I think it goes without saying that all of us should properly maintain and regularly service the large investments we make in our life. Purchases such as your home, automobiles, boats, pools, etc would obviously fall into this category. However, do you think of your air conditioning and heating system as a major investment that requires regular maintenance and/or service? If not, consider the fact that it may be one of the top 5 investments a homeowner will make in their lifetime. Most homeowners run their Air Conditioning and Heating systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year.

Most homeowners have a their automobiles tuned-up or regularly serviced. It only makes sense to periodically rotate your tires, check your air pressure, inspect your air filter, replace your oil and spark plugs. Monitoring and maintaining these things only helps to make certain the vehicle is efficient and reliable.

Getting a tune-up on your air conditioning and heating system by a service professional at American Air and Heat will also ensure its reliability as well as improving your system’s efficiency, thus reducing your monthly energy bills.

At American Air and Heat, we recommend all homeowners having their air conditioning and heating system inspected and serviced annually by one of our professionally certified and factory trained service technicians.

When is the Best Time of the Year to Get My Unit Tuned-up?

Now. Early in the Spring, before it gets too hot, is one of the best times of the year to get your air conditioning unit serviced. If you’re a/c unit is not operating at its optimum performance waiting too long could cause your energy bill to dramatically increase.

Learn more about our Annual Energy Savings Service Agreements

If you are in the need of a Spring tune-up please contact us at 877-875-1754.

We get this question all of the time. “How come my air conditioner unit seems to work in some rooms better than others?

There are several reasons for this and one is simply the laws of nature. When buying a new home, it doesn’t take long to figure out that some rooms will occasionally be hotter or cooler than others. Your upstairs bedroom may take longer to cool in the hot Orlando summer, or the kitchen may be chillier in the winter.

The good news is you don’t need to worry! There may not be anything wrong with your air conditioning system. If your home is multi-level, you will naturally experience the effect of warm air rising to the upper level and cooler air falling to the lower. In addition, solar gain can cause temperatures to rise in certain rooms. This is definitely the case in rooms with west-facing windows during the late afternoon. But, Central Florida weather and forces of nature are not the only factors that will raise your home’s indoor temperature. Cooking and showering will cause the humidity of your home to increase. Even without a raise in temperature, higher levels of humidity can cause you to feel warmer and uncomfortable.

While the laws of nature (and the law of teenagers blow drying hair & taking long showers may be out of your control, you can use your home’s air conditioning system to improve the situation. By adjusting or closing registers that are too cool in summer or too warm in the winter, you can divert conditioned air to rooms where you need it the most. However, we recommend investing in a new zoning system that allows you to divide your home into multiple cooling and heating areas. With a new zoning system, you will still have only one central air conditioner or heat pump, but you will have a series of dampers installed in the duct system which will direct the air only where it is needed. You will also have thermostats located in the various zones of your house which will give you better control of your homes comfort and help with reducing your energy cost.

Next month we will discuss the benefits of programmable thermostats and how working together with zoning systems can reduce your energy bills by 30%.

Contact Us today for a home comfort evaluation. American Air & Heat, Inc. – “The Air Conditioning & Heating Company You’ve Trusted for Over 25 Years in the Orlando area” Call Now (877) 875-1754.

It’s hard to believe but spring has sprung. Spring time is the season for rebirth, renewal, and re-growth. It also brings to mind the long standing tradition of spring cleaning, but it’s also a great time to tackle those spring maintenance chores as well.

Did you know that during the 19th century in America, prior to the advent of the vacuum cleaner, March was often the best time for dusting because it was getting warm enough to open windows and doors, but not warm enough for insects to be a problem, and the high winds could carry the dust out of the house. For the same reason, modern rural households often use the month of March and April for cleaning projects as well as addressing other maintenance items as well.

Below is a list of items we recommend adding to your spring cleaning list. The good news is that many of the items on the list take very little time so you will still have plenty of time to tackle the other chores on your list.

• Clean or replace your a/c filters every month. Most systems come with manufacturer recommendations as to how often to wash or replace the filters. AC filters range in size, design, quality, and price. Most disposable filters are relatively inexpensive; however they need to be replaced frequently. Specialty and HEPA filters are more expensive, but provide higher quality filtration. Washable filters are more expensive; however since they are washable they can actually save you money with ongoing maintenance costs. A new or well maintained filter helps remove particles that reduce air flow and appliance efficiency as well as preventing dust and dirt from penetrating to the motor.
• Most air conditioning systems have a drainage hole on the base of the cabinet below the evaporator fins. Keep this hole free and clear so that the unit can work properly. Now is an excellent time to use a tool such as wire or a paper clip to poke through the hole and clear any obstructions.
• Walk around your home and inspect any joints, gaps, or cracks. Pay close attention to areas where unlike materials connects. This would include areas between your walls and your foundation as well as your brick and siding. Seal any obvious air leaks using a caulking material.
• Open and close all windows to ensure they are properly working. Ask yourself these two simple questions. Do they all open without difficulty? Do they close without difficulty? If there is a problem, inspect the weather stripping. This is a simple repair that can help improve your air comfort as well as reducing your energy costs.
• Once per year it’s a good idea to remove the cover from your bathroom fans and wipe the fan blades with a wash cloth and soap and water. If the blades are real dirty use a scrubbing brush. Turn-off the power before you begin!
• Replace the batteries in your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors twice a year (Spring and Fall). Clean the detectors using a dust rag or vacuum cleaner. Once done, perform a test to ensure they are working properly.
• Now is also a great time to inspect your fire extinguishers. Check to ensure that they are fully charged and mounted in a location that is easily accessible.

Spring is an excellent time of year to contact American Air and Heat to perform a tune-up on your air conditioning system. Click here to learn more.

Listed below are a few of the routine maintenance items that should be performed by a certified heating system professional on a forced-air system. And remember, before the technician begins the maintenance process, they should always begin by turning off the electric power supply to the equipment.

• The systems fan should be cleaned along with the fan motor. The motor should be lubricated regularly to maintain the proper airflow required for smooth operation. While checking the fan motor, the fan speed should be checked as well. A systems performance can be hindered by incorrect pulley settings, loose fan belts, or incorrect motor speeds.
• Ductwork should be inspected and cleaned to ensure that proper air flow is not restricted by foreign objects such as loose insulation, abnormal buildup of dust, or any other obstacles.
• The return-air grills and warm-air vents should be clean and free of obstructions. It is also possible that parts of the venting system may have deteriorated over time. Because of this, your vent connection pipe and chimney should be inspected.
• The air conditioning coil (indoor evaporator) in the furnace should be cleaned or vacuumed as part of furnace servicing.
• The physical integrity of the heat exchanger should be evaluated periodically. By doing this visual inspection, leaky heat exchangers sometimes leak water and can easily be detected. Warning: Furnace heat exchangers mix combustion gases with house air when they leak. For this reason alone, it’s important to have this checked.
• Monitor the boiler and/or furnace to insure optimum water and air temperature settings for both system efficiency and home comfort.

The reason why this is so important to you is because preventative maintenance can not only save you money and but also give you piece of mind. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Schedule your air conditioning maintenance today by calling American Air and Heat, Inc. at (877) 875-1754.

The first tip that we provided was caulking, which is the best method for sealing cracks, gaps, or joints less than 1-quarter-inch wide in various places throughout your home or building, including around windows and door frames. Our second tip to winterizing your home or building is replacing or installing weatherstripping to seal air leaks around movable joints, such as windows or doors.

Weatherstripping is usually made of felt, foam, vinyl, rubber or metal. It is very effective in eliminating or at least significantly reducing air-drafts, which ultimately lowers your air conditioning and heating costs. Like caulking, it is easy for home and business owners to do, and if done properly, the money you will save in energy efficiencies will far outweigh the minimal materials expense.

Contact American Air and Heat to have a qualified technician inspect your home to determine the best course of action to improve your energy efficiencies and the level of air-comfort in your home.

How Much Weatherstripping do I need?

Start by adding the perimeters of all windows and doors that to be weather-stripped, then add another 5-10 percent for waste. Prior to installation, you will need to select which type of material best fits the job for which it is sealing. Things to consider with each location are weather, temperature changes, and wear and tear. Below is a list of various types of weatherstripping materials and its common uses.

• Felt /Foam – Easy to apply which make them extremely popular and valuable in low traffic areas. However, the material is susceptible to weather. It’s the least expensive material.
• Vinyl – Durable and able to withstand high moisture conditions. It is slightly more expensive than felt or foam.
• Metals – The most durable material, which should last for several years. Metals such as bronze, copper, stainless steel, and aluminum are very popular with older vintage homes. It is affordable, but is the more expensive than felt, foam, or vinyl.

Also, it’s possible to use more than one style of weatherstripping to seal an area that has a irregularly shape. Something else to consider when selecting the type of weatherstripping material

Since weatherstripping is being installed to seal air leaks around movable joints, the material must hold up to the type of movement for which it’s intended. Windows and doors slide up and down, sideways, and in and out. One last thing to consider is that the material must seal when the door or window is closed but just as important, it needs to allow it to open freely as well.

There are several simple do-it-yourself things you can do to weatherize your home or business. Anyone willing to put in a few extra hours and purchase a few minor supplies at your local hardware store can make a huge difference in reducing your energy costs, improving your air conditioning unit’s efficiency and improving the air comfort level inside your home or business. Implementing these tips could be one of the simplest, yet most impactful things you can do to benefit your home or business all winter.

Tip #1 – Caulking to Eliminate Air Leaks

Caulking is one of the most basic and common steps to sealing air leaks. However, it’s amazing to see so many homeowners and business owners neglecting to perform this elementary and cost saving task properly. In fact, it is one of the biggest reasons homes lose heat in Central Florida. Most of you know where the obvious air leaks exists in your home, such as the draft under the door, but it’s just as important to locate the not-so-obvious gaps, joints, and cracks if you want to properly seal your home.

Performing an Energy Assessment

Begin by focusing on areas where unlike materials connects. Examples include the areas between siding and brick, your walls and your foundation, and the chimney and siding. Also closely inspect around the areas listed below for any joints, gaps, or cracks that could cause air leaks:

• Door and window frames
• Mail chutes
• Electrical and gas service entrances
• Cable TV and phone lines
• Outdoor water faucets
• Where dryer vents pass through walls
• Bricks, siding, stucco, and foundation
• Air conditioners
• Vents and fans.

Below are some steps to depressurize your home, which could aid in detecting air leaks.

1. Turn off your furnace on a cool, very windy day.
2. Shut all windows and doors.
3. Turn on all exhaust fans that blow air outside, such as bathroom fans or stove vents.
4. Light an incense stick and pass it around the edges of common leak sites. Wherever the smoke is sucked out of or blown into the room, there’s a draft.

If you don’t want to turn off your furnace, you can just turn on all your exhaust fans to depressurize your home.

Useful Air Detection Tips

• Shine a flashlight at night over all potential gaps while a partner observes the house from outside, using cell phones to communicate with each other. Although it’s not a great method for finding small cracks, it does shed light on the larger ones which will show up as rays of light.
• Shut a door or window on a sheet of paper. If you can pull out the paper without tearing it, you’re losing energy.

For a thorough and accurate measurement of air leakage in your home, Contact American Air and Heat to have a qualified technician conduct an energy assessment of your home or business. An energy assessment will also help determine areas of your home that need additional insulation.

Household Tip: In addition to sealing air leaks, caulking can also do wonders in preventing water damage inside and outside of the home when applied around faucets, ceiling fixtures, water pipes, drains, bathtubs and other plumbing fixtures.
Caulk Selection

Although there are some pressurized caulking cartridges that do not require guns, the most popular compounds are sold in disposable cartridges that fit in half-barrel caulking guns. Make sure to purchase one with an automatic release. When deciding how much caulking to purchase, consider that you’ll probably use about a half-cartridge per window/door and four cartridges for the foundation sill. Caulking compounds can also be found in aerosol cans, squeeze tubes, and ropes for small jobs or special applications.

There are countless caulking compounds on the market today. They all vary in strength, properties, and prices. Water-based caulk can be cleaned with water, while solvent-based compounds require a solvent for cleanup. If you have any questions about ways to reduce your energy costs contact American Air and Heat today.

Even though the weather throughout Central Florida over the past few months has been very mild, we still have about 6-8 weeks of potential cold weather this winter. When the weather gets cold, many residents living in older homes are the ones that are most vulnerable to heat loss.

In order to make your living space more comfortable in cold weather, it’s important to winterize your home by creating fewer opportunities for the cold air to enter and the warm air to escape your home. Residents with homes that are not properly sealed and/or poorly insulated are far less comfortable and are at serious risk of encountering high energy bills when the mercury falls.

Understanding Why Homes Lose Heat?

There are a few primary reasons homes and buildings lose heat. They are heat conduction and air infiltration. Heat conduction is when heat transfers through a material. Air infiltration is when air moves through cracks and crevices. The loss of heat inside a home is caused by both heat conduction and air infiltration.

Heat conduction occurs when heat transfers through a substance and energy is transferred from one molecule to another via direct contact. The molecules themselves do not necessarily change location, but merely pulsate more or less quickly against another.

An example of heat conduction is when the handle of tablespoon that is resting in a cup of hot coffee gets warm. Even though the handle is not actually submerged in the hot coffee, the fluid is close enough to the heat source to get hot. The reason is that when a fluid is heated, some of fluid near the source of the heat tends to be less dense and expand outward. When these less dense areas rise, cooler portions flow in to replace them, which are then themselves subject to heating.

Infiltration is a word that is probably most familiar from its association with the military. In this form, infiltration is the movement through or into an area by either friendly or enemy troops. Air Infiltration also is defined by the word movement. It is defined as the amount of air that escapes in and out of a home through its cracks and crevices.

In our next post we will look at a list of things you can do to weatherize your home or building, such as caulking, weather stripping, insulating, and many other things you can do to help protect you from high energy bills and reduced comfort.

Most people would be surprised to learn that some everyday household items contaminate the air we breathe. These items include: pollen and spores, pet dander, human skin flakes, candle soot, infiltrating dust, viruses, bacteria, and fungi, radon gas, tobacco or wood smoke, cooking smoke and airborne grease and various chemical fumes.  With every breathe we breath, millions of airborne particles are taken in. And believe it or not, the smallest of particles are the one that cause the most concern. Viruses, bacteria, smoke and grease are at the top of the list of these small indoor contaminates that can do the most damage to our health and home.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the demand for cleaner air in our homes has been on the rise.  The effectiveness of the filtration process depends on the type of air cleaner used, and the number and size of the particles in the air. When visiting our customers, we often learn that they are not aware that the basic throw away fiberglass filters collect as little as 3% compared with more effective HEPA filters that capture approximately 99.9% of airborne particles.

These are some of the main air cleaners and filters and how they are categorized:

Basic Filters, which come standard with most HVAC systems. These filters do very little in preventing the small particles and are primarily useful in collecting the large dust that can clog your equipment.

Media Filters, which filter the air using webs of polypropylene fibers. These are the least used filters amongst residential consumers although they are probably among the best available when it comes to efficiency and cost.

Electronic Air Cleaners, Electronic air cleaners draw air through an ionization section where particles obtain an electrical charge. The charged particles then accumulate on a series of flat plates. Ion generators disperse charged ions into the air, similar to the electronic air cleaners but without a collector. The more effective electronic air cleaners capture up to 99.9% of airborne particles.

High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filters are composed of a mat of randomly arranged fibers, generally made of fiberglass. They are designed to block pollutants and particles by trapping airborne particles to the filter fibers using one of three techniques: interception HEPA filters, impaction HEPA filters and diffusion HEPA filters.

In Florida, the need for ductless heat pumps is sometimes a necessity. A mini-split system can be a viable option when adding on to your home with “non-ducted” heating systems. These can include hydronic (hot water heat), radiant panels, and space heaters (wood, kerosene, propane). They can also work for room additions, where extending or installing distribution ductwork is not an option.

Like standard air-source heat pumps, mini splits have two main components: an outdoor compressor/condenser, and an indoor air-handling unit. A conduit, which houses the power cable, refrigerant tubing, suction tubing, and a condensate drain, links the outdoor and indoor units.

Advantages

The main advantages of mini splits are their small size and flexibility for zoning or heating and cooling individual rooms. Many models can have as many as four indoor air handling units (for four zones or rooms) connected to one outdoor unit. The number depends on how much heating or cooling is required for the building or each zone (which in turn is affected by how well the building is insulated). Since each of the zones will have its own thermostat, you only need to condition that place when someone is there. This will save energy and money.

Since mini splits have no ducts, they avoid the energy losses associated with ductwork of central forced air systems. Duct losses can account for more than 30% of energy consumption for space conditioning, especially if the ducts are in an unconditioned space such as an attic.
In comparison to other add-on systems, mini splits offer more flexibility in interior design options. The indoor air handlers can be suspended from a ceiling, mounted flush into a drop ceiling, or hung on a wall. Floor-standing models are also available. Most indoor units have profiles of about seven inches deep and usually come with sleek, high tech-looking jackets. Many also offer a remote control to make it easier to turn the system on and off when it’s positioned high on a wall or suspended from a ceiling.

Split-systems can also help to keep your home safer since there is only a small hole in the wall. Through-the-wall and window mounted room air-conditioners can provide an easy entrance for intruders.

Some of the Disadvantages …

The primary disadvantage of mini splits is their cost. Such systems cost about $1,500–$2,000 per ton (12,000 Btu per hour) of cooling capacity. This is about 30% more than central systems (not including ductwork) and may cost twice as much as window units of similar capacity.
Some people may not like the appearance of the indoor part of the system. While less obtrusive than a window room air conditioner, they seldom have the built-in look of a central system. There must also be a place to drain condensate water near the outdoor unit.

(Source: Department of Energy)

• In general, INDOOR air is two to five times more polluted than OUTDOOR air
• More than 15 million Americans are estimated to have asthma, including one in 13 school-age children
• Because children breathe faster than adults, children inhale 50 percent more air per pound of body weight than adults and are especially sensitive to air quality problems
• It is recommended we drink approximately two quarts of clean water each day. By comparison, we inhale approximately 15,000 quarts of air each day
• Poor indoor air quality negatively affects the health of more than 15 million Americans who have asthma and the 28 million who suffer from hay fever and other allergies.

TIPS FOR A HEALTHIER HOME ENVIRONMENT

• Install an air cleaning filtration system to remove airborne, health-damaging particles and allergens too tiny for your nose and mouth to effectively filter naturally
• Control Dust Mites – Use anti-dust mite covers and wash sheets in hot water at least once a week; 130 degrees is recommended
• Eliminate Mold Sources – Fix leaky pipes and keep bathroom grout clean
• Stay Smoke-Free – Avoid non-ventilated, smoky rooms and second-hand smoke
• Avoid Pet Dander – Keep pets off the furniture, out of the bedroom, and if necessary, consider taking the pet out of the home
• Close Doors and Windows – Keep windows and doors shut to keep outdoor pollens, molds and irritants outside