| Heating & Cooling Homeowner Tips Heating, ventilation and air conditioning terminology can be confusing. To help your understanding and education, here is a list of important terms and their definitions. If you every have any questions on these terms please feel free to call us at 520-629-9833.
You should inspect your filter monthly and change if necessary. A good time to inspect your filter is when you receive your electric bill. The motto we use is: To minimize your payment to TEP, check/replace your filter before writing check to TEP. Failing to change your filter regularly will result in higher utility bills, poor system cooling/heating, damage to your system and many other problems. CHECK YOUR FILTER MONTHLY! Return to Top How often should my unit(s) be serviced/have maintenance performed? Twice a year. You should have a cooling tune-up done in the spring and a heating tune-up done in the fall. Air conditioning units are like any other piece of machinery; you must have them properly maintained to maximize their performance, efficiency and life-span. Call Hal at (520) 629-9833 ex. 316 for more information on our maintenance/tune-up program. Return to Top At what temperature should I set my thermostat? Normal cooling settings are 75 degrees - 80 degrees Normal heating settings are 68 degrees- 72 degrees You should always set your thermostat to the highest possible setting that is comfortable for you in the summer, and the lowest comfortable setting in the winter. Doing this will maximize your energy savings as on average every 1 degree of temperature change is equal to about 10% energy savings. For example, changing your thermostat setting from 75 degrees to 76 degrees in the summer could result in about a 10% savings on your cooling costs. Return to Top Can I turn my thermostat up in the summer (down in the winter) while I'm away at work? Yes, the Department of Energy recommends a change of no more than 3 degrees for maximum possible energy savings. This 3 degrees is very important because if you allow your home to get warmer/colder than this, it will result in your unit having to work extra hard to return the home to the proper temperature when you get home. This period of extra hard work for the unit will completely eliminate all the cost you saved throughout the day and will actually now cost you more overall. This is especially true in the summer. For example, if you were to turn your unit off while you were at work and the house temperature rose 5 degrees , when you return home and crank down the thermostat your unit now has to work very hard to remove all the extra heat in the home, and it has to do it during the hottest time of the day. This results in huge energy usage and cost. Return to Top What should I leave my thermostat set at if I am away on vacation? We recommend no more than 5 degrees of change from your normal setting. More than 5 degrees of change could cause damage to the contents of the home, especially in the summer when we are dealing with extremely hot temperatures. Wood floors, cabinets, pets, electronics, etc. are all items that are sensitive to large temperature changes. Return to Top Why would I need a programmable thermostat? What is the benefit of one? A programmable thermostat can be a great tool to maximize energy savings and is recommended by TEP (Tucson Electric Power). This type of thermostat can be programmed with different temperature settings for the weekends, for while you are away at work, for when you go to bed, and so on. It is not a necessary item to have, but is a very helpful tool to help you save on energy costs. Return to Top What is the most cost efficient way to operate my air conditioning system?
There are endless reasons why your utility bills may be high, but here are some reasons why your heating and cooling is costing you a fortune.
We recommend continuous fan operation year-round except in July and August. We do not recommend continuous fan during these months due to the high humidity at this time of year. Running a continuous fan will keep your rooms more evenly tempered throughout the day and will keep the indoor air better filtered. Return to Top Can I close off registers to rooms not in use? You should never close more than one register in your home if the air conditioning system was installed by Hamstra. If your duct system was not installed by Hamstra, you should not close any registers. CLOSING OFF REGISTERS DOES NOT SAVE ENERGY! If you close off air to rooms they still will have heat gain from the outside. This heat gain is transferred to the rest of the house through doors, walls, ceilings, etc. This heat gain will cause your unit to work just as hard as if the all the registers were open. There is no energy savings to be gained from closing off registers. Return to Top Can I put coverings/covers over registers or return grills? Absolutely not. Never cover registers or return grills with any material what-so-ever. Doing this adds resistance to the system, causing your unit to work harder and your energy bills to rise. Your system was designed to operate with all registers fully open and unblocked. Return to Top Why are rooms on the west side of my house always hot in the afternoon? Rooms in your home that have western exposure (walls and windows) will be warmer in the afternoon than other rooms due to solar gain from the sun through windows and walls. Window coverings must be drawn on in the afternoon on west facing windows to avoid these increased indoor temperatures. Your air conditioning system cannot adjust airflow throughout the day based on the movement of the sun. If you fail to draw window coverings, your rooms will get hot and your energy usage will rise. It is also a good idea to install awnings over west facing windows if possible or plant trees to shade these windows in the afternoon. Return to Top Why are my upstairs rooms always hot and downstairs ones always cold? Physics. Hot air rises, cold air falls. This is why Hamstra recommends separate systems for upstairs and downstairs or zone controls. It is impossible to have a balanced, comfortable system in a two story house with one unit and no zone control. Many HVAC contractors wrongly install one unit on a two story house as a way to save money. While this does indeed save on the initial cost, it will lead to an uncomfortable home that is impossible to balance. We are only interested in happy and comfortable customers. This is why we will not install a single unit on a two story application unless it is equipped with an electronic zone control system. Return to Top Why is my home office always hot? In a typical home, a bedroom is converted into a home office. Chances are that the air conditioning system was not designed to account for the added heat loads that are associated with home offices, such as: computers, monitors, additional lighting, printers, copiers, scanners, TV's, etc. All of these items add a great deal of heat to your office. Since your system was not designed to account for these items, the room will always be hotter than the rest of the home. You can have an air balance done to slightly help this problem, but it will not completely remedy it. The only solution that will completely fix the problem is to have duct modifications made and possibly a new unit installed. Return to Top Evaporative (swamp) Cooler v. Air Conditioning. What is the difference? What are the benefits of each? Differences: An evaporative cooler uses water to soak cooler pads and then draws outside air over the pads to cool the air. This cool moist outside air is then blown into the house to cool it. An air conditioning unit uses refrigeration inside an indoor coil to absorb heat from the air. An air conditioning system also provides dehumidification and filtration for the home while a cooler does not. Benefits:
BTUh stands for British Thermal Unit Hours. It is a simple measurement of heat. One BTU represents the quantity of heat necessary to raise one pound of water 1 degree F.
AFUE stands for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency. It is an efficiency rating for gas furnaces. AFUE ratings are given in percentages. This percentage represents the amount of energy input to the furnace that is actually converted into heat for the home. The remaining energy input is lost up the flue pipe. Gas furnaces of the past had AFUE ratings of about 60-75%. Today's furnaces have ratings of 80-95%. Return to Top What is HSPF? HSPF stands for Heating Seasonal Performance Factor. It is a heating efficiency rating for heat pumps. The HSPF scale goes from 7.5-9.0 with 9 being the best possible rating. Return to Top What is the best method that should be used to size my heating and cooling system(s)? Manual J load calculation is the only method that should be used to size heating and cooling systems. It is mandated by local codes and the DOE (Department of Energy) Manual J calculates the heat loss and gain through walls, windows, floors, infiltration and the roof. It also accounts for internal heat loads such as people, appliances, electronics, etc. Hamstra uses Manual J load calculation to size all of the systems we install. The design conditions that Hamstra uses for Tucson are: 104 degrees Outdoor DB (Dry bulb) with 75 degrees Indoor DB, 67degreesIndoor WB (wet bulb). These design conditions/standards are per the model energy code. Using any other method than Manual J is incorrect and should be completely avoided. The worst method for sizing air conditioning systems is the square footage method. This method uses a standard that 400 square feet of floor space is equal to 1 ton of air conditioning. So, using this method, a home that is 1600 square feet would require a 4 ton air conditioning machine. This is completely incorrect and is nothing more than a lazy guess. Think about it this way: I've got two 400 square foot buildings, one has walls 8 foot high made of double masonry block and has one tiny window and one door, the other building is made of un-insulated 2x4 walls 15 feet high and has 20 - 12x3 single pane windows and a screen door. Now, do you think it is going to take the same size air conditioning unit to equally cool both buildings? The answer is no. The second building would probably need 4-5 times the cooling capacity as the first. Many HVAC contractors incorrectly use the square footage method and that is the reason why there are so many homes out there with poor air conditioning systems. It doesn't work unless you get very lucky, bottom line. Return to Top Should/Can I open my windows and doors after a monsoon storm? I know we all love the feeling of that cool air after a monsoon storm, but this is the absolute worst time to open up your doors and windows. Doing so will introduce extremely high levels of humidity into the home. This humidity gets absorbed into carpets, draperies, bedding, clothes, etc. When you fire your air conditioning back up later it is going to work extra hard for the next 24-48 hours to remove all the added humidity in the house. Yes, it takes that long to return your homes humidity back to normal. This extra work will greatly increase you energy bills. So if you want to enjoy that cool monsoon air, go outside and have dinner on the patio, don't completely open up your house. Return to Top Why does my furnace smell when started up for the first time every heating season? Your furnace smells because dust has accumulated on the heat exchanger inside the furnace. The smell is the dust being burnt off. Under normal conditions, this smell should stop coming from the furnace within 24-48 hours. Return to Top Should I cover my outside unit when it is not in use? Absolutely not. You should never do this. Covering the outdoor unit will trap moisture around the unit and eventually cause it to rust. Return to Top Should I shade my outdoor condensing unit or package unit with a cover of some sort? No, never. Any covering that is close to the unit will cause recirculation of hot air around the unit. This recirculation will greatly reduce the unit's efficiency and capacity. Most units already have a metal coil guard that shades the condenser coil from the sun. We have measured 120 degree inlet temperatures on 105 degree days on units that have been covered by the homeowner. Having any covering or object close to your outdoor unit can cause recirculation which leads to poor system performance. Return to Top Do pets have an effect on my air conditioning system? Yes. Pet hair and dander causes blockage of the filter and can also cause blockage of the indoor coil. Any blockage in the system will lower the systems performance and efficiency. Doggie doors create more heat gain for the home because they have no insulation. A great deal of heat and hot air infiltration can be gained through these small doors. Large fish tanks have been seen to increase humidity in homes therefore making the unit run longer and harder to reduce humidity levels. This leads to increased energy consumption and higher energy bills. Return to Top How often should I clean my condensate drain? At least yearly with proper filter maintenance. If you do not change you filter at regular intervals your indoor coil could become clogged which could then cause your condensate drain to clog and flood your mechanical room. Hamstra performs this cleaning during our spring tune-up. Return to Top How do supply and return duct affect my air conditioning system? Undersized ductwork (which is what most homes have) can greatly reduce airflow and can damage the compressor in the outdoor unit. Undersized duct will also increase noise due the increased air velocities inside the duct. Undersized ductwork will decrease the volume of air that can be delivered to each room, therefore decreasing comfort of the home. Think of it this way: Undersized ductwork is like a small cocktail straw. Try to blow through that straw as hard as you can and feel the amount of resistance there is. This is the same resistance a unit has to deal with when the ductwork is too small. Undersized duct creates poor airflow. If there is not enough air flow over the indoor coil, it will ice up and could potentially flood the mechanical room and damage the home. There are endless problems associated with wrongly sized duct. Please feel free to call our office with any more questions you have on this subject. (520) 629-9833. Return to Top How often does my systems refrigerant need changed? The refrigerant in your system should never have to be changed. Refrigerant is not like oil in a car. It only has to be changed if it becomes contaminated from an outside source. Even if this happens, your refrigerant can often be filtered to remove contaminants. Return to Top What type of filter should I use? What are the differences? We recommend at minimum a 1" pleated filter. Do not use 3M Filtrete or Angelhair filters. These filter types are much too restrictive and will cause damage to your system (from our experiences with them). Washable filters are okay if they are properly maintained. However, most people fail to properly maintain them and this causes problems with the system. To properly clean your washable filter you should first vacuum it completely from the incoming air side. Once it is completely clean, flush with water in the opposite direction of airflow. If you flush the filter from the wrong direction or fail to vacuum it, you will just further imbed dirt and debris into the filter. The cleaning process must be done monthly without exception. 5" high efficiency filter are a good upgrade to the standard 1". They are about 20 times more effective at filtering the air inside your home. The new Accuclean/Clean Effects filtration system from American Standard/Trane and the PureAir filtration system from Lennox are 100 times better at filtering the indoor air than the standard 1" filter. These systems are great upgrades for those with allergies and sensitivity to other indoor pollutants. For further information on Indoor Air Quality products, see our Indoor Air Quality Advisor section of this website or call us directly. (520) 629-9833 Return to Top Is it a good idea to keep spare fuses at my home? Yes, it is a good idea to keep some extra fuses in case of storms or power surges. HOWEVER, READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU CHANGE OUT A FUSE ON YOUR OWN!!!! You MUST always turn off the breaker (make sure it is the correct breaker also) before you change the fuse. If you fail to do so you can and will suffer major injuries. There is a lot of voltage going through your unit's disconnect box. If you touch the wrong thing without having the breaker off you will get hurt. ALWAYS TURN OFF THE BREAKER BEFORE CHANGING A FUSE, NO EXCEPTIONS!!! Return to Top How often should I oil the motors in my air conditioning units? If you have a newer unit, you don't have to oil the motor because they are sealed bearing and can't be oiled. If your unit is older and does not have sealed bearing motors, you should oil them or have them oiled with a drop or two of oil once yearly. Return to Top What makes one unit better than another? Example, American Standard v. Lennox . There are many factors that make one brand of air conditioning equipment better or worse than another. Here is a short list of the main factors:
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