Furnaces

The AFUE is the most widely used measure of a furnace's heating efficiency. It measures the amount of heat actually delivered to your house compared to the amount of fuel that you must supply to the furnace. Thus, a furnace that has an 80% AFUE rating converts 80% of the fuel that you supply to heat -- the other 20% is lost out of the chimney. The US Department of Energy (DOE) determined that all furnaces sold in the US must have a minimum AFUE of 78%, beginning January 1, 1992. Mobile home furnaces are required to have a minimum AFUE of 75%. If you have more  questions email me at dcouch@thermalcool.com

Safety First this Thanksgiving

I am going to stray away from the energy savings subject this week and talk about safety in regards to your home.
As a service tech with 30 plus years service experience, I have seen a lot of safety violations when it comes to heating your house. I have found people turn on all the burners and stove to heat there house because the heater broke. Please if you do this , STOP! a gas range is not vented so the flue gas which has high concentrations of CO (carbonmonoxide) will build up inside of your house. If left on long enough you could die from CO poisoning. If you use your stove to cook with you should always turn your kitchen hood vent on to help exhaust the CO. Do not bring the Bar-B-Que in to the living room to heat your house. Do not bring any open flame appliance into your house to heat it. If your heater breaks call a reputable service company out to fix it. If you can't get some one out soon enough get a hotel room or stay with friends. Always have your heated check and serviced before using it each season.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, be safe and you can e-mail me with any questions you may have about your air conditioning and heating system at dcouch .@thermalcool.com
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Air Conditioning SEER Ratings

When buying a new Air conditioning unit you want to get the highest SEER rating you can afford.(Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) The higher the number the higher the efficiency. The minimum is 13 SEER, they go up from there. A high efficiency unit installed on a poor undersized leaky duct system will not give you the savings you would expect, so have your ducts tested before you buy.
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Duct Leakage

One place you can save a lot of energy is in your duct system.The U.S. Department of Energy says that (The typical duct system loses 25 to 40 percent of the heating or cooling energy put out by the central furnace, heat pump, or air conditioner)If your house was built before the 1980's Its a good bet that you could benefit by having your ducts tested. Even if it were built after the 1980's chances are you have leaky ducts and could benefit.
If your heater is located in the garage and your platform is leaking you could be sucking chemicals from the garage into the house.
WARNING: Do not try to seal up your duct system if you have not been trained. Their are test that should be done before and after the duct system is sealed to make sure that there is not a combustion safety problem. This should only be done by qualified technicians.
Any questions about any heating or cooling e-mail us at dcouch. @thermalcool.com
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Air Filter Vs Air Cleaner

This is a good question. There is a big difference. Air filters do exactly that, they filter, and are mainly there to protect the system, not for air quality. They do not remove air contaminants or odors. Depending on your house, and life stile you should change your filter sooner than later. (At least 2 times per year). The dirtier they get the more it cost to operate your system and the worst the performance of your system. If you notice that your system is not heating or cooling properly, the first thing you should do is replace your filter.
Air cleaners on the other hand are designed to clean and remove air contaminants. Here is a good source for information on air cleaners. http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/airclean.html  Before you buy an air cleaner do your home work. There are a lot of claims and some, flat aren't true.
Bottom line to save energy change your filter.
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