Simple Tips for Saving Electricity...and Your Wallet There’s a lot of talk during the spring and summer months about how to save electricity, but the chorus of suggestions always seems to fade by this point in the year. Sure, we should all turn down the thermostat. Who doesn't look good in a sweater? And yes, conserving energy also helps the environment, especially by ... Continue Reading
Ductwork Pasadena: Properly Seal Ductwork with Mastic and Mesh Tape
Many homeowners take their HVAC air ducts for granted. Yet, this ductwork plays a vital role in delivering conditioned air throughout their homes and bringing "used" air back to their furnace, A/C or heat pump. In many homes, either because of poor installation or maintenance, or from the ravages of time, leaks in ductwork can result in a significant loss of conditioned ... Continue Reading
Duct Sealing: Keep the Cool Air Flowing When Summer's at its Hottest
Poor duct work sealing might be causing all kinds of problems in your home without you even knowing about it. If your home was built in the 1980s or earlier, the duct work was probably never sealed properly to begin with. Energy conservation wasn't a big concern and duct work was often connected with hex head screws that just kept the runs from coming apart. ... Continue Reading
Sealing Your Ductwork: How Your Contractor Can Help You
If you notice a small air leak in your ducts, you can usually repair it yourself. However, it is important to call in a professional to have the system fully evaluated and repaired. While some ducts are obvious and easy to get to, many of the ducts in your home are in difficult-to-reach areas like crawl spaces and attics. Sealing your ductwork in these areas is a job for a ... Continue Reading
Troubling Signs That Your Ductwork Needs Attention
The ductwork in your home serves as a network of tubes that deliver heated or cooled air to every room. Sometimes, problems occur with the duct system that waste money, degrade home comfort and even threaten your health. Here are some troubling signs that your ductwork needs attention. ... Continue Reading
Duct Diagnostics: 4 Steps To A More Efficient System
If your cooling or heating equipment isn’t performing up to par, it may have nothing to do with your A/C unit or furnace. The trouble’s more than likely some distance away, out of sight in the attic or the crawl space where your ductwork runs. Proper duct diagnostics performed by an HVAC pro will reveal problems with duct leakage, inadequate ductwork insulation or ... Continue Reading
Duct Sealing: How You're Bound To Benefit
In homes with a forced-air heating or cooling system, the ductwork serves as the vital pathway by which conditioned air travels outward from your furnace or air conditioner to all points in your home. Because all of the conditioned air used to keep your home comfortable must travel through the ductwork, there is an ongoing possibility of air and energy loss that will ... Continue Reading
A Guide To Duct Insulation For Los Angeles-Area Homeowners
You probably don’t give much thought to the ductwork running behind your walls, floors and ceilings. However, without proper duct insulation, you could be losing energy, especially in areas where ducts run through unconditioned spaces such as the attic or garage. Adding duct insulation prevents heat loss through conduction, which can waste 10-30 percent of the energy ... Continue Reading
Seal Those Ductwork Leaks — It's About More Than Efficiency
Sealing the ductwork in your heating or cooling system is commonly recommended as a way to increase the system’s efficiency and to improve your home’s indoor comfort. It’s good advice; ductwork leaks let air you’ve already paid to heat or cool just drift away on the wind. By properly sealing the ductwork, you can make your HVAC system as much as 20 percent more efficient. ... Continue Reading
Duct-Sealing Materials: Why You Should Never Use Duct Tape For Sealing Ducts
Who can blame the average homeowner for being a bit confused about duct tape? After all, people use it to patch together appliances, doors and even their cars. If it weren't for duct tape, Apollo 13 astronauts may not have made it back to earth, as they used it for an emergency equipment repair. But as strange as it may sound, duct tape should not be used to seal ducts ... Continue Reading
Seal The Leaks In Your Ductwork — You'll Plug A Drain On Your Pocketbook
Leaky ductwork is a major cause of home energy inefficiency. If you have a forced-air HVAC system in your home, running your air conditioner or heater when you have leaks in your ducts essentially causes the entire system to work harder than it would otherwise have to in order to cool or warm your home to the desired level. This is because conditioned air is escaping ... Continue Reading
Duct Tape Has Many Uses – Taping Ducts Isn’t One of Them!
Why We Use Mastic, Not Duct Tape Facts you should know about Duct Tape: Duration of the UL standard Attic Duct Tape Test: 60 days Actual time the duct tape should last in your attic: 20 years Test weight used by UL in the attic Duct Tape Test: 9.5 pounds Actual weight of standard 12” dia. Length of duct: 13 pounds First year UL published a standard for ... Continue Reading
Are You Getting What You Paid For?
When you shop for a furnace or air conditioning unit, there's a real good chance you'll get confused. You'll hear different names, numbers, abbreviations and acronyms used to describe the capacity and efficiency of the equipment. The Federal Energy Standards Act was enacted to help clear up some of this confusion and to give a home-owner some basis of comparison between ... Continue Reading
Six Strategies To Boost The Efficiency Of Your HVAC System
When your HVAC system is working properly, the efficiency of the unit can save money on your monthly bills. These six strategies will help you boost the efficiency of your system and lengthen its life span: ... Continue Reading
