Transitioning Your HVAC System from Winter to Spring
Before you head outdoors to bask in gorgeous spring weather, make sure your HVAC system is ready for warmer temperatures. Below are steps you can take to initiate a smooth transition from blustery winter to cool spring.
Pet Allergies? Lessen Your Exposure to Allergens and Feel Better
One of the sources of human joy, our beloved four-legged friends, can sometimes be the cause of ill-health through pet allergies. Although allergens affect many people, they can be controlled and virtually eliminated from your home.
What Is Pet Dander?
These are tiny scales of dead skin that animals shed. Dander contains a protein that may cause an allergic reaction in humans. These allergens can be found in the air and, because they’re sticky, they also adhere to walls, furniture and floor rugs.
Combating Dander
There are a variety of ways to keep your home as clear as possible from pet dander:
- Bathe and brush your pets as often as is practical. Check with your vet as to how frequently you can wash your domestic animals.
- Keep pets off furniture. Supply them with their own bedding and train them from a young age where they should sleep.
- Wipe down walls and furniture to remove the sticky pet allergens.
- Install an air purifier in your home. These devices help to remove dander from the air, reducing the triggers for pet allergies.
Choosing an Air Purifier
Two types of air purifiers are suitable for removing pet dander from the air: mechanical or electronic air cleaners.
- Mechanical air purifiers are often fan-driven and work by capturing particles on a mesh filter. These devices come with a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV), 1 being the least efficient and 20 being the most effective. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regards air filters with a rating of between 7 and 13 to be efficient enough to remove many allergens from the air.
- Electronic or ion-type air purifiers use electrical charges to attract particles from the air. These particles are then deposited onto a collecting plate.
Your HVAC provider will be able to assist you in choosing the most appropriate air purifier for your home and provide you with other suggestions to combat pet allergens. Contact Cox Air Conditioning & Heating for more information. We’ve proudly served homeowners throughout Clearwater, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Palm Harbor, Trinity and Westchase for more than 55 years.
A Heat Pump Might Be Just the Thing to Keep You Warm on Those Chilly Nights
If you’re thinking about installing a new heating system in your Clearwater area home, you should consider the benefits of installing an air-source heat pump. A heat pump is the ideal appliance for warming homes during our more mild Florida winter. These units utilize the heat exchange properties of refrigerant to transfer heat from one site to another. In other words, they work on the scientific principle that hot air will naturally seek a cooler environment.
Due to a reversing valve that switches the flow of refrigerant, heat pumps are actually able to both heat and cool a home. During winter, heat pumps pull heat from the outdoor air into the outside condenser unit. The refrigerant here picks up the heat and flows into the indoor heat exchange coil where a fan blows over the coil and heats the interior air. During the summer, the opposite happens as the evaporator coil captures inside heat and exhausts it outside. This dual ability has made heat pumps an ideal option for many homeowners.
An air-source heat pump is especially energy efficient for heating in mild Florida winters, particularly compared to other types of heating systems. Their one big disadvantage is that their performance efficiency is decreased when outside temperatures fall below 35 degrees. However, given our more mild temperatures, this factor doesn’t matter for Clearwater residents.
Their energy efficiency is worth boasting about, however. A well-maintained heat pump can generate three to four times the amount of heat from one unit of electricity. Meanwhile, a combustion furnace can’t exceed an energy efficiency of 100 percent, or one to one. Since most of your conditioning requirements in Florida is for cooling, heat pump systems provide an economical and convenient way to accomplish both.
To learn more about how an air-source heat pump system will improve your indoor environment this winter, or for information on other quality HVAC products and solutions, contact your local experts at Cox Air Conditioning & Heating. We’ve have been providing expert advice and service since 1958.
Mold: Don’t Let Your Guard Down, Even in Winter
Mold and mildew need four things to thrive: available spores, moisture, organic matter to feed on, and temperatures between 68 to 86 degrees. Even though it’s thought of as a summertime problem, due to our hot, humid climate, homes can become a haven for mold growth in the winter months too. Condensation that occurs along the roofline in the attic, or in rooms that are poorly ventilated, can yield the moisture mold needs to get started.
In addition to causing unsightly stain and rot, mold causes serious allergies and respiratory problems. The following tips will help you prevent its growth in your home this winter.
- Insulate the attic – A warm attic causes condensation to collect along the cool roofline, dripping back onto the surfaces below. By keeping your attic at an ambient temperature, providing adequate insulation on the floor, you’ll be able to keep warm, conditioned air in your living space while preventing condensation from forming along the roofline. Also, consider installing an attic ventilator, which will prevent excess moisture in the winter and mitigate heat gain in the summer.
- Ventilation – Make sure your home is adequately ventilated. Sealing the leaks in your home is a powerful step toward increasing energy efficiency, but it needs to be paired with an adequate whole-house ventilation system for a fresh air supply and to allow trapped moisture to escape. Ventilation is especially important in rooms where condensation is an issue such as the kitchen, laundry room and bathrooms.
- Identify and repair leaks – If you have a plumbing or storm leak, it needs to be repaired immediately. Make sure you dry the interior wall or ceiling spaces thoroughly before closing them back up.
Contact Cox Air Conditioning & Heating to learn more about mold prevention and to balance humidity levels in your Tampa area home this winter.
These Tips Can Help Your High Efficiency A/C Breeze Through the Rest of Summer
Nothing makes more sense than using a high-efficiency A/C when you live in a Southern climate like that of Florida. You know that it will be running continuously for months. Furthermore, life would be pretty unbearable without it so you want quality in your A/C as well. To make your high efficiency A/C last a long time and keep your climate control expenses down, consider some of the following factors while it is in operation.
Summer Tips for Your High-Efficiency A/C
- Weather affects your equipment’s ability to meet performance expectations. Keep this factor in mind as you program your thermostat. Hotter weather makes it more expensive to keep your house at one temperature. For this reason, many homeowners allow for higher indoor temperatures during the day, especially if they are not going to be home.
- Proper airflow is critical for cooling. If the ducts and their layout are not correctly matched to your A/C, then airflow will be inadequate. You will pay more for lower quality cooling.
- The right refrigerant charge is necessary to maintain high performance. Studies show that improper refrigerant charges are common and may reduce the quality of performance in as many as seven out of 10 devices in the field. Discuss this with an HVAC maintenance technician.
- Besides compatibility with your air conditioner, there are other qualities of your ducts which have dramatic effects on performance. Many people overlook these basic components when they order repairs on their systems. The most significant problem with defective ducts is that they cause air leaks. Ducts must be tight to prevent cool air from leaking out before it reaches the spaces that you intend to cool.
- Your equipment should be properly sized for the environment that you want to cool. A system that is too large will short cycle, boosting your bills, causing wear on the equipment, and inefficiently cooling your home.
If you would like to learn more about maintaining a high-efficiency A/C, contact us for expert A/C repair service. We have been proudly serving the Clearwater area since 1958.
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