Summer Is Over

Yes, summer came and left about that fast. We didn't have a very hot summer at all. Things have not changed much with the economy in the last few months. But good news is that Venstar has a new Thermostat out. It has a nice screen and is fully programable. You can load your own pictures and have a nice slide show on your wall. Up to a hundred pictures. You can check it out at venstar.com

Summer is getting close.

Summer is just around the corner and it will be 100 degrees. So have your Air Conditioner check and serviced before it is busy and you have to wait. If you are a do it your self kind of person then get out and wash the unit and change the filter. Oil the motors. Check all the electrical connections. Clean the condensate drain. Do this and you should not have problems this summer.
If you are not the type that will service your unit then call us Thermal Cool Inc. and we will take care of it for you. That is if your in the Riverside area of Southern California. We will go to some far away places but you have to pay the air fare. I like Hawaii.
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What does it all mean

It means that you will pay more for the same thing. Only now you know that it is the right unit for your house. Other factors have driven the cost of air conditioning equipment to rise. The cost of raw materials, copper. aluminium and steel have all gone up. That with Government regulations, insurance cost, gas cost, and labor cost all going up have caused that replacement unit that cost $2,000.00 dollars 5 years ago now cost $5,000.00 dollars. 

What size do I need

The size will depend on how efficient your house is. If you are having a new house built then you will have a set of plans and title 24. Title 24 is  part of the building code and it is a set of regulations that tell you what you can put in your structure.IE; insulation windows, lights, etc; etc; etc;. You get the idea. The other thing it tells you is the size of the heater and air conditioner you will use.
I think this is a good time to explain how Air Conditioning  works.  http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/how_it_works/air_conditioner.html This link will give you more info if needed. but in simple terms, it removes heat inside your house and moves it to outside. This is why they make you put in double pane windows. insulate your walls and attic and build an air tight envelope. It is all for slowing down the heat that is conducting (moving) through your ceiling and walls into your house. Lets face it, if you didn't have stucco and drywall your house would never cool. In the fifty's and sixty's that is all you had. In the seventy they started using insulation and started down sizing the units. with the cost of electricity this is a good thing.
Now here is the problem as I see it.All things being equal. Using a rule of thumb to size your air conditioning needs will till you that a 1600 square foot house will need a 3 ton unit. You do the title 24 calculation and it will till you that you only need a 2 3/4 ton, the thing is you have to buy a 2 1/2 or a 3 ton unit. So you spent $800.00 to $1500.00 dollars to use the same unit you would have before the requirement.
I know that is not always the way it goes but I would say it is more often that not. I also know that a three ton unit in Palm Springs will not produce the same cooling as in Monterey but the sizing for your area and the design temperatures will change.
If you have questions or commits you can e-mail me at dcouch@thermalcool.com

Getting a Permit

What is required? I have briefly discussed what is required from most city's in California. Depending on where you live depends on what is required. In some county's to replace your AC you pay a permit fee. Somewhere around $100.00. Inside the city limits, you may pay $500.00. You will be required to submit a load calculation, duct leakage certification, and even a drawing. For more information on load calculations go to http://www.acca.org/ It will take from 2 hours to 16 hours to do a load calculation an a home depending on the size on the home. Most homes will take 6 to 8 hours from start to finish. You have to get all the information from the house then input it into a computer to get the load.
Why is this required? Will the way we (contractors) would size a system for a house, in the 60's was to stand out  side on the curb and hold your hand up and how ever many fingers it took to cover the house is how many tons you needed, the 70's and 80's for some reason we started using 400 sq. ft per ton. 1200 sq ft home = 3 tons of air it was easy and if your not sure if that would cool add a ton. Electricity was cheap. Then the 90's came and things started to change, the utility's started running out of electricity and it was not cheap to build power plants, so what do they do, REGULATE... All our usage. They say that we have been putting in to big of units. Energy Star and rebates were invented. Buy energy Star and save money. It did get some momentum but not enough, so the government steps in.
This is why it takes weeks to get a permit and why it makes that $1500.00 unit that sits outside cost $3,000.00.
No matter which side of the fence your on contractors are stuck in the middle trying to make a living. It cost the consumer and it cost the contractor, and the government they just keep regulating.

Title 24

Now you have gone through 100 Lbs of ice, and it is the day of your appointment. So you wait, at 8:00 AM you call the repairman to fine out when he will be there.After hours of waiting he shows up and looks at your AC unit. Comes in and tells you, get this... it's broken ! Really ! Do you think that's why your here. But then you find out it can't be repaired.
How much will it cost to replace it? You ask.
He says. I will have to get prices's. How long will it take to replace. A few weeks. What!! Well now we have to get a permit, so we have to draw a plan up and show the location of your unit, then we have to get a duct leakage test done by an independent company, then we have to send some one out to measure all the rooms and windows, then we have to do a load calculation and submit it to the city to get a permit. All these cost have to be figured in to the cost of replacement. (Now I know some of you think I am making this up. No this is what you have to go thru to get a permit.) I have not even talked about if you have a house that was built in the 50's or 60's you may have asbestos wrapped duct. Then men in space suits come over to remove your duct. This may run several thousand dollars depending on the size of your house.
Questions Email Me at dcouch@thermalcool.com
www.thermalcool.com

Permit Process II

So, if you remodel your house or build a new one you will hear about Title 24. If you have questions, here is a link to check it out http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/ . Title 24 is part of the building code in California and any reputable contractor will abide by it. As they say; It' The Law. So how does it effect you. Let say it is 110 degrees outside in the middle of July. Your sitting on your couch watching your favorite TV show and you notice it getting a little warm in the house. You get up and check the thermostat and it shows the AC is on. You get up and go feel the air coming out of the vent, it's cool but not cold. So you wait to see if it comes back on. After five minuets you start sweating, you check the thermostat again, what's up, says its on. Check the vent again, warm air. It is not coming on. You turn the temperature down. Still nothing. You go and look at the AC unit outside and see it is not running. This is when you decide to call your local AC repairman. He tells you how busy he is and can't come out till next week. You schedule an appointment go to the store and buy a block of ice and a fan, and then you wait and wait.
To continue:

The Permit Process

Energy efficiency really didn't start until the late 1970s. Up until this time, electricity was cheap. I would say that the first oil embargo started it all. I think that caused everyone to realize that oil was not endless and it came at a cost, so we started looking at how it was wasted. Hence our energy programs. We started big government agencies to deal with theses problems. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) AQMD (Air Quality Management District) and the list goes on, there are hundreds if not thousands now.
Can't tell you which one created title 24 of the building code and it doesn't matter at this point it is the law in California and all new or remodeled building must comply.

Permits for Construction

Back in the fifty's and sixty's there was not much enforcement when it came to getting a permit from the city. You would pay a fee and get a permit. Then you met the inspector at the donut shop when the job was done and got the permit signed off. That was then and this is now. It works a lot differently now. I would have to say, for the consumer it is better. I say that with hesitation. For a contractor it is much more difficult and expensive, which we all know is passed on to the customer. It can add as much as $3,000.00 dollars to the bottom line.