Barron Heating AC Electrical & Plumbing Blog: Archive for the ‘diagnostics’ Category

Do you know your home? Really?

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2015

A little bit of useful knowledge can go a long way for homeowners.

The average suburban family home has become a much more complicated and sophisticate system than ever before! Long gone are the days of wood-burning stoves and cracking a window open to feel the cool summer breeze. Today’s home commonly has forced-air ductwork, higher efficiency HVAC systems, geothermal systems, and electronic control systems. Many of these systems are new to contractors so it is no wonder that the average U.S. homeowner does not understand how to keep their home performing well. Homeowners must rely on a hired expert – but choosing the right one and one you can trust can be a tricky path.

So, how can homeowners protect themselves? Get to know your home! There are three basic categories of knowledge every owner should have about their home:

Required knowledge
Useful knowledge
Advanced knowledge

Required knowledge

What kinds of things fall into the category of required knowledge? We recommend the following:

Water source: where does your home’s water come from (municipal water, well water, spring water)?
Waste water: where does your home’s waste water go (septic tank, municipal sewer pipe)?
Water main location: where is the water main for the home?
What type of water heater does your home have?
What type of appliance heats your home and where is it located?
What type of fuel is used to heat your home?
Does your home have an emergency on/off switch for the heating system and where is it located?
What is the location of your home’s fire extinguisher?
Does your home have air conditioning and where is it located?
Does your home have a thermostat control and where is it located?
Where are the locations for the main electrical panel and circuit breakers?

Useful knowledge

What kinds of things are useful and good to know about your home? We recommend the following:

What type of roofing is on your home’s roof?
What type of plumbing supply pipes are used in your home (copper, PVC)?
How is your home insulated (attic, roof, walls, how much, what type)?
Are your windows single-glazed, double-glazed or triple-glazed?
Does your home have removable storm windows?
Does your home have a mechanical ventilation system, if so, what type?

Gathering answers to these questions will better prepare you for work that might be performed in your home and will help prevent you from being swindled by crooked contractors.

Advanced knowledge

If homeowners take a little extra time to learn a few building science principles and consider their home as a “whole system” it will be easier to select the appropriate contractor to perform repairs, maintenance or conduct testing on your home. Some of the things that would fall into this category include:

Why does infiltration and exfiltration matter?
Where are air leaks most often located?
How air movement can undermine the performance of fluffy insulation.
How can positive and/or negative pressure affect your home?
What kinds of conditions can lead to condensation within your home?
What are the most cost-effective energy retrofit measures?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of different types of heating fuel?

We are not suggesting that homeowners become home performance experts, but by getting to know your home a little better you can protect yourself and save money in the long run by choosing a contractor with knowledge and confidence in home performance service work. By gathering some basic knowledge about your home, you can work with your contractor to decide how to make your home the best total system it can be for you and for your family.

Posted in Blower Door, Blower Door Testing, Customer Service, diagnostics, Duct Analysis, Energy Efficiency, Home Improvement, Insulation, Whole House Fans, Windows | Comments Off on Do you know your home? Really?

Does Your HVAC System Suffer From High Blood Pressure?

Wednesday, November 4th, 2015

Your furnace, heat pump or air conditioner is the heart of your comfort system.

It’s often said that your furnace, heat pump or air conditioner is the heart of your comfort system. Following the analogy further, your air ducts are its veins & arteries.

And just like high blood pressure is bad for your heart, high “duct static pressure” is bad for your heating and cooling system, your comfort – and your wallet.

When you go to the doctor for a check-up, common practice is for the doctor or nurse to measure your blood pressure. Our service technicians now have the instruments and training to do the same for your ducts when we do the seasonal tune-up, or a home and duct performance assessment.

We’ve been doing this for a while now, and the results are often eye-opening. The heating and cooling equivalent to 80 over 120 is “half an inch” of water column pressure for most systems. When we test the duct pressure, we now routinely find pressures significantly higher than this –often over double!

Why does this matter?

Higher Utility Bills: High pressures in the ducts leads to lower airflow. Lower airflow means lower efficiency. Lower efficiency means higher monthly utility bills.

Comfort: Lower airflow leads to poor distribution of conditioned air throughout the home, contributing to hot and cold spots, or the system not keeping up on the hottest or coldest days.

Noise: High static pressure is often a clue as to why a system is excessively noisy – the same repairs to reduce static pressure usually decrease noise as well.

Repairs: Low airflow causes furnaces to overheat internally, and air conditioners and heat pumps to not function smoothly. Many common expensive repairs – or premature total failure – are directly attributable to low airflow.

The good news is that identifying high static pressure allows us to prescribe the right medicine to make your system and your home happier! Each system is different – but most common airflow improvements are fairly simple and economical. And best of all, they pay for themselves through more efficient operation and lower utility bills.

Next time your HVAC contractor visits your home, ask your technician to take the time to check your ducts static pressure and explain the results. If you are having any comfort, dust or high utility bill issues, give a home performance trained contractor a call and they’ll explain your options for home & duct performance assessments.

Posted in AeroSeal, Buying Tips, Comfort, Comfy Home, diagnostics, Duct Repair, Duct Test, Furnace, Healthy Homes, High Efficiency Systems | Comments Off on Does Your HVAC System Suffer From High Blood Pressure?

Is Your Home A/C Ready?

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

Wes Diskin performing a Home Performance Assessment

The first step in purchasing an Air Conditioner

Before you buy an Air Conditioning Unit, you’ll want to be sure the cool air you’re paying for is not being lost through faulty ducts, home air leakage, and poor insulation. There is a lot a green air conditioning contractor can do to get your home A/C ready!

Now, adding air conditioning CAN be as simple as calling the HVAC company to install a unit. But, as with all things HVAC, the most simplistic answer is not the smartest answer in the long-run. Having diagnostic tests run on your home (or a home performance test) is the only way to know the condition of the home and therefore the only way to install the most cost-effective, comfortable, energy efficient, and healthy air conditioning possible.

Here’s a sample run-through of what you should expect before an A/C install. Be sure to choose a Heating & Cooling company that has a thoroughly trained Home Performance team.

Assess the Current Situation: Furnace, Fuel, Investment

The first thing that should happen is to look at the heat delivery system currently in place. If the furnace and ducting system test well and are in good shape, it’s possible to use the ducting that’s already there. If not, ductless may very well be the way to go. Ductless also offers the option of zonal A/C, which can be handy for certain homes.

Next, it’s important to think about the fuel type. Folks who have natural gas as their heating fuel can pretty easily add an A/C unit to the existing system (if it tests well) and go with a less expensive installation cost. However, if a homeowner is using a more expensive heating fuel like electric, propane, or oil, it probably makes more sense to convert the whole system to a forced-air or ductless heat pump (which both include A/C) because the efficiency of the heat pump technology will allow that new system to pay for itself rapidly.

Diagnostics are Key

A Blower-Door Test is the key to understanding air flow patterns and problems. What is the heat gain in the home?

To be truly A/C-ready, you’ll want a trained Home Performance Technician (all estimators at Barron can do this) to run diagnostics on your house. They will use a blower-door, an infrared camera, a smoke-puffer, and/or other devices as needed to test the air flow and leakages in your home. There are a lot of questions to answer, such as:

What is the heat gain in the home?
Where does the sun come in, which direction is the home oriented, what kind of windows are in place?
What is the condition of the attic?
How much and in what rooms are there air leakage problems?
Can the ducts be used effectively (are they leaky?)
How much insulation is in the attic, crawl space, and walls?

Without first answering these questions (and taking action to address them), there is no way to ensure you’re dollars spent on conditioned air are being spent effectively. Attic insulation is especially important, as attic temperatures can run very high, making it harder for your A/C unit to do it’s job. If you’re using ducts to deliver your A/C, having them sealed tightly is also a pretty huge deal. Because duct-work is pressurized, leaky ducts can lose massive amounts of conditioned air; not to mention leaky ducts can carry in a bevy of nasty particulates from your insulation or dirty crawl space. A knowledgeable HVAC contractor will be able to apply the principles of building science to your specific home, to get a whole-house perspective.

The Benefits of A/C Readiness

Taking the time to truly be A/C Ready has the obvious benefit of getting the most bang for your buck, but it can be nice to see all the ways and angles that your home, health, and pocketbook will benefit from looking at the big picture. Having your home tested (with Home Performance) and analyzed for A/C Readiness in the end will mean:

You’re investing in a permanent and lasting change in your whole home, and not just adding an A/C unit that is more or less only a temporary fix (depending on the state of your home).
Any energy upgrades you make will prolong the life of the A/C unit, since it won’t have to work as hard, and there will be less repairs.
Big changes to the building envelope and energy upgrades can help when you decide to sell your home.
The equipment chosen is guaranteed to be properly sized for your particular home and cooling needs. Detailed diagnostics give us all the clues to choose the best possible system with dialed-in performance.
The air you breathe will be cleaner and healthier, which can often relieve certain types of medical symptoms suffered by you and your family.
You will be assisting the planet by creating a more energy efficient home!