Archive for the ‘AC Doctor News’ Category

Remember the days of home-made volcanoes? Watching the baking soda and vinegar mixture (with a little red food coloring, of course!) roll down the mountainside, devouring everything in its path? Well, I have another use for your ‘lava’. You can use it to unclog your toilet! My love for all things Green aside, I have a small child and absolutely hate having toxic chemicals in my house – and drain cleaners are one of the worst! The next time your toilet is clogged, pour a cup of baking soda into the bowl, follow with a cup of vinegar, and sit back and watch the show! When the fireworks are over, pour boiling water down the drain to clean everything out – you still might need to follow with your plunger, but the clog will be much less resistant and you won’t risk your (or your little one’s) safety with those toxic drain cleaners!

According to Punxsutawney Phil, we will have an early spring this year. After one of the coldest winters I can remember, I must say I’m looking forward to the warmer weather! As we enter the cooling season, don’t forget to have your Certified AC Doctor Technician perform your yearly check up. You want to make sure your air conditioner is capable of handling yet another scorcher of a summer before summer gets here – 100+ degree temperatures are even more torturous when you don’t have AC!

Earth Advantage has released the list of Green Building trends to be on the lookout for this year. Here are the top ten:

10. Life-cycle Analysis – The green building industry is studying how materials perform over their life-cycle, starting with the extraction of raw materials and ending with decomposition. They examine the materials’ impacts on our Earth by looking at their embodied energy, solid waste, air and water pollution, and global warming potential. This analysis will help determine which materials really are green.

9. Small Building Certification – New programs are popping up all over the place to help small buildings get LEED certified. These programs have lower costs making it easier for small building owners to get certified.

8. Residential Grey Water – Water shortages are quickly becoming a reality in many parts of the country, so recycling household waste water is becoming more popular. On top of reducing water usage, there is less strain on septic and storm water systems.

7. Rethinking Residential HVAC – New homes have a much tighter sealed exterior with much thicker insulation, so there is less need for furnaces. These home are heated by everyday activity and appliance usage. Builders are also bringing duct work inside the insulated envelope, reducing heating and cooling costs by reducing the amount of conditioned are that is lost.

6. Accessory Dwelling Units – Accessory dwelling units are small, detached buildings used for offices, studios, ‘mother-in-law’ homes, or rental units. They are the ideal size for energy efficiency and help reduce urban sprawl.

5. Smart Appliances – Smart meters give homeowners feedback on their energy usage and let them see how much energy each appliance is using, allowing them to conserve energy during peak hours.

4. Community Renewable Energy – Neighbors are beginning to come together and install solar panels to share renewable energy systems. Buying as a group can reduce cost by 15-25%. It also lets you benefit from solar power if you can’t instal panels for whatever reason.

3. Performance-Based Energy Codes – New codes require buildings to report their performance levels annually to make sure they are staying on target with their predicted energy usage. Current practices make sure that new construction or retrofits are up to the standards in the beginning, but do not make sure they actually live up to their promise.

2. Healthy Competition on Energy Consumption – Social networking sites are starting to see more and more people sharing their energy usage and competing to use less than their friends. There are also sites where you can track your home energy usage and earn rewards for saving energy.

1. The #1 Green Building Trend for 2011 is: Affordable Green – Building green is less expensive than it used to be. Energy audits are low-cost, and there are many energy-efficient retrofits that are inexpensive as well as lease-to-own programs for some more expensive retrofits. Habitat for Humanity builds LEED and Energy Star certified homes that are actually affordable, some as low as $100,000!

This may be one of our coldest winters in history (well, it’s one of the coldest ones I remember…but then again, I’ll probably say the same thing next winter). It was reported that 49 out of 50 states received snow yesterday – I wish it would have come down to Houston! With all this snow and ice, your pipes are likely to freeze. But, if you take these precautions, you will be less likely to have frozen pipes.

1. Wrap all exposed pipes – you can use blankets, newspaper, rags, whatever you have. Something is better than nothing! Don’t forget to check crawlspaces – pipes can freeze in there, too.
2. Remove hoses from your outside faucets and make sure they’re not leaking. A leaky faucet can freeze and back up into your house.
3. Make sure the whole family knows where the shut-off valve is just in case a pipe busts. It’s usually located where the water pipe enters the house or the utility room. If you do not have a shut-off valve any plumber can install one.
4. Keeping a trickle of water running will keep the water moving, making it less likely to freeze. We don’t want you wasting water, so only leave the water running on sub-zero nights. When you do leave it on, make sure the trickle is about the size of pencil lead.

If your pipes do freeze, your best bet is to wait until they thaw. If you have no running water, a plumber may be able to help. Just remember – never try to thaw a pipe with fire!

As you all know by now, December 31 marks the end of the tax rebates for upgrading your HVAC system. For those of you that can’t take advantage of these rebates because of financing issues, fear not! You, too, will have your chance!

HUD secretary Shaun Donovan has teamed up with Vice President Joe Biden and the FHA to create a pilot program offering low cost loans to make energy saving home improvements. These FHA PowerSaver loans offer another option for upgrading your HVAC system, insulation, duct sealing, doors and windows, water heaters, solar panels, and geothermal systems. The pilot program will begin in early 2011, but will only be available to well-qualified borrowers. As long as you have good credit, manageable overall debt, and some home-equity, you can qualify for a PowerSaver loan.

I have to give kudos to our government officials for helping the nation conserve energy, first with tax rebates for energy efficient upgrades and now with PowerSaver loans. I’m anxious to see what’s next! So, to all you homeowners out there – take advantage of this opportunity! As of right now, it is only slated to be available for 2 years.

For more information about the program, click here.

While you have your contractor doing your routine fall tune-up, why not have them conduct a home-energy audit? A home-energy audit will tell you how insulated your home is against the elements. It measures the resistance to heat flow of your walls, ceilings, doors, windows, and skylights. Warm air seeks cooler temperatures – during the summer the outside heat moves inside, and in winter your nice, warm air flows upward to your attic and ultimately outside. For this reason, you want your home to have a high resistance to flow. This means your walls, etc, are insulated properly and prevent heat from flowing through them. A high resistance to flow also means your HVAC system doesn’t have to work as hard. Your home energy audit will include a written report estimating energy use based on local climate conditions, thermostat settings, roof overhang, and solar positioning and reveals the energy usage for any given time, as well as suggest improvements. If you have your billing statements handy for this chosen time period, you can improve the accuracy of these estimates as they have the total usage of energy your house consumes. The audit may also include a homeowner interview to see what your personal patterns are and can give you suggestions to better use your HVAC system. It may seem like a large upfront cost, the few hundred dollars for the estimate and then implementing the suggested changes to your home, but you will see a decrease in your heating and air conditioning bills that over time will cover the costs and then some. If you have not yet scheduled a fall tune-up or home energy audit, any of our ACDoctor certified contractors will be happy to take care of either of those for you!

With fall approaching, it is time to start thinking about having your HVAC unit serviced. Any time you have a contractor out to look at your unit, you need to have certain details handy. Whether it’s a routine service or a repair, your contractor needs to know everything, and no detail is too small. Even though you may just be getting your unit serviced for the impending heating season, you never know what a seemingly insignificant detail could uncover.
Have these facts handy when your contractor arrives:

• The brand, model number, and age of your system
• The last time it was serviced and who serviced it
• The date the filters were last changed
• If/when you first noticed your unit was not working properly
• Are there unusual noises, smells, or fluids coming from your unit?
• If it is acting up, what was the weather like when it first started?

Having this information handy could help the contractor diagnose the problem more quickly, saving you time and money!

ACDoctor has a new widget! Check it out to see how upgrading your HVAC system can save the environment.
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Already this summer feels hotter than summers past. Here in Houston, it is miserable outside past 10 a.m. Temperatures are supposed to reach record highs, so how are we supposed to keep our homes cool with energy process rising? The obvious answer: reduce your cooling load. Easier said than done, I know, but it is possible. Here are a few tips for reducing your cooling load:
1. Fire up the grill. Your oven and stove emit tons of heat; after all, that’s how they work! But the heat it takes to cook your food also heats up your kitchen. Give your AC a break and cook out more often. Temperatures have started to drop by dinner time and the smoke from the grill helps keep the mosquitoes away, so take advantage of these beautiful nights and spend some time outside.
2. Wash your clothes and dishes at night. Temperatures drop with the sun, so your AC doesn’t have to work as hard to remove the heat your appliances emit. Run the dishwasher and dryer when you go to bed. Your body temperature lowers when you sleep, so the added heat from your dryer and dishwasher won’t affect you as much. You can always run the dryer on a cool setting in the morning to fluff the wrinkles out of your clothes.
3. Ventilate the bathroom. Your air conditioner also removes humidity, so turn on the air vent when you shower to suck out the humidity. Don’t have an air vent? Crack a window. Just don’t forget to shut it later. You don’t want your nice, cold air escaping once the humidity is gone.
Remember – reducing your cooling load reduces the wear and tear on your unit, prolonging the life of your unit as well as lowering your energy bills.