Surviving the Dog Days of Summer

Keeping cool in the height of summer is important not only for your comfort but also your health. You can experience heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and other heat-related illnesses when temperatures reach unbearably high levels.Here are some tips to help you stay cool in the dog days of summer.

Get a portable fan

A fan increases air circulation and makes you feel cooler. For an even greater cooling effect, place a tray or bowl of ice in front of the blowing fan. Melting ice will cool the air around you.

Wear cotton clothing 

Light-colored, loose-fitting cotton clothing will make you feel cooler than many synthetic fabrics.

Alter your outdoor workout routine

Schedule your outdoor workouts for late evenings or early mornings to avoid direct sunlight. This will help you maintain healthy internal temperature levels while exercising. If it isn't possible to alter your workout times, consider scaling down your exercises by reducing your exertion levels or minutes of activity.

Stay hydrated

Drink cold glasses of water along with sports drinks that are low in sugar but high on electrolytes throughout the day. This will help lower your body temperature. Alcohol and caffeine can dehydrate you, so it's best to avoid them in the dog days of summer.

Avoid large meals

Metabolic heat is required for the digestion of food. Your body will warm up as it processes large meals. Eating small meals frequently can help you stay cooler.

Keep curtains and blinds closed

Blocking out sunlight during the day prevents your rooms from overheating.

Shower frequently

Take frequent showers or baths with cool water. It can be challenging to stay cool and comfortable in the dog days of summer. The above-mentioned tips will help make the heat less aggravating. For more tips on how to stay comfortable in the summer, please contact Air Assurance. Broken Arrow homeowners have counted on us for all their home comfort and efficiency needs since 1985.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Have You Changed Your Ceiling Fan Direction Yet?

When you're making the transition from heating to cooling your home this year, a related task that's well worth tackling is changing your ceiling fan direction. Once the blades are going in the right direction, you can use your ceiling fans strategically to boost your comfort, help you save energy and make your HVAC equipment last longer too.

Ceiling Fan Direction Simplified

Ceiling fan blades are purposefully designed to spin either forward or backward, and the direction of the spin is controlled via a small button found on the fan housing. This simple button adjustment allows you to change the blade rotation on a seasonal basis: in the summer, you want the blades spinning forward, in a counter-clockwise direction, so they create a cooling breeze. This “wind chill” helps perspiration evaporate and makes the body feel more comfortable.Making the change on all your ceiling fans isn't a difficult or time-consuming chore. Once the blades are set to spin counter-clockwise, you can:

• Save energy without sacrificing comfort by dialing up your usual thermostat temperature setting a few degrees. Doing so can help you lower your energy bills for the entire cooling season.

• Help lighten your heat pump or air conditioner's workload. By reducing strain and wear on your cooling equipment, there's less chance that it will break down at the height of the cooling season, and it will likely last longer as well.

Important Details to Know About Ceiling Fan Use

In our climate, ceiling fans can't completely replace air conditioning when the weather heats up, because they can't change the actual air temperature. What ceiling fans do is move air very effectively, and it's the cooling sensation created by air movement that lets you feel more comfortable. Understanding this makes it easy to see why it's only beneficial to run the ceiling fan in an occupied room. To avoid wasting any energy by having fans running unnecessarily, just make sure you switch the fan off whenever you exit a room.

To learn more ways to make your Broken Arrow home more comfortable this summer, contact us at Air Assurance.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

HVAC Considerations for a Bathroom Renovation

Are you considering a bathroom renovation? You're likely looking at more efficient fixtures and the latest in bathtub, sink and toilet design. But there's one key area in a bathroom renovation some homeowners overlook: exhaust ventilation.If your ventilation is lacking, bathroom renovations are the perfect opportunity for installing or upgrading an exhaust system.

Why Exhaust Ventilation Is a Must

Most of the humidity generated in a home comes from the bathroom or the kitchen. In the bathroom, the source is likely showers, running water in the sink and flushing toilets. All this moisture has an impact on the home, resulting in:

• Stale air and unpleasant bathroom odors.

• Excess moisture in the home, leading to higher summertime humidity and a need to lower the thermostat when the humidity makes the home seem too warm.

• Mold, mildew and fungus on tile, shower curtains, floors, walls and ceilings, leading to a musty smell and damaged drywall.

If you have a window, the solution could be to open it and turn on a fan to blow out the moisture. However, this isn't always practical and modern homes seldom have bathroom windows.The best solution is to install exhaust ventilation, but ductwork must lead to the outdoors. A system that empties moist air into the attic or in spaces between ceiling joists will cause wood rot and mold. If existing ductwork leads to these places, it should be extended so that it goes through the roof or an exterior wall.

Choosing an Exhaust System

Homeowners have many choices of exhaust systems these days, including quieter, more efficient models than were available in the past.You will need to find exhaust fan with the right airflow capacity for your bathroom, which is measured in cubic feet per minute (cfm). Figure 1 cfm per square foot and a minimum of 50 cfm. For bigger bathrooms (more than 100 square feet), figure at least 50 cfm for each toilet, bathtub and shower.

For more on bathroom renovations and exhaust ventilation, contact Air Assurance. We've served Broken Arrow and the surrounding area for more than 30 years.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about bathroom renovations and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “jarmoluk/Pixabay”

Areas of Your Home That Need the Most Ventilation

When it comes to home comfort and energy efficiency, ventilation – aka effective air exchange – plays a crucial role. Without adequate fresh air in a home, indoor air quality will suffer, with the environment becoming stale, stuffy and unhealthy.Learn what areas of your home will benefit from effective ventilating strategies, along with why whole-house mechanical air exchange may be necessary as well.

Nowadays, with energy efficiency increasingly stressed in building construction, working mechanical ventilation has become more important than ever. In the past, much of a home’s air-exchange needs were satisfied incidentally, with abundant air exchange through cracks and gaps in the home’s exterior envelope. That’s not the case any longer with the tight home construction of today.

The most common type of mechanical ventilation in a home is the bathroom exhaust fan. Most bathrooms are equipped with this fan, which not only de-fogs the room but also carries away unpleasant and noxious odors and contaminants.Next on the list is the kitchen, which almost always has a stovetop fan that carries away smells from cooking and food preparation, keeping them from spreading through the rest of the house.

One area where many homeowners neglect ventilation is the attic. Yet, effective air exchange is essential in the attic. Without it, during the summer, an attic can get superheated, and that heat eventually will transfer into the living spaces below. During the heating season, an attic without proper venting may help cause ice dams on the roof that can lead to extensive structural damage in a home.

In many homes, mechanical air exchange is necessary on a whole-house basis. Increasingly popular are balanced and supply-only systems, with the most common balanced system being Energy Recovery and Heat Recovery ventilating systems (ERV and HRV, respectively). Using parallel air streams, one blowing out and one blowing in, these systems ensure fresh air while also transferring heat and moisture (in ERVs) to help with home heating and cooling and humidity control.

We can help devise an effective ventilation strategy for your Broken Arrow area home. Please contact us at Air Assurance.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about ventilation and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “clker-free-vector-images/Pixabay”

Don't Forget the Fans When It Comes to Low-Cost Comfort

Don't Forget the Fans When It Comes to Low-Cost Comfort

It's possible to cut the cost of cooling your home during our hot summers by raising the thermostat and using fans to provide cost-efficient cooling. Besides moving air, a fan can also reduce the cooling load in your home. These affordable devices use little electricity and make a measurable difference in your comfort during the cooling season. Ceiling fanIf your home's ceiling plate is eight feet or higher, you can use a ceiling fan in the rooms you use the most to move the air. If you choose one with a reversing switch, it can keep the room warmer in the winter, as well. These devices need to be carefully hung from a fan-rated box that's firmly attached to the ceiling for stability and safety. The blades should be between seven or eight feet from the floor for maximum comfort.Spot fanAlmost all homes have kitchen and bathroom fans that remove heat, humidity and odors. Their small size belies their capacity at removing air, so once the air's been cleared, it's a good idea to turn the fan off to save the conditioned air you've paid to cool.Attic fanInstalling an attic fan will keep your attic cooler because it pulls cooler outdoor air inside. This cuts your cooling load, since attic temperatures go well over 100 degrees F on a sunny day in the summer. An attic fan pulls cooler outdoor air in, which replaces the heated air in the attic. As the air cools, so does the insulation and the wood framing. Less heat in the attic translates to less warmth radiating into your home.These devices plug into an outlet, or you can use a solar attic fan. If your attic doesn't have an outlet, an electrician can wire it for you. Look for a fan with a thermostatic switch that turns on when temperatures reach a specific temperature.If you'd like to learn more about fans and increasing your comfort this summer, contact Air Assurance. We've provided outstanding HVAC services for the Broken Arrow region for more than 30 years.Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  Image courtesy of Shutterstock