservoir which allows it to soak up water. A fan blows across the pad or wick and into the ducts in your home, elevating the relative humidity levels in the process. Not only does that alleviate all of the problems mentioned above, but it can help reduce strain on your heating system, lowering the monthly bills and even extending its life before you have to replace it. That can all be done with a relatively simple professional installation.
Call on Intelligent Air Services to install, repair and replace humidifiers in your home.
Posted in Indoor Air Quality
We often tout the benefits of a regular servicing and maintenance program for your HVAC system, and now is the time of year to get it: between the seasons when the weather is cooler than our stifling Georgetown, TX summers, but not yet so cold that you need your heater. Regular maintenance resembles a tune-up more than a repair job. Repairs are intended to fix a specific problem. Maintenance, on the other hand, addresses a lot of little problems, none of which would merit a call on their own, but which collectively can result in a lot of trouble if not properly treated.
It includes things like tightening loose bolts, cleaning dirty components, recharging refrigerant in the case of air conditioning, and the like. It also allows the technician to check for any looming issues that may cause trouble in the future. The benefits of this process are threefold:
- By correcting all of those little issues, maintenance allows the heater or air conditioner to function more effectively, helping you to lower your monthly bills. This is one of the reasons why we recommend scheduling maintenance in the spring and in the fall before you have regular need of the system in question.
- By spotting potential repair issues early, it gives you a chance to address them before they cause a breakdown or further damage. That not only saves you a lot of heartaches but can also save money since preemptive repairs tend to cost less than they might otherwise.
- When applied regularly over time, maintenance can extend the life of your system by months or even years in some cases. They reduce the wear and tear on the system, helping it last longer and deferring the day when you will need to have it replaced.
Call Intelligent Air Services to set up a maintenance schedule today!
Posted in Air Conditioning
If you own a business or work as an office manager here in Austin, TX, you may think that you can rely on a heating and air conditioning service that doesn’t offer commercial HVAC expertise. This can be a big mistake. Commercial HVAC systems differ in a number of ways from residential systems, and when yours runs into trouble, you need someone who knows the ropes. Otherwise, it could cost you a great deal not only in lost time and money but in key components to your business model.
Why does your business need a commercial HVAC specialist? Here are a few key reasons for you to consider.
Complicated Systems
Besides needing to heat and cool a much larger space, commercial HVAC systems have specialized needs tailored to the business in question. For example, computers generate a lot of heat and office space with a lot of computers may need a dedicated area to hold the servers and keep them cool. Buildings with multiple occupants may have varying needs based on location, and existing businesses may change needs to meet shifting demands. That’s why many commercial HVAC systems are modular and installed on roofs, so they are adjusted to meet the changing needs of clients.
Speedy and Effective Service
If a heater or air conditioner in a residence breaks down, the occupants can sit tight and hold on until a repair service can get there. This just isn’t possible in a commercial environment. A broken HVAC system can wreak havoc on your productivity: sending customers out of an uncomfortable environment and forcing employees to labor in uncomfortable conditions. You need a service that can not only provide repairs quickly but can do so after hours so that your business isn’t disrupted by the problem.
Call Intelligent Air Services for quality commercial HVAC maintenance and repair.
Summer is winding down in Manor, TX, and soon enough your heating system will be called upon to keep your home comfortable. If you own an older furnace, or even if you don’t, now is a good time to start checking it and ensuring that it’s operating the way you expect it to. That way, you can correct any problems well before you need your system to operate full time.
Among the issues you should watch for are cracked heat exchangers, which constitute a major health threat to your home and need to be dealt with promptly before they do. Here’s a quick breakdown of how they work and why now is the right time to check for damage of that sort.
Key to Heating
Most furnaces use gas burners to provide heat, but you can’t simply use the burners to warm the air, since it’s an inefficient way to go about it. Instead, the heat and gas from the burners go through the heat exchangers, a shaped piece of metal that disperses the heat from the gas into the air. At the same time, shunt off carbon monoxide and other poisonous gas to the vents, where they can safely exit your home.
A crack in the heat exchanger reduces its efficiency at conveying the heat, but more importantly, it can cause poisonous gases to leak into your home. Some systems have automatic shut-off switches that turn the heater off the moment they detect toxins in the air, but that still leaves you with a big repair job on your hands.
Heat exchangers crack when they suffer sudden damage, but most of the time, they crack because of simple wear and tear. Regular heating maintenance from a trained technician can spot the damage, but the sooner you address it, the better off your system will be.
Call Intelligent Air Services for heating repairs today!
Labor Day represents the last unofficial day of summer, and while there are still some hot days left ahead in Round Rock, TX, now is the time to start preparing for cooler weather. It will be here before you know it, but by preparing your house now, you can help save some money on your winter heating bills, as well as ensuring that you don’t get caught by surprise by any problems in your heating system. Here’s a quick list of steps to take in the next few weeks. Some of them require the services of a professional technician, but many can be conducted on your own with few problems.
- Clear off Your Heating System. Your heater may have gathered leaves and detritus around its vents or exhaust port, and there may be blockages to the vents caused by objects in close proximity. Clear away any leaves or other forms of detritus and maintain an open space of at least two feet around any outdoor portions of your system.
- Schedule a Maintenance Session. Maintenance for your heater means giving a trained technician a chance to look it over and determine if there are any serious problems in need of attention before winter starts. It also lets the technician improve efficiency by unclogging burners, cleaning dirty components and handling other similar little details.
- Apply Weather Stripping. Weatherstripping can be purchased at any local hardware store and applied to cracks around your doors and windows. It will help your home better retain heat and reduce the strain on your system as a whole.
- Change the Filter. Every heating system comes with a filter that strains out dust and contaminants. It should be changed every 1 to 3 months, especially after sitting unused as your heating system likely has.
Trust Intelligent Air Services to handle heating maintenance calls this fall!
Posted in Heating
Summers are always beastly hot in the Austin, TX area, which translates to high bills as your air conditioner works overtime to keep your home cool and comfortable. By the time we get to the tail end of summer, you may have been laboring under high monthly costs for quite some time. We’re used to paying more in air conditioning costs in the summer, and to some extent, you’re going to have to pay more when you use the air conditioner every day, regardless. But you can still cut into those costs with some smart activity, especially regarding your thermostat, which is the control panel for the entire system. By making smarter use of it, you can cut those bills down considerably.
Many people will turn on their air conditioners in the cool of the morning and leave them running all day, erroneously believing that it costs less than turning on the system in the afternoon when they get home (and the temperature is at its peak). It adheres to a certain logic—and ensures that your home is cool when you arrive at the end of the day—but it’s patently false. Instead, use your thermostat’s programming feature to turn the system on about 15 minutes before you expect to get home. It will still keep your home cool and you will save a huge amount.
Don’t have a programmable thermostat yet? Now is the time to upgrade to a Wifi thermostat – learn more here!
In some cases, our nights are only barely cooler than the days, in which case you may need to keep your system running. If at all possible, however, program your system to turn off after sundown, then open your house up and use fans to circulate the cooler evening air through your house.
Intelligent Air Services is standing by with a quality air conditioning service!
August is a good time to discuss your air conditioning filters here in Georgetown, TX. They strain out dust, pet hair, and other contaminants, using the regular cycle of your air conditioners to keep your home’s air as free of contaminants as possible. Your AC system should be maintained once or twice a year by trained professionals, and generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to attempt any maintenance yourself. Formal licensing is required to handle refrigerant (which can be very dangerous) and formal training is needed to understand the inner workings of every air conditioning system. That doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to your system’s upkeep, however: mostly by changing the filters every 2–3 months. You can purchase new filters at any local home improvement center, and replacement is usually as easy as loosening a few clasps, sliding the old unit out and sliding a new one in. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when changing air filters.
We say that you should change the air filters every 2–3 months and for many homes that will do. But more vulnerable homes should be prepared to change their filters more often: once a month or so. Such households can include:
- Homes with pets, who can shed hair and spread dander through the air.
- Houses with sensitive family members, such as infants, the elderly, and people with conditions such as asthma.
- Homes with family members who work outdoors or regularly engage in outdoor activities like gardening.
MERV stands for minimum efficiency reporting value, and it measures the filter efficiency with a number (usually between 1 and 16). The higher the number the more effective the filter, which means you should look for the filter with the highest MERV rating you can afford.
Call Intelligent Air Services today for quality AC maintenance!
It can be tough to tell when an older air conditioner needs to be put out to pasture, especially if it’s been serviced regularly and can still do the job. But August is a great time to give yours a critical look and see if a new system may be in order. Our blazing hot Manor, TX summer has been going strong for months, forcing your air conditioner into daily use. The strain will show on older systems, and give you a good sense of whether it can last another few seasons, or if now is the time to act. Doing so in August gives you months of fall and winter to find the right new system for you and have it installed according to your schedule, instead of scrambling in the face of an unexpected breakdown. Only you can make the call to replace your AC system, but we like to cite three specific factors that can help.
With proper maintenance on an annual basis, your system can last well beyond its warranty. But once it passes that moment, you need to keep an eye on it, and if costs start going up, the combination may be enough to warrant a new air conditioner.
If your system has required more than two repair calls in the last twelve months, that could be a sign that the system is ready to give up the ghost. Alternately, it may only be one repair job, but the cost is simply more than your existing system is worth it.
Age breeds inefficiency, and if your monthly budget is groaning under the weight of high bills. you might want to replace your AC with a newer and more efficient one.
Call Intelligent Air Services today!