Know When You Should Call a Professional We get asked a lot about unusual smells coming from HVAC systems. Sometimes the answer has to do with something completely unrelated to your equipment, like the tuna sandwich a toddler put into a vent (true story) or even a gassy pet! Nevertheless, sometimes these odors are problematic, beyond removing just a yucky part of an ... Continue Reading
Healthy HVAC: What You Need to Know
Improved Ventilation, UV Light Air Sanitizers and Even a New Air Filter Can Make a Difference in your HVAC System With so much in the news lately, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest instructions to maintain safety in both the home and workplace. We get asked quite a bit about the guidelines for best practices when it comes to heating and air conditioning ... Continue Reading
Indoor Air Quality and VOCs: Is Your Family or Business Exposed?
Healthy Indoor Air Keeps Your Family Healthy It’s easy to panic if you read the newspaper regularly; every new scientific study or discovery seems like bad news. From bacon to backbends, everything we seem to be eating, or doing is either dangerous or wrong, or both. Normally, we’d tell you just to lighten up. As long as you’re not eating BLTs twice a day, the ... Continue Reading
Ways To Make Your Commercial Building’s Indoor Air Smell Less Like Work and More Like a Forest After a Storm
Okay, So Maybe At Least Just Less Stuffy, Anyway The weather has been beautiful lately here in Southern California. While anyone who works in a commercial office building can tell you that it’s sure nice to be inside when the weather isn’t so great in the San Gabriel Valley, we do hear from a lot of people when the air outside is fresh and clean. “My office is so ... Continue Reading
Achooooo! Sick Building Syndrome Is Nothing to Sneeze At.
Commercial Building Owners Risk Lowered Employee Productivity, Frequent Illness It’s not just in your head, or it could be. Headaches along with congestion, coughing, itchy noses, red eyes, or even just plain fatigue and feeling “blah” are common symptoms associated with the all-too-common “sick building syndrome” found in many of today’s commercial buildings. ... Continue Reading
Cover Me: Learn Strategic Uses of Vent Covers To Improve Indoor Comfort
Vent Covers Are Your Secret Weapon When It Comes to Maintaining Ideal Temperature In Your Home It doesn’t matter what time of year it is, or whether you want your home hotter or colder. The truth is that using your vent covers in the right way can help you not only save energy and reduce your utility bills, but get your house “just right” summer or winter. How It ... Continue Reading
Life Before Air Conditioning, Or “When It Was Sweaty”
What Did People Do Before Air-Tro? Summer is almost here, and the hot afternoons are only getting warmer as the summer days go by. Anyone who has come from the oven-like outdoor conditions into the cool refreshment of an indoor room can tell you that air conditioning is a lifesaver when July and August hit, especially in Southern California. Indeed, studies of ... Continue Reading
Stay Safe: Carbon Monoxide Warning
The Danger No One Can See or Smell in Your Home If you have a gas or oil furnace, boiler, stove, hot water heater, kerosene heater or other, similar appliance in your home, don’t take chances when it comes to carbon monoxide. An odorless, colorless gas, carbon monoxide displaces oxygen in your bloodstream by attaching itself to hemoglobin. At best, carbon monoxide ... Continue Reading
Who Knew? Ancient Kuwaitis Had Air Conditioning
Archeologists Make Major HVAC Discovery From the unusual news of the month file, we read recently that Slovakian archeologists working in the Persian Gulf have carefully unearthed a man-made interior air conditioning system on Failaka Island. We bet you didn’t know there was a cadre of Slovakian archeologists out there excavating, did you? And second, we’re ... Continue Reading
Do Turkeys Enjoy Air Conditioning and Other Important Thanksgiving Questions
It's All About the Bird Here at Air-Tro. As the holiday season begins, we reflect upon how grateful we are for so many things this year. The opportunity to serve the families and businesses that make up our community is truly an honor, and one for which we’ll never stop giving thanks. In this time of worldwide change and tumult, we love the holiday that celebrates all the ... Continue Reading
How to Ensure Your Home is Prepared for the Searing Summer Heat
How to Prepare Your Home for the Hot Summer Months Ahead Summer can mean enjoyable outings and outdoor barbecues, but it can also mean higher energy bills and discomfort from the higher temperatures. Now is the best time to prepare your home for those hotter days. Make your home a cooler haven by taking the following steps. Invest in Insulating Window Treatments If you ... Continue Reading
Los Angeles IAQ: What Should You Do to Improve Indoor Air Quality this Fall?
Los Angeles IAQ: What Should You Do to Improve Indoor Air Quality this Fall?The Los Angeles smog, fall pollen and mold spores, and many other air contaminants make poor indoor air qualitypoor a common problem in our area. If you want to breathe easier this fall, there's a lot you can do to clean up your home's air. Control pollutants at their source - Improperly ... Continue Reading
3 Home Ventilation Options to Keep You Cool in Monrovia
3 Home Ventilation Options to Keep You Cool in MonroviaAdequate home ventilation has always been a major factor in keeping the house comfortable and the indoor environment fresh. Houses built before the 1970s got a lot more ventilation simply because residential construction standards permitted more cracks and gaps, and air exchange with the outdoors happened naturally. As ... Continue Reading
HVAC Pasadena: Common Attic Ventilation Myths & Misconceptions
HVAC Pasadena: Common Attic Ventilation Myths & Misconceptions Effective attic ventilation is one of the most basic elements of energy-efficient homes. If your attic has insufficient exchange of stale and fresh air, your living space might get too hot or cold, depending on the season. Poor attic ventilation can also lead to moisture buildup in your attic, damaging ... Continue Reading
Need Better Ventilation in Your Monrovia Home? 4 Options
If the air in your Monrovia home constantly seems stuffy or stale, if odors seem to linger, or if you have persistent allergies, it is possible that your home could use a whole-house ventilation system. There are four main types of systems which vary in price, operation and climate suitability: ... Continue Reading
Energy Recovery Ventilators Boost Indoor Air Quality and Save Energy
Energy Recovery Ventilators Boost Indoor Air Quality and Save Energy Many homeowners are interested in the potential energy savings of air sealing their home. Although finding and fixing air leaks can indeed save energy and money, tightly sealed homes can risk poor indoor air quality without proper ventilation. Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) provide a solution for ... Continue Reading
