One of the many things we check on our service calls is system air flow. Air flow is critical to a long lasting air conditioner and furnace.
Inside your gas furnace is a heat exchanger. The flame shoots inside the heat exchanger and the fan blows air across the outside. If the air flow is insufficient, the heat exchanger becomes too hot. This excess heat stresses the metal. Over time, this stress leads to cracks in the heat exchanger. That is a fire and carbon monoxide hazard. By law, we are required to disable and tag a furnace with a cracked heat exchanger until the furnace is repaired or replaced.
What about the cooling side? Above your furnace is an air conditioning coil. Refrigerant (you may call it freon) flows inside the coil. The furnace fan blows air across the coil to cool the air and your home. When the air is cooled, heat is being transferred to the refrigerant. We need enough heat added to the refrigerant to boil all of it because the compressor in the air conditioner is designed to only pump gas (completely boiled refrigerant). If there is any liquid, compressor damage will occur.
In summary, proper air flow is important to both the heating and cooling sides of your HVAC system. There’s nothing more important during the design and installation of your system. Proper air flow ensures a long lasting system.
VanKleef Heating and Air Conditioning 812-280-0510
Category: Indoor Air Quality
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Why Air Flow is Critical to HVAC Life
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Continuous Fan or Auto Fan
Southern Indiana, Clark, Floyd, and Harrsion Counties as well as Louisville HVAC clients often ask how they should operate their furnace fan – auto or continuous? So, what should you do? Well, it depends…
If you have a high efficiency filtration system and a variable speed ECM blower, you will want your fan running continuously to circulate the air at a low velocity. The lower speed of continuous fan allows for better filtration. The continuous fan will provide more air exchanges each day. Thus providing cleaner air to the home.
What about the rest of us with standard filters and blower motors? If you live in a humid area where the air conditioning system must remove a lot of moisture, you’re better to leave the fan in Auto. You can see as much as a 10% reduction in indoor humidity during the summer. Continuous fan will evaporate the water from the coil that the air conditioner just removed. So, there’s a trade off between circulating the air and humidity control.
Another consideration is register location. If they are placed low on the wall, then the air likely blows on you. You wouldn’t want room temperature air blowing on your skin during the winter. Probably wouldn’t feel to bad in the summer. So, maybe you’d be better only running continuous fan in the summer.
For questions on your unit, give us a call at VanKleef Heating and Air Conditioning 812-280-0510 -
Dry Air
Do you get dry itchy skin in the Jeffersonville or Louisville fluctuating weather? Are you concerned about your wood floors and furniture being too dry? We can help with a whole house humidifier.
Whole house humidifiers are mounted on your furnace duct system and controlled automatically by a humidistat in conjunction with your thermostat. Three primary types of humidifiers are steam, fan powered and bypass. The steam humidifier uses significantly less water than the other two. It also works well with all types of heating systems.
In addition to making the air moist, it will also make the ‘cooler’ air more comfortable. This allows you to keep the thermostat a couple degrees lower for the same comfort level. In turn, you save on your heating bill.
Honeywell TruSTEAM humidifiers are the preferred choice of VanKleef Heating and Air Conditioning. We’ve installed them in our own homes as well as customers’ homes. Call 812-280-0510 today to schedule an appointment to see which humidifier is right for you. -
HVAC Tax Credits and Rebates
Have you been on the fence about purchasing a new heating and cooling system hoping the air conditioner makes it through the summer? Did your furnace fail at the end of the previous heating season? There are incentives to purchase a new HVAC system this year from Duke, Vectren and REMC.
You can contact us and discuss with Werner VanKleef at 812-280-0510
VanKleef Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. -
Does a Programmable Thermostat Make a Difference?
A manual thermostat is what most of us grew up with. If you are hot you turn the dial down. If you are cold you turn the dial up. When you leave the house for several hours you try and remember to set the temperature to a point where you will save a little energy.
Why maintain the ideal temperature 24 hours a day if you are not there to enjoy it, right? You may be happy or satisfied with your manual thermostat. You may be intimidated by the thought of having to program a “smart” thermostat, but here are the facts.- You will save money by using any type of programmable thermostat
- You do not always remember to adjust the manual thermostat
- It is very easy to replace a thermostat
- Learning how to use a programmable thermostat is easy
- You can change the thermostat from your cell phone or tablet.
When you look at the life-time stats provided by www.energystar.gov, it is clear that “smart” thermostats are the better choice. Using their data, they present a case study that shows consumers can save as much as $1,800+ over 11-12 years.
According to Energy Star (2017) “What is a smart thermostat? A smart thermostat is a Wi-Fi enabled device that automatically adjusts heating and cooling temperature settings for optimal performance. Smart thermostats that earn the ENERGY STAR label have been independently certified, based on actual field data, to deliver energy savings. (https://www.energystar.gov/products/heating_cooling/smart_thermostats)
Call us with your questions and we would be happy to help you find the perfect solution when it comes to your heating and cooling.
VanKleef Heating and Air Conditioning 812-280-0510
