Design Comfort Blog: Archive for the ‘Heating’ Category

Why Take the “Whole-Home” Approach to Home Efficiency

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

If you are thinking of installing a high-efficiency heating or cooling system in your Salt Lake City home, there are many things to consider before doing this. At Design Comfort, we can help you by looking at other potential home improvements that could be made before you upgrade. And there are many reasons to do this.

First, take a look at some of these improvements:

  • Adding Insulation
  • Sealing Air Ducts
  • Air Balancing
  • Adding a Better Ventilation System

Making these improvements along with upgrading your home comfort system is considered the “whole home approach,” because you are taking into account all the areas in the home that could be more efficient. When you do this, you get more out of your investment because the new system will not only operate at efficient levels, but you’re also not losing energy in places that could be less expensive to upgrade.

For instance, if a homeowner adds solar panels but is losing air through improper sealing, or if there’s no moisture control in the house due to poor ventilation, then the heating and air conditioning system that works off of those panels may have to work extra hard. Then the homeowner isn’t getting full value out of those solar panels since the HVAC system is using more energy due to other issues in the home.

This is why most contractors recommend that you upgrade other areas before making expensive investments. It will also help ensure that the system will last longer and that your new heating or cooling system works in tandem with the other elements of the home.

Call Design Comfort if you would like to know more about home energy efficiency services in Salt Lake City. We would be more than happy to speak with you about our services and how we can help you save energy and money.

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Home Energy Tip: How Your Ducts Can Help Save Energy

Monday, November 26th, 2012

The ductwork in your Salt Lake City home is designed for one purpose – to move heated or cooled air between your air handler and the individual registers located throughout your home. Because of this, it needs to be extremely well designed and insulated to ensure it will deliver that air efficiently and with as little energy loss as possible. That’s why well-designed ductwork can effectively save you quite a bit of money on your energy bills if it is matched to your needs properly. Here is how:

  • Well Designed – Well designed ductwork will maximize airflow without putting stress on your HVAC system or overloading your rooms with too much heating or cooling. This is probably the most important component but unfortunately, many homes have poorly designed ductwork. An inspection and reevaluation can help in this however.
  • Insulated – Duct insulation can greatly reduce natural heating and cooling loss that occurs as air travels from your basement to each room in your home. Without the insulation, energy losses can be as high as 30%, even when there are no leaks.
  • Sealed – Ductwork that is improperly sealed can increase energy loss by another 30% and can put unwanted stress on your heating and air conditioning systems, resulting in more repairs and higher energy bills. Have your ductwork tested for leaks to avoid this problem.
  • Cleaned Regularly – Duct cleaning should be performed once a year if possible, along with the other tasks on this list. Duct cleaning removes unwanted dust and debris from your system and ensures it works as intended going forward.

When your ductwork is all of the things listed above, it will provide ample heating or cooling to every corner of your home with only the minimal, expected amount of energy loss, sometimes even less. When these things are not done, however, energy loss can be quite costly, making it necessary to keep a close eye on the process.

Call the Salt Lake City heating and home energy experts at Design Comfort if you have further questions. Contact Design Comfort today!

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Heating Tip: What Type of Thermostat is Best for My Furnace or Heat Pump?

Monday, November 12th, 2012

The thermostat in your house in Salt Lake City is small and often overlooked part of your home. However, it has a very important job to do. But not all thermostats are created equal. This is especially true for furnace and heat pump thermostats. If your thermostat has stopped working, replacing it might be trickier than you think. Depending on what kind of heating system you have, you’ll want to think about the kind of thermostat that you get. We’ve put together a list of some of the considerations you should take into account as you choose a new thermostat for your furnace or heat pump.

Types of Thermostats

There are two types of thermostats available: manual or programmable.

  • Manual Thermostat – These are normally found in older homes. They cost less but are typically not as energy efficient. Some units can contain mercury.
  • Programmable Thermostat – These thermostats can adjust your heating or air conditioning system automatically. If you have multi-stage heating or air conditioning system, the thermostat can also control the fan speed as well. These types of thermostats can potentially lead to up to 33% energy savings.

Thermostat for Your Furnace

If you have an older furnace with a manual thermostat, you will most likely be able to convert to a digital, programmable thermostat. With a programmable thermostat, your older furnace will be controlled automatically by the thermostat. This highly desirable because, with some units, you can program the furnace to turn off during the day if you’re going to be gone at work. You can also tell it to turn on at a certain time so that your home is warm when you get back. If your furnace is single stage, you’ll need to find a thermostat that is compatible with your furnace. The packaging on thermostats normally indicate if they can work with a single stage or multi-stage furnace. Also, some older homes use 110 or 240 direct current. There should be available thermostats for that as well.

Heat Pump Thermostats

Heat pumps are a completely different kind of heating system that your furnace. They require much more complex thermostats to control them. Heat pumps are very efficient heating and cooling systems. However, if they are used improperly, they can actually cost more to operate than other types of heating systems. A good programmable thermostat for your heat pump is critical to making sure that it is achieving the highest level of efficiency.

If you have any questions about heat pump thermostats for your home in Salt Lake City, contact the experts at Design Comfort. We can help you find the right thermostat for your heat pump or furnace and make sure that it is operating correctly. Give us a call today!

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Heating Tip: Increase Heating Efficiency with These Simple Steps

Monday, November 5th, 2012

There’s a lot to love about winter. The holidays! The snowmen! The heating bills! Okay, maybe not that last one, but don’t worry. The Salt Lake City heating experts at Design Comfort have some great tips to help you heat your home more efficiently this winter. Follow these suggestions and enjoy the comfort you want without breaking the bank. See what else you can come up with to make this heating season as affordable as possible.

  • Keep the Heat In: There’s really no point in heating your backyard. Keep your heat inside where it will do some good. Weatherstripping doors, shrink wrapping windows and re-caulking stationary seams are all easy, affordable ways to make sure that heat you pay for is staying in your home. The squirrels can take care of themselves. Use your heat to keep your own family warm.
  • Reverse Your Fans: If you didn’t know that your ceiling fans have 2 settings you are only utilizing half of their potential. Ceiling fans have a switch on their fixtures that reverse the direction in which the fan blades rotate. On most models the winter setting will have the blades spinning clockwise. This forces the heat that has risen back down into the living space, allowing for consistent, even heating.
  • Get an Audit: Audits aren’t just for tax season, and you’re probably not seeking one out in that case. A home energy audit, though, is a great way to learn more about your home’s energy efficiency. Procedures such as a blower door test can help pinpoint areas where your home is wasting energy, allowing you to make the necessary repairs and cut down on utility costs.
  • Skip the Takeout: Cooking at home can help you save money in more than one way. Enjoy healthier meals that go a longer way than pizza place or sandwich shop down the street while also enjoying the warmth of an active kitchen. The time around the table is the icing on the cake. (Bonus Tip: If you’re not ready to leave the warmth of the kitchen, bake a cake!)
  • Use Your Thermostat: A lot of people have newer, programmable thermostats. A lot of people also completely ignore their functions and settings. Take a few minutes to look over that user’s manual and get the most out of your thermostat. Programmable settings make it easy to heat your home in a more efficient manner without having to settle for chilly evenings.

These are just a few of the many ways in which you can maintain warm, cozy temperatures more efficiently. Challenge yourself and your family to add to the list. You’ll be surprised at the big savings that can come from small changes to your home heating habits.

If you have any questions regarding your home’s heating, Call Design Comfort today! Over the years, Design Comfort has been building a loyal clientele throughout the Salt Lake City area.

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Furnace Tip: What Is AFUE and Why Should I Care?

Monday, October 29th, 2012

If you’ve been shopping for a furnace in Salt Lake City, chances are you’ve noticed that each furnace has its own annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) rating. These generally range from 80% to the high 90% s and the higher the number, the more fuel efficient that particular furnace is.

But what does this number really mean and just how much should you care? Well, the AFUE rating should actually have a significant impact on your furnace purchasing decision, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll always choose the furnace with the highest efficiency rating either.

For one thing, you’ll have to recognize that not every type of furnace is capable of running at the highest efficiency levels. Oil furnaces, for instance, can’t compete with the super high efficiency gas furnaces on the market today. That’s not to say that an oil furnace might not be the best choice for you under certain circumstances, but it does mean that you should take a close look at your furnace usage before you make a decision.

If you do choose a gas furnace, you will of course have the option of getting one that can reach up to 97% or so efficiency. However, that may not always be the best choice either. If you live in a place where with very harsh, long winters and you’re going to be using your furnace heavily, then it’s definitely worth investing in a higher AFUE furnace that can save you considerable amounts on your monthly heating bills.

But if you don’t use your furnace too often as your area has more mild winters it’s probably not worth it for you to invest in such a high efficiency product. That’s because the higher the AFUE of the furnace, the more expensive it is to purchase and install. Certainly you’ll save money every month because you’ll be getting more heat out of the fuel you’re paying for. But if you don’t use your furnace all that much, the savings really won’t be that substantial.

Don’t forget that a furnace with an 80% AFUE rating is still quite energy efficient. And once you get up that high, you have to use your furnace a lot for the difference between 80% and 90% to really become apparent. So if you don’t use your furnace heavily during the winter, it will take you many, many years to make up for the higher purchase price of the 90+% AFUE models.

 If you have any questioning regarding furnaces in Salt Lake City, Contact us today! Over the years, Design Comfort has provided Salt Lake City with quality heating services.

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Heating Tip: What Makes a Furnace High Efficiency?

Monday, October 15th, 2012

You’ve probably heard about the new lines of high efficiency furnaces being released by popular home heating companies, but what exactly is different about these high efficiency devices from your current furnace? Let’s take a closer look at what a high efficiency furnace offers and why it can save you money.

Added Features

A high efficiency furnace uses familiar technology in a new way to reduce the amount of energy lost when combustion takes place. This means:

  • Sealed Combustion – Instead of open combustion which allows heat to escape during and after the combustion process, a high efficiency furnace uses a sealed chamber with carefully measured and fed airflow to burn fuel and produce heat. Exhaust heat can then be recaptured and used to heat air transferred to your air vents.
  • Two Stage Gas Valves – With a two stage gas valve, your furnace can respond to the temperature outside. There isn’t just one “on” switch. The furnace will regulate gas flow based on how much energy is needed to produce heat for your home. So, if there is a sudden burst of cold outside, the furnace will respond accordingly, but for most days when heating needs are low, it will use only the minimum amount of needed gas.
  • Programmable – High efficiency furnaces are now programmable, meaning you can set specific time limits for operation, change thermostat settings digitally and inspect the device through an electronic read out. The level of control given to you by a programmable high efficiency furnace can greatly reduce gas or electricity consumption.

Cost Benefit

The real reason many people are interested in high efficiency furnaces is that they are so much less expensive to operate. Instead of costing hundreds of dollars to run through the winter, they operate the bare minimum needed to heat your home. Using up to 95% of the fuel they consume to produce heat and regulating gas to cut how much is consumed during milder days, these furnaces are built to save you money.

If you have an old furnace that chews through energy like nobody’s business, now might be the time to consider the benefits of a brand new, high efficiency model.

Over the years, Design Comfort has provided Salt Lake City with quality heating services. Contact us today!

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Heating Guide: Pros & Cons of Heat Pumps

Monday, September 24th, 2012

When deciding on any major purchase, a critical step is to weigh the pros and cons. This helps you to decide on the best option and reach the best decision for your needs and preferences.

Installing a new heating system in your Salt Lake City home is a perfect example of a situation in which you would need to weigh pros and cons. There are a lot of options, and not all of them are right for all people. Take heat pumps, for example. They are great devices and serve many people extremely well as home heating solutions, but they are not without their drawbacks. Below are some of the pros and cons of heat pumps to help you decide whether a heat pumps if the way to go for you.

Pros:

  1. Inclusive – A heat pump not only heats your home in the winter but also cools it in the summer, thanks to a reversing valve that changes the flow of the refrigerant. Having one appliance for both heating and cooling can be very convenient.
  2. Energy efficient – Heat pumps are extraordinarily efficient when it comes to energy use. Because they simply move and distribute heat, rather than producing any on their own, they use minimal electricity.
  3. Simple – Operating on the same basic principles as your refrigerator or an air conditioner, heat pumps are relatively simple. More importantly, they simplify your life by putting your heating and cooling solutions in one package and running on electricity, so you don’t need any other fuels on hand.
  4. Inexpensive to operate – In addition to being energy efficient – which lowers your monthly energy bills – many heat pumps are eligible for federal tax credit. You can save a bundle by using a heat pump.

Cons:

  1. May need supplementing in cold climates – In climates where winter temperatures stay below 30 degrees Fahrenheit for a while at a stretch, a heat pump will have trouble keeping up and need to be supplemented.
  2. Don’t work in power outage – Obviously, because they are powered by electricity, a heat pump won’t work in a power outage, unlike some other heating solutions that do not require electricity.

Although the pros clearly outweigh the cons here, the cons are important as well. Carefully consider all these factors and more while deciding whether a heat pump is the solution for your Salt Lake City home. Call Design Comfort today to learn more about installing a new heating system in your home!

 

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Heating Question: What Does a Furnace Fan Limit Switch Do?

Monday, September 17th, 2012

When researching your Salt Lake City furnace and potential problems it might have, you’ve probably run across a few references to the fan limit switch. And while you know that it can break in a number of ways, do you know what the switch does and what you should look for when checking your furnace its air handler for problems?

What the Limit Switch Does

To put it very simply, the furnace fan limit switch is a control that tells your furnace’s fan when to turn on and off. So, when the furnace isn’t on, it tells the blower not to operate (and send cold air into your home) and when the furnace is on, it tells the blower to turn on and start circulating the warm air.

While the primary function of the limit switch is to turn the blower fan on and off, it also has a safety role. When the temperature in the air supply plenum gets too hot, the limit switch turns off the furnace boiler to keep there from being any damage from overheating. This is handy if there is a blockage in the air vents or the controls are messed up due to water damage or improper adjustments to the settings.

 Looking for Problems

Most of the time, when there is an issue with your furnace turning off or on frequently, the limit switch is one of the first things you will check. Because the switch is electronic and is attached to a thermostat which measures temperature in the air supply plenum, a small problem can result in it not working properly. So, you can easily check it by temporarily bypassing the switch and seeing if your device turns on or off properly.

In many cases, if the limit switch is the problem, you will still need to call a Salt Lake City heating professional for replacement, but you can avoid a lot of headaches related to tracking down the source of the problem. If you suspect a limit switch problem, make sure to call Design Comfort immediately, because it does provide an important safety function and because without it your furnace won’t cycle on and off properly.

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Are Your Air Ducts Able to Handle a Heat Pump?

Monday, May 28th, 2012

Between the concerns about climate change and the rising costs of energy production and consumption, there is a lot of experimentation with new technology.  Standard choices are being re-evaluated and new designs are changing the requirements for various parts.

In homes and other buildings where systems were designed and installed according to the cheaper energy parameters prevalent in the day, it may be time to consider drastic changes to increase the efficiency and decrease impact on the carbon footprint.  Room for improvement can be found in many corners.

Heat Pump Technology

One appliance that is getting a lot of attention in Salt Lake City is heat pumps, a device that transfers thermal energy from one location to another, usually in the direction of from a colder temperature to higher and generally the opposite of the natural flow.  While compressor-driven air conditioners and freezers are technically heat pumps, heat pump is the term that usually implies one of the less-common devices in the class that are not dedicated to refrigeration-only.

A heat pump installation maintains a thermally conditioned-space can be used to provide either heating or cooling, depending upon whether the environment is cooler or warmer than the conditioned-space.  Typically pumps utilize some thermal energy from the environment itself, such as the natural heat beneath the Earth’s surface.

By simply transferring the energy rather than producing it, heat pumps are being more seriously considered as attractive alternatives to provide an efficient and clean system for conditioning public and living spaces.

Change of Use

In considering a change from an existing system to a heat pump, there are many details to compare to see if it makes any sense at all.  The overall local climate (cool or hot) in general, and the availability of geothermal heat, in particular,  are two major factors.

Since a heat pump typically moves conditioned air through ductwork, the advantages of the change are much more realistic with a system of pre-existing ducts such as a forced air furnace or central air-conditioning unit.  While a heat pump often requires a larger volume of ducts, the old network of metal tunnels was often over-sized for inefficient furnaces and should do fine in a conversion to a heat pump.

The Right Data

Since the required formulas are dependent upon variables such as size, distance, volume and oomph, the design is strategic and makes all the difference.  Consulting with a trained and experienced professional such as (Your Company) is critical to the success of the conversion.

Do the homework to get the best recommendation for your home, and if you need help just call Design Comfort.

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What do These Noises Mean Coming From My Furnace?

Monday, May 7th, 2012

During a bitterly cold winter night, in the luxury of our homes, we have the ability to adjust the temperatures to comfortably walk barefoot down the hall.  It is easy to take our heating systems in Salt Lake City for granted, but without proper maintenance, they can become noisy and irritable, growling with mysterious sounds of dissatisfaction and ominous groans, warning that slippers and more blankets may soon be necessary.

This does not have to happen to you.

At the beginning of each season, it makes good sense to care for the furnace that is going to take care of you.   Scheduling regular heating systems maintenance and filter change with Design Comfort ensures a longer life and increased efficiency.

Rattles and Bumps in the Night

At the first sound of trouble, checking the filter can often be a quick relief.  As air passes through the furnace, a filter picks out much of the dust and some heavier particles that have come along, gotten snagged and accumulated over time to create a solid blockage.

This filter can become clogged and force the furnace to work much harder to push the air through the blocked passage. Located just inside the front panel of the furnace, the filter is very accessible and easily exchanged for a clean one.  This should be the very minimum of regular maintenance and is simple enough to do that it can make anyone feel handy.

Deeper Trouble

Heated air and cold air returning to and from the furnace travel through ductwork which is often metal (those long, silvery boxes tucked up between joists in your basement and covered by a nasty layer of cobwebs).  The vibration of footsteps across the floor overhead or even of just the air movement through the ducts can loosen the fasteners and rattle the metal like a rumble of thunder.

Internally, there are fans and lots of moving parts in the motor.  A noise coming from this area portends a repair of a more complicated nature and should have the inspection of a certified technician, a service easily provided by Design Comfort.

With proper care and maintenance, furnaces are built to last for decades, providing heat and comfort to the home or office and improving the quality of life for the people inside.  Call Design Comfort to ensure the efficient operation.

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