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New Important Tax Credit Information

Friday, August 7th, 2009

by Dan Jape of Reliable Heating & Air

There has been some exciting news in the world of tax credits and heating and air. When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was passed into law, it included a provision allowing a tax credit for a furnace that has a high efficiency blower motor regardless of the thermal efficiency of the gas burner section. Up until recently, the IRS was not recognizing this section of the law and was giving credit only for furnaces that were 95% efficient or greater and this limited many people’s choices, as this model was not always the best choice for everyone. They had not included this important “main air circulating fan” portion of the law failing to realize that in some parts of the country, the largest energy savings can be derived from electric savings from these special fans in 80% efficient furnaces. Now due to a recent ruling by the IRS, two more types of furnaces are now eligible to earn tax credits for the years 2009 & 2010. These are 80% efficient variable speed furnaces with two stage gas valves and 80% efficient single stage furnaces with super high efficient blowers. Both of this types of furnaces can now earn a credit by themselves and not just as a piece of a qualify system. This a great ruling coming just before the winter season when many people will be looking to replace their furnace and cannot afford to install a 95% model or can’t install one due to the type of home they own. Both of these furnaces will save hundreds of dollars a year for people and will provide much lower gas bills over an old 50% to 60% furnace.

On another note:
As we move closer to the beginning of the cooler weather, I want to alert homeowners to a safety problem that has become of epidemic proportions in the last year. Many thousands of homes have had to have their roofs replaced due to hailstorms that hit the metro area in the last couple of years and as we have been going in peoples attics to work on their heating and cooling systems we have noticed some alarming and dangerous problems that need to be brought to peoples attention before heating season arrives and they start using their furnaces. Roofing companies are inadvertently causing problems when replacing roofs by dislodging furnace flues completely and by pushing flues up against the wood decking of homes they are roofing. Most roofers do not come into the inside of the attic to check the furnace flues or chimneys when replacing roofs. We have found numerous flues knocked completely off and many more touching wood decking, which is very dangerous and a code violation. Double wall furnace flues must have 1” clearance from wood and the roofers are accidentally sliding the pipe into the wood and attaching the roof flashing in the wrong place. You can check for this problem by going into the attic with a flashlight and look for the round silver pipe coming from the either the attic furnace or up through the roof of the second floor and make sure it is not touching the decking or has been knocked completely off the furnace. If you have had your roof replaced recently and you are unsure if there is a problem, call your heating and air company to perform an inspection of your furnace flue, as there could be a situation that needs attention before heating season arrives.

Posted in Air Conditioning, Dan Jape, Going Green, Heating, Saving Money, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Change is in the (Heating &) Air

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

change is in the air

There are some real exciting changes in the heating and cooling industry and these changes are of great benefit to you personally and the country as a whole. As some of may remember, last month, I informed you about the 2009 Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency program that will pay 1/3 of the cost of a new qualifying heating & cooling system for your primary residence. There are no income limits on this program and is simply to understand. Just replace your old worn out system with a new super high efficiency gas furnace or electric heat pump and you will get $1500 from the federal government. This $1500 for the most part has paid for the bulk of the increased cost of getting the top of the line system for the cost of an entry level system. Well, no more. There are a new line of units that will earn the tax credit money that will actually be cheaper than the base models.

In the past, the units that qualified for the credit were a considerable bit more expensive as they were loaded up with all the bells and whistles and these features interested some buyers while others were not enthralled with them. The great change that is so exciting and is sweeping through the heating and cooling industry is new units that qualify for the stimulus money, but that are more basic models that are not that much more expensive or cheaper than the entry level units when the credit is applied, giving even more people the option to get the credit.

In the world of air conditioners, to qualify for the $1500, the unit has to be 16 seer and above. That used to mean a special air conditioner that was two speed in it’s operation which enhanced it’s dehumidification ability and increased it’s efficiency even greater when it was in “low speed”. Well now a flood of 16 seer single speed air conditioners have come on the market and they are much more affordable than the 2 speeds. They are the same efficiency, but much less complex and will be a great addition to the line up of all companies product line. The mind set of the different manufacturing facilities in the past is that anybody that would upgrade to a 16 seer air conditioner would want a unit loaded up with all the components that make a unit expensive and complex. This new line of normal super high efficiency air conditioners will make them affordable to the normal income purchaser, not just the top 10 percent of consumers.

Furnaces have to be 95% efficient or greater to earn the tax credit and up until now, that meant a furnace with a variable speed blower and a modulating gas valve or at least a two or three stage gas valve that would allow the furnace to regulate its output of heat by demand. Well now there are new models coming on the market that do not have all these features, but still achieve the 95% annualized fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE). These furnaces are much less expensive and give up some very nice comfort features, but will in the end, will make these tax credits available to a whole new group of consumers that have never been able to afford this type of super high efficiency furnace. The stimulus money now makes this type of furnace less expensive than a base model of far less afue or efficiency. Until this furnace is actually in the warehouse, one major heating company has actually dropped the price of the 95% variable speed furnace with built in dehumidification to stimulate sales until the new models arrive. Now is the time to jump on one of these super high efficient models being sold at base model prices! My assumption is when the new stripped down 95% model is available in a few months, these deluxe models will return to their normal price.

There is another product in this new law that is clearly included in the language of the law, but is not being acknowledged by the IRS and it deals with furnaces and air handlers that are super efficient in their consumption of electricity and not gas. If you go to the Department of Energy ‘s web site dealing with the new law ( www.energystar.gov ) and read the section concerning the main air circulating fan or the blower of these units, it clearly states that such product is included in the stimulus package and should be included in the $1500 credit. At this time, the IRS does not understand the difference of a high efficient gas furnace and one that is super efficient in it’s consumption of electricity. I have spoken to the IRS to try and help them understand the meaning of the new law as have many others in the industry, but they mistakenly believe the only furnace that is included is one that is gas efficient and not electrically efficient. Hopefully someone form the DOE can clarify the intent of the law to the IRS and get a ruling so this law can be enforced as written. When this happens, furnaces of any gas efficiency can be included regardless of it’s AFUE rating. What this means to you is a furnace that will save you $230 to $250 a year in electricity, remove 15% to 20% more moisture, increase the overall efficiency of your air conditioner and be cheaper than a builder grade model. This is a win win situation for all. Lets hope for a quick resolution for this one.

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What’s in a SEER?

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Replacing your old, worn out air conditioning system doesn’t have to be a hair-pulling, gut wrenching experience. With a small amount of information and education, one can better navigate a market found confusing and full of industry “buzz” words used by air conditioning contractors. With knowledge comes power, and you will fare much better in purchasing anything you are informed about. I would like to give you a few tips and advice that might help you to achieve the “deal” you want on a new cooling system.

The first step of the process is to convince yourself that it is time to replace your old a/c system. Unlike some appliances in your home, it is NEVER a good idea to wait until your old air conditioner stops working, since it always picks the peak of the season and the hottest day of the year to die. That is the worst time to purchase when you’re hot and irritable, and air conditioning contractors are extremely busy. You don’t drive a car until it leaves you stranded on the side of 285 in rush hour traffic; don’t keep an air conditioner until it completely dies. Use common sense and investigate a new cooling unit purchase on your terms. People that have purchased a new roof, water heater, dishwasher or kitchen remodel seem to take delight in bragging that their old air conditioner is still running. What they fail to realize is tey alone could be responsible for electric-generating nuclear power plants being brought online to run their ancient dinosaur of a unit. The least efficient air conditioner available today is able to cut your cooling bill by over 50%. That is no hollow promise, but a real number you can cut out of your power budget, and you can most likely keep your home cool for the first time in a long time.

Starting in 2007, the federal government mandated that all air conditioners be a minimum of 13 SEER. A SEER rating is a numerical rating assigned to an air conditioner and its corresponding cooling coil that denotes how much electricity it will consume in an average season. The letters S-E-E-R stand for “Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio”, and the important thing to remember is that each SEER point represents approximately 10% additional energy savings over a lower SEER number unit.

The SEER rating is a product of a matched indoor cooling coil and specific outdoor unit. Both have to be purchased together. There are no outdoor air conditioners available today that should be installed with your old cooling coil. It does not matter how new it is or how good of shape you think it is in; it will not work properly with a new outdoor machine. A mismatched system will not cool well, will shorten the life span of the new unit, and will not achieve anything close to a 13 SEER rating. This is one of those times when government regulation has panned out to be good for the consumer. If everybody in the country installed a new 13 SEER A/C system, the energy crisis would not exist.

It is extremely important to buy a cooling coil made by the same manufacturer that produced the outdoor unit you pick, not an aftermarket or third-party company. Regardless of what some will tell you, these third-party coils are not as good as the OEM coils. Most leaks we see are in these cheaper-grade coils and they never last as long as the outdoor units. Insist your air conditioning contractor install a cooling coil made and tested by the same company that produced the outdoor machine. You should also Insist on a brand that has a “thermal expansion valve”. This valve is the best way to regulate the flow of refrigerant through the coil and will result in enhanced comfort and efficiency. Some of the lower priced air conditioning companies use cooling coils that have piston-metering devices that are not as precise as a thermal expansion valve. STAY AWAY from these units. There are numerous good brands on the market to choose from that make good cooling coils. Eliminate those that don’t from your selection process.

There is a lot of confusion and half-truths about the refrigerant issue when picking the unit, and the issue can be confusing. The “Freon” we have used for years in this country is called “R22″ and a number of years ago the government decided to phase out production of this refrigerant due to its ability to harm the ozone layer of our planet. Car “Freon” was phased out first and now home “Freon” is being replaced with a new refrigerant called R-410a or “Puron”.

Freon units will be produced until 2010 and freon itself will be made until 2020. After that, only recycled freon will be available. A air conditioner that uses freon cannot be converted to puron and there is no law or regulation requiring you to change. There is also no law requiring you to replace or repair and air conditioner that leaks refrigerant. Common sense cries out for you not to throw money into a leaking, inefficient air conditioner, but there is no law requiring it.

When your old air conditioner wears out after 2010, it will be replaced with the new refrigerant machine and it will perform fine. DO NOT be influenced by scare tactics involving freon. Either refrigerant you pick can be installed and supported for the life of the unit, and if you pick an air conditioner brand that is known not to leak, your 1st refrigerant charge will be your last. Freon and Puron do not wear out and never need to be replaced.

Some manufacturers only promote Puron , some have stayed with only freon, and some give consumers a choice. Both refrigerants work well, and cost and application should help guide you.

It’s always a good idea to replace the refrigerant lines when going to Puron and with the higher cost of Puron units, a 13 SEER freon air conditioner is usually $800 to $1000 less expensive-but comes with the same warranty and generates the same efficiency.

A few years ago, a good bit of my time was spent educating consumers about the advantages of upgrading to top-of-the-line, 13 or 14 SEER rate equipment. Now that the 13 SEER is our minimum, the manufacturers have pushed the SEER rating up to 20 SEER and above. Air conditioners with multiple compressors to allow 2-stage cooling for enhanced comfort and dehumidification are now commonplace. Thermostats that register humidity and temperature and actually control both can be added to your new cooling system to greatly enhance indoor air comfort in the muggy south.

Last but not least, some advice on how to get the best price on your new cooling system:

Get your estimates from however many contractors you like and approach the one you choose about scheduling your work. If your units is still cooling, you can tell your contractor he can install your system anytime he is slow and needs your job to fill in his work week. As a contractor, I will give the best price to this “will-call” customer due to the complexities of scheduling work crews. To have customers ready and waiting to fill in holes in a contractors schedule is invaluable, and by being proactive about replacing your old a/c, you too can achieve the best pricing and purchase on your terms.

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What’s a filter for? Not what you think…

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

As the warm spring weather arrives, homeowners frequently ask me if there is anything they can do to ready their cooling system for summer. There are a few simple steps that one can take to assure their system will be ready to take on the hot muggy days of summer. Over the next few months I will go in depth about some helpful cooling tips I have discovered over the years.
This month I would like to give you some insight on the first and most important step in summer cooling preparation-making sure to properly change the furnace air filter. This should be done every month during the months when either the heating or the cooling is operating. At under $3.00 a piece, it’s the best investment you can make in your home’s heating and cooling system, considering the fact that over 75% of the service calls we receive in the first thirty days of the cooling system involve a dirty or improperly-sized filter. Over three-quarters of the time, our technicians are cleaning dirty cooling coils, blower wheels and clogged condensate water drains caused by homeowners not changing their air filters.
Most of our customers incorrectly believe that the job of their furnace filter is to remove airborne dust, dirt and pollens from the air their family breathes. An even larger segment of our customers also incorrectly believe that the job of their furnace filter is remove pet dander, bird feathers, fish tank smell, cat pan stinks, small toys that junior threw down the floor grills and smoke from uncle Harry’s cigar at Christmas. Well, they are all wrong! The job of a properly designed and installed furnace air filter is to keep the cooling coil/radiator clean and efficient during the life of your system. Inside the duct work above your furnace is a cooling coil/radiator called the evaporator coil, and outside of your home is a device called the compressor/condenser. The job of the coil/radiator is to remove the moisture and the heat from the air in your home and just like the coil/radiator in your car, your home’s cooling coil needs just the right amount of airflow going though its tightly packed fins. Just as your car will overheat if your fan belt breaks, your air conditioner will overheat and stop working if coil becomes clogged with dirt.
The fan blades that provide this airflow are in your furnace and they are also protected and kept clean by a regular furnace filter changing. If your furnace blower or your cooling coil becomes clogged with dirt, a professional repairperson with have to be called as this cleaning requires removal of both components and is very costly.
A dirty coil/blower wheel will cause reduced airflow and possible icing of the compressor/condenser and cooling coil. This icing causes many problems including the complete destruction of your compressor/condenser. A unit with a dirty coil or furnace blower will run longer generating higher power bills and will not be as efficient in transferring heat as a clean coil and blower.
It is very important to use the correct size filter so that all the incoming air is directed through the surface area of the filter. Do not bend or fold a too large filter and make sure your filter is properly held in place by a wire retainer or clip. Remember there is up to 2000 cubic feet of air blowing through your filter and it will be pulled out of place unless firmly held in by a filter retainer clip. I can’t tell you the number of times I find a furnace filter all mangled up and torn by the blower and dirt just blowing right on the coil. It’s very hard to get the filter springs back in place after you change the filter. Try lying down on the floor and with a flashlight in hand partially crawl in the blower area to observe the filter spring clip holder. Keep at it until it latches in place. If you are lucky enough to have an external filter rack or holder, be sure and reinstall the door correctly to make sure no air leakage occurs.
If you are using those 99-cent blue fiberglass throwaway filters, STOP RIGHT NOW. Those filters are designed to stop dirt particles the size of junior’s toys he throws down the grills and they do a darn good job of it! But everything else smaller flies right through them and builds up on the surface of your cooling coil where it joins with condensate water to form a product “coil scrounge”. Invest in the MERV 8 1″ pleated filters that cost about $3.00 a piece at your local home improvement store. Make sure you buy a dozen at a time to make it easy to do. You will never remember to go to the store every month. If you have an air cleaner or a hard to find filter size do not give up. Give me a call and I will give you the name of a wholesale supply house in your area that WILL sell to you. I have spoken to the manager and they will be glad to help you directly. In the past I have heard from homeowners that supply houses will not talk to them unless they are “in the air conditioning business”. I will gladly give you the name and number of this one supplier you can purchase a full array of air cleaner and media filters at a very reasonable price.
By changing your furnace filter often and correctly, you can rest assured that you have done one of the most important functions in assuring continued comfort, efficiency and life span of your home’s heating and cooling system.

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Your condensate pump is your friend!

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

 

There are a few simple and easy steps any homeowner can perform on their heating and cooling system that can help keep their equipment operating at peak performance. Last month I went over the importance of keeping a proper sized, clean filter in the air handler/furnace. This month we will go over one of the most overlooked parts of your air conditioning system, the condensate drain. The condensate drain system is one of those things that is out of sight out of mind until it fails and overflows potentially causing thousands of dollars of damage to your home and furnishings. With just a few simple steps this flooding and damage can be avoided.

First, it is important you understand what your condensate drain is. There is moisture in the form of humidity suspended in the air in your home and before your air conditioner can cool the air it has to remove the moisture. Water is removed from the air by a part of your cooling system called the evaporator coil. The coil sits in a large collection drain pan on top of or connected to the end of the furnace/air handler. The water sits in the drain pan until there is enough to flow into a white 3/4″ PVC drain line at which time it flows either into a gravity fed drain system and out the wall of your home or a small collection pump which pumps the water out your home in a small clear vinyl tube. The amount of water removed by your air conditioner in the summer can be staggering. Gallons of water are removed every summer day and if you do not keep this part of your air conditioner maintained, it will fail causing damage to your home. Most homeowners I meet with have owned a home sometime in their life that had a water leak from a clogged or inoperative condensate drain.

Locating your homes condensate drain should not be difficult. If your furnace/air handler is a upright type, the condensate drain line ties into the cooling coil right above the top of the furnace and it is a white plastic PVC pipe 3/4″ in diameter. If you furnace/air handler lays down in an attic or crawl space the drain line ties into the cooling coil about six or seven inches off the ground and is also almost always 3/4″ white PVC pipe also. The drain system is what we call a gravity drain which means the water flows slowly and is pushed out from the pressure of the standing falling water. The water removed from your air in your home gets mixed with the airborne dirt and it clogs up the drain line. Molds and algae grow in the drain pan and drain line and cause the water to back up and overflow onto the ceiling of an attic system or the carpet and flooring of an upright system in a basement or closet. Even a crawl space furnace/air handler condensate leak can cause trouble by often causing premature rusting of the furnace/air handler cabinet or coil cabinet.

There are a couple of ways of cleaning out the drain line and all can be performed by a homeowner with a few inexpensive supplies. The first thing you need to do is locate your drain line and look for a clean-out “tee”. The clean-out “tee” is a 3/4″ PVC plastic “T” shaped fitting right off your cooling coil. Sometimes it has a cap on it and sometimes it is just open to the drain. Put a funnel in the “T” and pour a quart or two of bleach into the drain. Go slowly as to allow the bleach to kill the mold and mildew . This should be done once a year at least. If your drain line is especially dirty and it has not been cleaned recently, you might want to take a garden hose and blow it out slowly with a little water pressure, or use a tank of compressed air to blow the crud out. If you have a condensate pump, the bleach will fill up the water resovior and turn on the pump cleaning out the viynal exit tubing.

If you do not have a clean out “T” on your system, it is very easy to add one. Go to your home improvement store and purchase a 3/4″ PVC “T” and a can of PVC glue. Cut the drain line with a hacksaw near the coil and glue in the “T” with the opening facing up.

For those of you with an attic system, there is another drain system to be aware of and that is the secondary drain pan and line. The secondary drain pan and line is there to catch any water that leaks from the primary drain system we have been discussing. The secondary pan is the pan that the furnace or coil sits in and it looks like a big cake pan with a drain line coming off it. Often times there is a float switch attached to it with wires and the job of the switch is to cut off your air conditioner before water damage can occur. Check this pan and make sure there is no water in it or no evidence of mineral deposits where water has dried and evaporated. If there is any evidence of water in your secondary pan you need to make sure that the problem is corrected by yourself or by a professional as the standing water will damage the bottom of the furnace cabinet..

With just a small amount of time and preparation, you can be assured that your condensate drain will flow freely all summer long and you will no longer have to worry about water stains or damage.

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Is red clay costing you Green?

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
Red Clay

The warm summer months will soon be here and it is time you look at one of the most costly problems you could have affecting your air conditioning system. When I first moved to Georgia in the early 70′s, I could not believe the abundance of the sticky, slippery red clay that is everywhere in our lovely state. It’s hard to clean off your shoes, impossible to get off your white carpet, and slippery as ice. It is also one of the single biggest causes of high cooling bills and inadequate cooling performance in Georgia. The RED CLAY around your air conditioner could be costing you big $GREEN$ by clogging your air conditioner’s coil fins.

An air conditioner cools your home by having air flow through a coil that looks like the radiator on your car. Inside this coil/radiator is a long round tube that freon flows through surrounded by sheets or plates of aluminum. These sheets of aluminum are called fin stock and they pick up the heat rejected from your home in the freon and the airflow across the fin stock transfers the heat to the outside above your air conditioner. When your air conditioner is running the fan pulls air through your coil with a negative pressure. This negative pressure also pulls red clay, dirt, grass clippings, and anything else around your unit up in the fin stock and lodges it tightly in between the round freon tubes and the fins causing the bottom third of your unit’s coil not to transfer heat properly. This clogging will cause your air conditioner to run excessively and will elevate the operating pressure range that is normal for your unit. This in turn will cause premature compressor failure, strain on the electrical starting components of your air conditioner, and will result in high electrical bills and inadequate cooling performance inside your home.

The coils and fin stock of your air conditioner need to be kept very clean and once it is clogged, you cannot simply hose out the dirt and clay because water pressure will just push the debris deeper in the coil. You will need to have a professional licensed contractor apply a acid based coil cleaner that will etch the coil and bubble the dirt and clay out. Then a water bath will leave the coil new and clean and heat transfer will return. When our technicians wash a coil properly, the operating head pressure of a condenser/compressor will drop significantly and cooling temperature drop is restored.

One simple thing you as a homeowner can do is to landscape around your air conditioner unit and cover the ground adjacent to them with small landscaping gravel or rock. A good thick covering of bark will also do the trick. Then make sure you or your landscape company mow the grass away from the unit, not toward it so grass clippings are not sprayed in your air conditioner. These few simple tips will keep you air conditioner running longer at peak efficiency and extend the life of you unit

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Do I have a leak? (yes) and why can’t you fix it? (read on…)

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

These are two of the most common questions I am asked by homeowners all spring and summer and they are the area of the most confusion and misinformation in the air conditioning business. Every year we get new customers from other companies and we loose customers to other companies because of this one commonly misunderstood areas.

First, let me state unequivocally, that if you ever had to add any Freon to your cooling system, you have a leak. No question about it, period. Final answer. There is no reason you ever have to add Freon to an air conditioning system unless there is a leak. An air conditioning system is a sealed system that if properly installed and maintained, should never leak and never need even a few pounds of Freon added.

I stress this due to the misconception that it is normal to have to “top off” your Freon in your air conditioner. While this has been common practice for years due to the fact it was less expensive to add Freon than it was to find and repair a leak, it is not the case anymore. Freon is in its last years of production and will be taken off the market soon. The quantity of Freon being produced is being curtailed each year and the price is going up. Expect Freon to cost around $60 to $90 a pound this year with the price increasing as we reach the end of the production of air conditioners utilizing it in the end of 2009.

If your cooling system needs Freon every year, it will soon be more expensive to keep adding it than it will be to buy a new system. Every summer I speak to new customers of ours who are unhappy with their old heating and air contractor because they simply ”pumped up” an old leaking air conditioner with out telling them they had a leak. Think of your cooling system as a big car tire, if it goes down, the air had to go somewhere. Freon does not wear out or need to be freshened up or replaced, ever. No matter what you have heard in the past, you have a leak.

“Why can’t you find my leak and fix it”? This is also a very common question I am asked every year and the answer is simple. Normally the leak is not one big leak, but rather many small leaks where the copper tubing is stressed or ruptured by the bonding of a dissimilar metal such as aluminum. These dissimilar metals expand and contract at a different rate and wear a hole in the copper tubing and also react to each other to form corrision and lack of heat transfer. This is why an air conditioner with a same metal coil is more leak proof than a coil with copper tubing  aluminum fins.

Most air conditioning companies have Freon leak detectors to sniff out leaks and with enough time, patience and diagnostic money, they can tell you exactly what you already know. You have a leak! To try and repair these leaks, one would have to melt away the aluminum fins to get to the copper tubing in the middle of the coil and weld up the stress areas. This would render that area of the coil useless and the chance you could repair all the possible leaks and weak areas in a coil are slim to none. Most of the time, these leaking air conditioners are old and inefficient and your money would be better spent simply cutting the cord on them as opposed to throwing good money after bad. What difference does it make where the leak is in that 12 year old machine?

I see person after person spend hundreds of dollars each year finding a leak only to be told it can’t be repaired or worse, fixing one leak only to find they have another the next month after all their Freon has leaked out. Do not get to attached to your old air conditioner as it is just another appliance in your home like your dishwasher or water heater that needs to be updated after 12 to 15 years to assure you are afforded the comfort and energy savings a new system can give you.

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Why can’t I get my home below 80 degrees in the summer?

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
80 degree home

 by DAN JAPE of RELIABLE HEATING & AIR originally published July 2008

In the thirty years I have been repairing air conditioners in the greater Atlanta area, this is one of the most asked questions from frustrated, hot homeowners And the answer is usually lack of tonnage or capacity and lack of proper airflow.

The capacity or tonnage of your air conditioner is the measurement of it’s ability to move heat from inside your home to the outside of your home. Air conditioners are produced from 1.5 ton to 5 ton in half ton increments. A ton of air conditioning is 12,000 Btu’s and a Btu is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree in one hour or lower it one degree in your cooling system. A Btu is about the same amount of heat generated by burning one stick match. The tonnage of your system is picked by your heating cooling installer using a number of criteria such as sized of your home, insulation in your home, the amount of and type of glass in your home, the roof color, the amount of shade, which way your house faces and a number of other qualifiers that help determine the size needed to overcome the “heat gain” in the summer. The more tons an air conditioner is, the more expensive it is, so many times the builder of your home uses a unit that is not large enough to remove the heat properly in the summer. An air conditioner can’t be sized too large because it will not remove the moisture in your home, but it need to large enough to cycle off and on and maintain your desired temperature. Often when replacing an old cooling system, a slightly larger unit is needed to accomplish this goal. People often spend days researching the SEER rating of an air conditioner and the brand of the units available, and do nothing about what ton cooling unit to purchase. There is nothing more efficient than an air conditioner that is not running. A properly sized air conditioner will cycle off and on all but the hottest days of the year. Then it should be able to maintain a reasonable inside temperature.

Inadequate airflow from your supply vents can be the cause of both poor heating and cooling performance and with the advent of complete ducts system constructed of flex ducting with many twists and turns, many homes today have very little air delivery. Airflow in older homes with all metal ducting was far superior to the modern home of the last 15 years and often times there is very little that can de done about this due to the fact that this flex duct is sealed up behind sheetrock walls and ceilings. Many times it is not cost effective to replace all the ducting in your home with new proper metal ducting or properly installed flex duct. The airflow for your home originates with the furnace blower and it is often a good idea to increase the size of the furnace blower “drive” to help deliver more air to the remote rooms in your home. A variable speed blower furnace will also help deliver the correct amount of air without the need of spending thousands of dollars on duct modifications.

A few small adjustments when replacing your furnace and air conditioner can result in thousands of dollars of energy savings and enhanced comfort for years to come.

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What the heck is Puron (R410a) anyway?

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

by DAN JAPE of RELIABLE HEATING & AIR originally published June 2008.

Freon or Puron? That is the question. Whether is nobler to protect the ozone layer or your pocketbook. Now is the time to consider that change has arrived. As many people are aware, Freon or R-22 is on the way , outlawed by government mandate to be discontinued in home air conditioners by the end of 2009. Starting January 1, 2010, all cooling units produced and sold will no longer be able to use R-22 Freon, the old refrigerant long favored in air conditioning. Starting January, 1 2015, there is a ban on sale and use of all R-22 except for certain uses and by that time the EPA predicts a 90% phase out of R-22. And then on January 1, 2020, all Freon R-22 will be gone except for old, recycled stockpiles of used refrigerant.

This time deadline has seemed like it is far away, but it is now right around the corner and if you buy a new Freon based air conditioner today, you may be in for a surprise tomorrow. Freon is going to shoot up in price, quickly and by the time your new air conditioner is in need of service, it will be more expensive that purchasing a new unit that runs on R410a or Puron, as the new alternative refrigerant is called.

The good news here is that R410a is a far better refrigerant than Freon R-22 ever was. It cools better, dehumidifies better, and is more efficient than R-22. R410a provides a much colder air coming out of your vents, dropping the temperature of the air 25 to 28 degrees each time it passes over your cooling coil. You will also find it does a much better job of removing the humidity in the air, which is half the battle in Metro Atlanta. There are many wonderful things about this new refrigerant, but the most important thing is that this is the only alternative on the market for cooling your home.

Many air conditioning companies have refused to invest in the new equipment needed to service and install this new refrigerant, instead telling the customer nothing about it, or misleading them about the truth on the subject. Just yesterday, I had a potential customer tell me that out of five companies he had bid his new system, two told him nothing about this upcoming phase-out and two told him it was “no big deal” and Freon R-22 would be around for many years and plentiful. The truth is, many of the lower priced air conditioner manufactures have built a lot of R-22 units, thinking the lower price would sell these outdated units and now they have to dump them on an unsuspecting consumer.

The truth about this phase out is just a Google away and no one should ignore it, regardless of what any dealer tells you. The government decided long ago to use a long, gradual phase out of Freon as the smartest way to deal with this issue. Do not wait until the very end to look into it. R410a is only slightly more expensive today and if your heating and air conditioning company does not mention it, or offer it, look elsewhere quickly and do not be mislead. The time is here now to make the change, and in the future, you will very glad you did.

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Hail damage to your a/c is costly

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

by DAN JAPE of Reliable Heating & Air originally published May 2008

In the past few months, there have been many severe hail storms in and around the Metro Atlanta area and many homeowners have had damage to their air conditioners that is costing them many hundreds of dollars in wasted energy dollars and their insurance companies are misleading them in a effort to reduce their losses.

Your air conditioner remove heat from your home by pulling air through a coil that is very much like the radiator in your car. This coil/radiator has fins made of thin sheets of aluminum bonded to copper tubing and when these fins were struck by hail in the recent storms, they were bent and damaged to the point of reducing and changing the airflow properties of your home’s cooling unit. These fins are critical in the operation and efficiency of your air conditioner and they can’t be repaired. Most of the insurance companies handling these storm damage claims refuse to help the homeowners with these damaged air conditioners due to the fact that it is very expensive to replace these damaged coils.

The outdoor unit and the indoor cooling coils are now a matched set and in 2007 the federal government mandated that all air conditioners be 13 seer or better. This means that insurance companies must spend $2800 to $4000 to bring you back to the point you were before the storm and the fact that the majority of the air conditioners that were damaged were 8 or 10 seer means the homeowner is getting something more efficient than they had before and this is apparently the sticking point with these companies. They don’t seem to mind replacing the roofs or gutters damaged in these storms because they can be repaired with like quality and kind. But the fact that they have to “upgrade” a damaged cooling system has been the source of many problems for homeowners.

Insurance companies have been telling homeowners that this damage is just cosmetic and they can simply comb out the damaged fins with a coil comb and have an air conditioning contractor straighten out the smashed fins. This will never work and will not bring back the cooling efficiency and air flow the unit had prior to the storm. This would be similar to your insurance telling you to beat out the damaged fender in you car with a hammer after a wreck and insisting you be happy with the results.

Except in this case, you will suffer by higher cooling bills and lost cooling capacity for many years to come if these units are not properly repaired and replaced. Do not let your insurance mislead you into not pressing a claim on you air conditioner just due to fact that it still “cools”. If your cooling unit was dented by hail and the fins of your coil were bent, you will never have the same cooling you had before and your insurance company knows this. There is no way to put an exact dollar amount on what it will cost you, but over years of operation, it could be many hundreds of wasted energy dollars. Insist your insurance company treat this damage the same way they are treating your roof, replace it or repair it will a new or like kind product.

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