Summer is here in all but name, and that means you need an air conditioner to function every day in order to keep your home comfortable. If you need a new air conditioner, now is the right time to install it. An older air conditioner on its last legs won’t be able to handle the coming months of high temperatures, and installing a new one now means you won’t have to worry about whether your system is up for the job in the hot weather to come.
The most important aspect of a new air conditioner is its power output, which needs to be carefully balanced to match the specifics of your home (neither too powerful nor underpowered). Once that’s been settled, however, you need to find the most efficient unit in your size range. How can you tell which unit is the most effective? Easy, look for the SEER rating.
SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, and it’s used to measure the AC system’s efficiency. It’s derived by measuring the unit’s cooling output over a given period of time with the energy it consumes in that time. The higher the rating, the more effectively it makes use of the energy it consumes.
That translates to lower costs for cooling the same amount of space over the same amount of time as a unit with a lower SEER rating. It also means that the unit won’t suffer as much wear and tear since it won’t have to run for as long to keep your home properly cool. That means your system will last longer than it might otherwise and helps ensure that you get the most value out of an expensive investment.
As of 2015, all air conditioners in our part of the U.S. need to have a SEER rating of at least 14. Older models have SEER ratings as low as 10, and if the system is worn out, the actual efficiency level might measure much lower than that. So you can see how much a new system with a higher SEER rating can affect your comfort and monthly budget.
It is important to note that the SEER rating isn’t the same as power levels. A smaller air conditioner with a higher SEER rating than a larger one isn’t going to save you money. Instead, it will just run and run and run without ever getting your home cool, and eliminate the benefits that come with a higher SEER rating. That’s why you should have your new system sized first: ensuring that it is powerful enough to cool your air, but not so powerful as to cause short cycling (turning on and off rapidly and wasting untold energy in the process). Once your system is sized, select the unit with the highest SEER rating in your price range to ensure maximum efficiency.
For quality air conditioning appraisal and replacement services in your Manor, TX home, call on the pros at Intelligent Air Services today!
Spring is the time when outdated air conditioners get replaced for new models. It makes all kinds of sense to do so now: summer has not yet arrived and you have an opportunity to start enjoying the improved efficiency and other benefits of a new system as soon as the weather becomes hot. Most of us are used to centralized air conditioners, which generate cool air in a single location and then blow it into our homes via a series of ducts. They’re safe and efficient systems, but they aren’t the only type of air conditioners for sale, and if your home needs something a little different, you would to well to consider them.
In cases where central air doesn’t make a good fit for you, we often recommend ductless air conditioning systems as a viable alternative. They can provide a number of benefits in the right circumstances.
Centralized air conditioners generate cool air in one location. Ductless systems, on the other hand, do so from multiple locations: a series of small units, each charged with cooling one single section of your home. They can be controlled independently of each other, allowing you to turn them on and off and set different temperatures without affecting the performance of the other units in the system.
Ductless systems often cost more to install than centralized systems, since you need to set up multiple units instead of just one. In exchange, however, they offer a number of important benefits, including:
- No Ducts: Homes built before the advent of central air conditioning may not have the space to support the required system of ducts for a centralized system. Ductless systems elegantly get around the notion, allowing homes that might not otherwise enjoy comprehensive air conditioning to do so easily.
- Setting Temperatures Separately: If your family squabbles over the setting of the thermostat with a centralized system, ductless air conditioning provides an easy solution. Say, for example, you’re cooking over a hot stove and want to turn up the AC in the kitchen to compensate. With a centralized system, doing so might cause other members of the family in different parts of the home to freeze. Ductless cooling allows you to set whatever temperature you like without affecting the remainder of the home.
- Lowering Monthly Cooling Bills: The same principle of setting different temperatures in different parts of the home can save you money on monthly bills if you simply take it all to its logical conclusion. You can shut off the air in parts of the home you aren’t using—such as bedrooms during the day—while still running it in parts of the home that are occupied. This allows you to save a great deal of money during the summer months without having to sacrifice comfortable temperatures in your home.
If ductless air conditioning sounds like it could work well in your Austin, TX home, call Intelligent Air Services today to set up an appointment and discuss your options.
With higher temperatures arriving, you’re going to be using your air conditioner more and more often. That makes this time of year a perfect time to check for trouble with your system. Only a trained professional can diagnose trouble with your air conditioner the right way, but you can do yourself a favor by looking for the signs of a problem. When you spot them, shut the system down and call for repair service.
One of the more common symptoms of trouble with your air conditioner—and one many homeowners overlook—is the formation of frost or ice on your evaporator coils. It might not sound like a big deal—after all, isn’t the air conditioner supposed to be cold?—but in point of fact, it could be a huge problem with your system.
Frost on the coils can be caused by any number of issues, including but not limited to the following:
- Refrigerant leaks. Refrigerant needs to be a specific type and be introduced into the evaporator coils in a set amount for the air to be cooled as it should. If it leaks, it could result in frost.
- Faulty fan motor. A faulty fan motor could keep the cool air trapped in the air conditioner instead of blowing it into the home the way it should. That could result in the frost of ice forming on the coils.
- Blocked filters. A filter that is clogged or blocked will similarly keep cool air inside the system instead of getting it clear. That will cool the air more than it should and create ice or frost.
- General mechanical failures. Any kind of hiccup in the system can slow the flow of refrigerant and freeze up the coils.
- Low temperatures. Any time the temperature drops below 65°F, you should turn off your air conditioner. Otherwise, you risk frost forming on the coils.
Regardless of the causes of the trouble, the results are predictable. The ice or frost forms an insulating barrier between any remaining refrigerant and the air they’re supposed to cool. As a result, the air conditioner needs to work much harder to do its job, which raises both your monthly bills and the chances of a larger breakdown later on down the line. Even worse, the problem can cascade: creating more ice and forcing the system to work even harder until a shutdown is inevitable.
The plethora of causes shows why you should never attempt to scrape the ice off of the coils. The ice is merely a symptom, which means it will quickly re-form. Moreover, you could easily damage the coils in the process, and add their replacement to the cost of dealing with the core issue. (The coils are usually highly expensive to repair, and could turn a potentially simple issue into something much costlier.) Instead, shut the system off and don’t touch it until a repair service arrives.
For quality air conditioning repair services in Round Rock, TX, call the professionals at Intelligent Air Services today!
If you’re in the market for a new air conditioner, now is the best time to make a purchase. Summer won’t be here for a few more weeks, which gives you the time to properly select a new unit and get it installed according to your timetable. It will thus be ready to go by the time the first heat wave hits, and you can rely on it throughout this summer and many summers to come.
When selecting a new air conditioner, you need to keep several important factors in mind. They will ensure that your system functions exactly the way you should. Your technician can help you with specifics, but in general, there are three things you should look for.
Power levels are the most important component in your air conditioner—measuring the amount of cool air the system can put out—and it needs to be carefully balanced with the specifics of your home. You probably know that an underpowered unit is a bad fit for your home: it will run constantly and waste a great deal of energy without ever getting your household cool.
But overpowered units run a similar risk. Air conditioners spend far more energy starting up and shutting down than they do simply running. If your AC cools the air too quickly, it will turn off after a short amount of time, only to turn on again a few minutes later. The process is known as short-cycling, and it can be devastating to your air conditioner.
A properly balanced air conditioner takes all of the factors of your home into account: neither overpowered nor underpowered, but just right.
Once you have determined the appropriate power level for your air conditioner, you should find a unit that is as efficient as your budget allows. (You need to do this after your power levels have been estimated since a more efficient unit won’t help you if it’s still too small to cool the home.) Air conditioners measure their efficiency in SEER ratings, which stand for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. The higher the rating, the better use the system makes of the energy it consumes, and the more it will save you over comparable use from a less efficient unit.
In addition to the new unit itself, now is an excellent time to budget any upgrades or additions you may want to install with your air conditioner. For example, if you have an older thermostat, you can change it out for a new smart unit that helps your system function at maximum efficiency. And since humidity is always a problem in the summer—and can add unnecessary strain to your air conditioner—consider installing a whole-house dehumidifier along with your new system. These additions provide unique features that improve the quality of life in your home, as well as helping to ease the strain on your new air conditioner.
For air conditioning installation in Georgetown, TX call on the friendly professionals at Intelligent Air Services today!
With summer just around the corner, the time has come to get your air conditioner into fighting shape. Temperature control is vital when the hotter months hit, and without reliable air conditioning, your home can turn into an oven very quickly. But the heat isn’t the only thing you need to worry about. There’s also the humidity, which can become stiflingly high in our neck of the woods, and creates a number of significant problems in the process. Air conditioners can crudely treat the issue, but there’s a much better solution out there: a whole-house dehumidifier installed into your HVAC system.
Our bodies sweat as a means of cooling off. As the moisture evaporates off of our skin, it lowers our body temperature. But in instances high humidity when the relative humidity in the air is higher than 50% or so—then there’s too much ambient moisture in the air for evaporation to occur. The sweat stays on your skin, leaving you feeling clammy and gross. More importantly, your body won’t cool down, leaving you feeling hotter than you should and forcing your air conditioner to work all the harder to make up the difference. Beyond your own health and comfort, high humidity can foster the growth of mold and bacteria in your home. In the worst cases, it can even damage furnishings like wallpaper.
Air conditioners can deal with high humidity to a certain extent, since cooling the air naturally removes the moisture from it. As the temperature falls, the moisture vapor in the air shifts to liquid form, coalescing into droplets and removing itself from the air. This is why you get dew on the ground in the cool early hours of the morning.
The problem is that the air conditioner isn’t set up to deal with high humidity levels, so the control is imprecise at best. Furthermore, while air conditioners contain a drain system designed to collect and remove the condensate that naturally forms while it cools the air, that system can become overwhelmed by excessive humidity levels and even result in a shutdown. Indeed, the fact that it has to work harder to account for high humidity means that your monthly bills will go up and your system faces a greater chance of suffering a breakdown.
Dehumidifiers cool the air the same way that air conditioners do, but they don’t require vent ventilation and they do so with the specific aim of removing excess moisture. That means they can be adjusted to deliver the humidity level that is most comfortable to you and can handle higher loads of humidity without a problem. In addition to making your home feel much more comfortable, they can ease the strain on your air conditioning system, lowering monthly bills and reducing the wear and tear on it.
For dehumidifier services in Manor, TX, call the pros at Intelligent Air Services today
Spring has officially arrived, and soon enough summer will be here again. High temperatures seem to arrive sooner every year, and without a reliable air conditioning system in your home, you’re apt to feel the heat far more often than you’d like. If there are any problems with your air conditioner, now is the time to take notice of them and plan for repairs. Only a trained technician can properly diagnose any problems that arise, but you can help your cause out by looking for certain common signs of a problem with your air conditioner. We’ve provided a shortlist below.
- General Tips. As a general rule, anything that seems out of the ordinary with your system – any discrepancies in its function – are cause for concern. You’d be surprised how attuned you are to the sounds and sensations of your AC functioning as it should. If something seems off for any reason, shut the system down and call in repair service.
- Noises. Noises translate to hums, bangs, clanks, rattles, whistles and anything else that doesn’t match your expectation for normal air conditioning functions. In most (but not all) cases, the noises will start and stop with the starting and stopping of the system.
- Warmer Air. Hot air coming out of your system is usually a giant red flag, but a similar problem can emerge if the air is still cool, just not as cool as you’re accustomed to. This can be caused by refrigerant leaks, breaches in the ducts, overheating components, or perhaps an issue with the evaporator coils.
- Low Air Flow. Low airflow means that the air coming out of your vents is lower than you expect, or not present at all. If the reduced airflow is limited to one vent, the problem likely lies in the nearby ducts. If it affects all the vents, it likely lies in the system itself.
- Higher Bills. Obviously, you haven’t been running your air conditioner for very long this year and might not have had time to check the monthly bills in a meaningful way. But if your bills last summer were higher than expected, chances are there’s a problem with the system in need of correcting. This is especially the case when an older air conditioner is involved.
An ideal way to check for these issues and others like them is to schedule spring air conditioning maintenance from a trained technician. He or she will examine the system closely and spot any signs that it needs repair, allowing you to schedule repairs at leisure. In addition, they permit the technician to correct countless little issues, such as loose bolts and fittings, that can help your air conditioner perform more effectively. Even if you don’t need further repairs, it will help you get your system operating at its maximum potential this summer, cutting monthly costs and lowering the possibility of an unanticipated breakdown happening.
Trust Intelligent Air Services for air conditioning maintenance, installation, and repair services throughout the Austin, TX area.
Posted in Air Conditioning
March is usually a reasonably cool month in our neck of the woods, but the summer weather will be here before you know it, and the temperatures seem to get hotter sooner than ever these days. While you’re still likely running your heating system on a regular basis, you’ll soon be using your air conditioner more and more often. Now is the time to dust it off and schedule maintenance to ensure that it is running the way it should. It can convey a number of benefits you’ll enjoy all summer long.
Most people don’t think much about their air conditioner until it breaks down, and they assume that regular maintenance is similar to arranging for a repair. This is not quite the case. Maintenance is a general “looking over,” designed to stop a variety of little issues that wouldn’t merit a repair call on their own. It’s also designed to give the technician a chance to spot the signs of trouble coming down the road: a problem that hasn’t directly manifested yet, but which might come back to bite you in the middle of summer. Ideally, you should schedule maintenance twice a year: once before summer starts and once after it ends. But once a year is definitely recommended.
The benefits of air conditioning maintenance are subtle, but you can easily feel them in the places where they matter most. They boil down to three very specific advantages:
- Overall efficiency is improved. By taking care of those little details—tightening loose bolts, lubricating used parts, and so on—the technician cuts down on wear and tear, as well as ensuring that the air conditioner can do its job without expending as much energy. That means lower monthly bills when compared to similar use before annual maintenance, as well as extended longevity for the air conditioner’s parts.
- The chances of a breakdown are reduced, owing to the reduced amount of wear and tear. Furthermore, by scheduling maintenance every year over the life of your system, you can help extend the life of the system’s components, and by extension, the life of the system overall. Considering the cost of a new air conditioning system installation, this is no small feat.
- If repairs are needed, maintenance gives you a chance to catch them early. That provides two big benefits: it often lowers the cost of repairs (since the damage will be less expensive) and it lets you schedule repairs when you’d like, instead of juggling your schedule to accommodate an unexpected emergency. In fact, now is a great time for maintenance because you have several weeks to schedule such repairs until you really need the air conditioner.
If your air conditioner gave you trouble last summer, or it’s been a while since a trained technician got a look at it, regular maintenance is definitely in order. And here in Round Rock, TX, the friendly pros at Intelligent Air Services are standing by to make it happen!
Most homes in our neck of the woods rely on forced-air furnaces for heat during the winter. They heat the air inside their system, then blow it to the corners of your home through a system of ducts hidden in your attic and the crawlspaces of your walls. It’s inexpensive and works very well. We still have a few more weeks of winter left, but spring tends to come early in Austin, and before long you’ll be turning off your furnace and turning on your air conditioner for the summer. That makes this the perfect time of year to perform some checks and maintenance on your furnace in preparation for the coming spring.
Furnaces suffer from wear and tear just like any other appliance, and that damage can add up over time. The best way to prevent it is to schedule a maintenance session with a trained technician once or twice a year. Doing so will help curtail that wear and tear: reducing the risk of greater breakdowns, lowering the monthly cost of running the heater, and—when applied over time—helping extend the life of the heater overall.
If more work is needed on the furnace, a maintenance session gives the technician a chance to spot the problem before it interferes with the functioning of the furnace. And spotting the problem in late winter or early spring gives you the entire summer to plan for expert repairs at your leisure.
In addition to formal treatment from a professional technician, you yourself can take some concrete steps to help get your furnace ready for the off-season. They can include:
- Changing or cleaning the filters. Air filters can be purchased for little money at any hardware store or home improvement center. In some cases, you may need to replace the filter more often, but if you don’t, the end of the heating season is an ideal time to do it.
- Checking the batteries on your carbon monoxide detector, which can alert you to any potential gas leaks in the event of trouble.
- Putting out the pilot light if you have an older furnace. It will save you money on fuel and prevent wear and tear to the ignition system, though you should only do so if you’re certain you won’t have need of the system until next fall.
If your furnace’s warranty has expired and the costs of running it are getting too high, now is a good time to start exploring your options for replacing it. Doing so now gives you months to plan and find a proper replacement, then schedule the replacement during the summer when you have no need for your system. Consult with your service professional about your options for a new furnace—or whether you can get another few years out of your existing model—before making that call.
If you need quality furnace service in Austin, TX, give the pros at Intelligent Air Services a call!
Everyone wants their heating system and air conditioning system to function more effectively, and to do their jobs without costing more than they should. But replacing an entire system is expensive, and as long as it continues to run reliably, that’s not usually a step that homeowners wish to take. However, HVAC systems consist of more than just the heaters or air conditioners themselves, and while buying a whole new system is expensive, making sensible upgrades here and there isn’t.
Consider, for example, your thermostat, which acts as your control panel for the entire system. Most thermostats can do their jobs for many years without complaint, and if you’ve had yours for a long time, congratulations.
But there have been some exciting advances made in the past few years, and if you have an older thermostat, you might want to think about replacing it even if it continues to work effectively.
Most thermostats are digital, though very old models may still be running on a mercury switch. If you have such a thermostat in your home, replacing it is a necessity, not a luxury. Mercury is dangerous and should not be in the home at all.
Beyond that, the main reasons for replacing a perfectly good thermostat come down to added convenience and improved savings. New developments in the field can ensure plenty of both. Why? The internet has changed all of our lives and new thermostats often take advantage of that in surprising ways.
For example, consider a thermostat that keeps track of updated meteorological conditions and makes small adjustments based on humidity levels to help your heater and air conditioner function more effectively. Other features keep your thermostat connected to the web and allow you to control it remotely from anywhere in the world via an app on your smartphone. That means making changes to start and stop times, raising and lowering temperature levels, and even correcting mistakes when you go on vacation, all with just a few taps of your phone screen.
Other features aren’t contingent upon a Wi-Fi connection. Smart programming, for instance, allows the thermostat to analyze your heating and cooling patterns and then make adjustments to more effectively use your HVAC system.
The convenience of such features is self-evident, but there’s another advantage that doesn’t get noticed as much. By improving the performance of your HVAC system and cutting down on waste, a new thermostat can lower the cost of your monthly bills. Moreover, it reduces wear and tears on the system itself, lowering the chances of a major breakdown. And since your new thermostat will likely be in place for many years, that reduced strain could add months or even years to your HVAC system’s lifespan. It’s not hard for such savings to easily outpace the initial cost of the new thermostat.
If your thermostat is more than ten years old, call Intelligent Air Services to discuss replacement options. We can install a new thermostat in homes throughout the Georgetown, TX area.
Winter season is cold season, and your home here in Manor, TX may be more vulnerable to colds and flu viruses than you realize. No one likes dealing with illnesses, especially when the weather is cold, but what can you do about it? The answer is quite a bit. A UV air purifier installed in your heating and air conditioning system can make a huge difference in the overall health of your family. Let’s break it down to show you how it all works.
Why Is Wintertime So Risky for Colds and Flu Bugs?
When the air gets cold, it gets dry as ambient moisture is forced out of it by coalescing into liquid form. That can dry out our sinuses—our body’s first line of defense against germs and viruses—and leave us more vulnerable to illness. We often compound that in the winter by keeping our homes and businesses buttoned up tight against the cold. That’s important, obviously, but it has the unwelcome side effect of allowing germs to circulate inside: passing from one family member to another without stopping.
UV Lights to the Rescue
UV stands for “ultraviolet,” a wavelength of light that exists beyond our ability to see. It appears in high amounts in sunlight, which is what causes our skin to tan and burn when we spend time outdoors on a sunny day. In lower amounts, it’s quite harmless to humans and multi-celled animals like dogs and cats. Indeed, UV lights are used at rock concerts and amusement parks to make our white clothes glow in the dark. (That’s the light interacting with chemicals from laundry detergent.)
But while we’re perfectly safe from those lights, they have an entirely different effect on germs and similar creepy crawlies: either killing them on contact or fusing their DNA so they can’t replicate. That makes UV light an excellent weapon when protecting your home against colds and flu bugs
How Do They Work?
The issue involves how to make the best use of that power, and obviously, you can’t simply cover your home in UV lights and call it a day. The trick is to expose them to the most amount of air in your home in the least amount of space. There’s where your ducts come in, or more precisely, the apex of your ducts. As the heater runs (or the air conditioner runs in the summertime), it slowly circulates the air in your home through that choke point. UV air purifiers simply shine their light across the apex, ensuring that the air passes through the light as the system blows. That scrubs your household clean of germs and flu bugs automatically whenever you run your HVAC system. The air is cleaner and fresher, and your family is healthier and happier. Best of all UV air purifiers require little maintenance beyond changing out the light bulbs from time to time.
Trust the experts at Intelligent Air Services to install, repair and maintain UV air purifier in your home!