How to Keep the Temperature in Your Home From Fluctuating Too Wildly

While it's expected that outdoor temperatures will fluctuate depending on the weather, fluctuating temperatures inside your home can make it terribly uncomfortable. However, there is something you can do about those temperature swings from room to room. We've put together a list of the top reasons temperatures inside Broken Arrow homes fluctuate so wildly and what to do about it.

Thermostat Issues

If you are like many homeowners, you adjust the thermostat going to and from work and at bedtime to save energy. However, this can result in very uncomfortable temperature fluctuations, especially when you arrive home or wake up to a cool home.

A programmable, Wi-Fi, or smart thermostat is a great solution to fluctuating temperatures, striking a balance between comfort and energy savings. Simply program your comfort and energy-saving settings on your new thermostat and — voila! — problem solved.

Air Leaks and Fluctuating Temperatures

Another common culprit for fluctuating temperatures inside homes is air leaks around windows and doors. You've felt it before: You walk into a room and feel a draft. The reason could be leaky windows and doors.

This cause of fluctuating temperatures is easily remedied by installing caulking of various materials around the leaky windows and doors in your home. For example, rope caulk can be used to seal leaky window frames, and it's easily removed in the spring when you want to let in fresh air.

Ductwork and Fluctuating Temperatures

Evenly distributed airflow is needed in your home to maintain stable temperatures from room to room. However, ductwork issues such as blocked air vents, dirty ducts, and duct leaks often hinder your furnace from heating your home comfortably and evenly.

Make sure air vents are free from obstructions, such as furniture blocking airflow or dust and dirt buildup. If your ductwork hasn't been inspected in quite some time, call your HVAC technician for a preventive maintenance inspection to ensure your furnace and air ducts are operating efficiently. Sometimes, your HVAC system just needs a little TLC to make your home as comfortable as possible.

If you need assistance with fluctuating temperatures, please contact Air Assurance today.

January HVAC Maintenance To-Dos

Now that the new year is upon us, it's time to start thinking about January HVAC maintenance that will help improve your household. To help you out, we've compiled some quick tasks that you can add to your to-do list:

Replace the Air Filter

Now that the holidays are over and your guests have returned home, there's a good chance that your air filter has become a bit clogged and needs to be replaced. Some models can be cleaned instead, but the main point is to get an operational filter in your system so that it runs more smoothly. This will save you both energy and money on your monthly utility bill.

Contact an HVAC Technician

January is a great month to hire a qualified technician for the annual HVAC maintenance of your system. He or she will perform a tune-up of the system and pinpoint any problems that currently exist or could be an issue later on down the road. This maintenance will keep the unit running smoothly and efficiently. Plus, it will prolong the system's operational longevity.

Seal Air Leaks in Your Home

Air leaks throughout your home force your HVAC system to work harder in order to maintain a good comfort level. Find these air leaks and get them sealed with either weather stripping, caulk, or spray foam depending on the location and size. Around the edges of your doors and windows are a great place to start, and checking for tears in your home's ductwork is a good idea, too.

Check Your Registers

If you had a bunch of activity in your home over the holidays, there's a good chance that your registers have become blocked by furniture or simply gotten clogged up with dirt or debris. Make sure that the registers are clean and unobstructed to ensure proper airflow throughout your home.

For more expert advice on January HVAC maintenance or any other issues related to home comfort, reach out to the friendly professionals at Air Assurance. We've been serving Broken Arrow and the surrounding area for over 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 other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

How to Locate Cold Air Leaks Around the House

Air leaks allow cold outside air to sneak into your home and steal your comfort and money. As the cold air gets into your home, your heating system is forced to work harder to deliver more hot air continuously, driving up your energy bills. The first step to winning the fight against cold air leaks is finding out where exactly the leakage is occurring. Here are some useful tips to help you achieve that.

Visual Inspection

The most common place for warm air to leak out of your home is around doors and windows. You can spot existing gaps by simply looking over door and window frames. If you see daylight around the frame, that's a sign of a leak. Having someone go outside at night and shine a flashlight over window and door frames will also reveal locations of large air leaks. If you observe from inside dark rooms, you'll see the light in the areas where the leaks are taking place.Also check for gaps and cracks around:

• electrical outlets

• baseboards

• switch plates

• light fixtures

• attic hatches

• vents and fans

Smoke Test

You can locate the leaks that are less easily visible by conducting a smoke test.

1. Turn off your furnace and any other combustion appliances on a cool, windy day.

2. Walk around the potential leak sites with a lit incense stick. You'll know you have a leak if the smoke wavers or is blown back into the room.

Call in a Pro

If you want an accurate gauge of your home's cold air leaks, hire a technician to conduct a professional energy audit. He or she can perform a thermal infrared scan or a blower door test to measure your home's airtightness and locate sources of air leaks.

The energy you lose through cold air leaks can be equivalent to leaving a window open throughout the winter, so locating and sealing these leaks is well worth the time and effort. If you want to truly maximize your Broken Arrow home's energy efficiency by scheduling an energy audit, contact the professionals 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.

Checking for Air Leaks Before it Warms Up

Air leaks are at the top of the list when it comes to reasons why homeowners aren't enjoying maximum efficiency from their HVAC systems. Minute cracks throughout your home can let your conditioned air leak out, while allowing unconditioned air inside, compromising your heating and cooling efforts and boosting your utility bills.Learn how to deal with leaking air, and improve your home's efficiency before cooling season arrives.

Where Most Air Leaks Are Found

Cracks in your home can develop anywhere but are most common in these locations:

• around doors and windows

• between the exterior doors and the floor

• around baseboards

• around attic hatch doors (if your attic is unconditioned)

• around openings for wires, cables and pipes in exterior walls

• electric switches

• recessed lighting (again, if the attic is unconditioned)

You can find leaks by lighting an incense stick and waving it in front of these places. If the smoke wavers, you have a leak.

Fixing Air Leaks

1. Fix air leaks around doors and windows by applying weatherstripping, caulk or insulation.2. Apply a door sweeper to the bottom of exterior doors. Make sure the door moves freely along the floor without hanging up.3. Apply thin beads of caulk between baseboards and drywall.4. For attic hatches, attach foam board to the door, and weatherstripping around the opening perimeter.5. Use weatherstripping or insulation around wires, cables and pipes running through exterior walls.6. Install foam gaskets inside switch boxes.7. Install fire-rated, insulated covers over recessed lighting canisters.

Don't Forget the Ducts

If you can access your ductwork, check it for leaks, particularly if it is located in an unconditioned space such as the attic or basement. Fix leaks or disconnected segments with metal screws, foil tape (no duct tape -- it won't hold up) and mastic sealant.You might also think about insulating your ducts to stop heat or cooling loss in the unconditioned spaces.Boost your home's efficiency by fixing air leaks. Then, how about putting the money you save on utilities toward an upgraded HVAC system from Air Assurance of Broken Arrow?

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 air leaks and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Tight Ductwork: Why it's Important

To keep your HVAC system working at its most efficient level, you must have tight ducts. Leaks in your ducts allow energy loss as heated or cooled air leaves the system before it's delivered where it's needed. Uneven or overly high energy bills are a clear sign of leaking ducts. Here's why it's important to keep your ducts tight, and what you can do if you suspect you have an issue.

Tight Ducts Keep Your Home More Efficient and Comfortable

Tight ductwork is crucial for two reasons. First, it keeps your home more comfortable. Leaky ducts can allow heated or cooled energy to escape before it reaches areas of your home, and this can hurt the overall comfort of your home.Second, ducts that leak allow energy to leave the system, and with it the money you've worked hard for. Leaky ducts make your energy bills higher than they should be.

Signs of Ductwork Leaks

So beyond the discomfort or high energy bills, are there any signs that indicate you have a problem with your ducts? These can be signs of ductwork issues that need to be addressed:

• Rattling noises from the ducts

• Uneven heating and cooling throughout the home

• Loud "swoosh" of air flow

While these may or may not indicate a leak, if you're noticing them, you need to talk to a qualified HVAC professional to ensure you don't have a serious problem brewing.

How to Fix a Leak

Fixing a ductwork leak requires the right knowledge and understandings about how these systems work. Duct tape, unfortunately, is all-too-common of a solution, but one that does little real good. Instead, you need to seal leaks with mastic sealant or a quality metal tape designed for the purpose. However, finding the leaks is not always easy, so it's always best to consult with a qualified HVAC professional.

Of you suspect that you might have a leaky duct problem in your Broken Arrow home, contact the Air Assurance team for an evaluation and workable solution. With tighter ducts, you will enjoy a more comfortable and more efficient home.

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 tight ductwork and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “byrev/Pixabay”

Ways to Detect Air Leaks

Air sealing your home's shell is one of the most practical and cost-effective home efficiency upgrades you can do. When you consider all of the potential benefits -- better comfort, improved IAQ, energy savings and less HVAC wear -- put a star next to it on the top of your home improvement to-do list! Read through the following tips to get started.

Ways to Detect Air Leaks

Air bypass and leaks may occur anywhere two (or more) different home building materials meet. So, that's a lot of ground to cover.

• Outside your home: Note any gaps between the materials of your home's exterior, such as walls to foundation, walls to windows and doors and cladding to cladding. Note any pipes, cables and vents that protrude the walls.

• Inside your home: Use a smoke pencil or incense stick to detect air movement by wavering smoke. Check around windows, all entry doors to the living spaces, wall switch plates, electrical outlets and your attic hatch.

• Basement: Note cracks and gaps in the floor, walls and ceiling of your unconditioned basement. Check for gaps around pipes, ducts and cables.

• Attic: Look for dirt marks on insulation. Note gaps around pipes, ducts, cables and the flue. Does the attic door seal tightly? It should.

• Garage: Sealing off an attached garage is a matter of safety and health.

Sealing Up Your Home

• Outside your home: Potential air leaks through gaps and cracks can be sealed with silicone caulk or a can of expanding spray-on foam.

• Inside your home: Replace brittle, damaged or missing door weatherstripping with silicone tubing. Caulk of various types, such as squeeze tube and rope, is great for sealing windows. Foam strips generally work well for sealing off your attic door. Gaskets are used to seal wall switch plates and outlets.

• Basement and attic: Use caulk and expanding spray-on for gaps and cracks in your attic and basement. Seal loose ductwork with metal tape.

• Garage: Finish, seal and paint unfinished walls.

If you need a professional's touch detecting and sealing air leaks in your Broken Arrow area home, contact us at Air Assurance today!

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 air leaks and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “geralt/Pixabay”

Lowering Your Heating Load For Your Home

You might be surprised to hear how much control you have over the amount you pay in heating bills, as well as how big a furnace or heat pump is required to heat your home. Furnace sizing is directly related to your home's heating load, as is the amount you pay in monthly energy bills. If you lower the heating load, you can get away with a smaller furnace and lower heating bills.Following are some effective ways to reduce the heating load of your home:

• Seal air leaks. When warm air is escaping your home via gaps in the outer envelope, the furnace has to work harder to replace that warm air. In the summer, when warm air is infiltrating your home through the same openings, your A/C has to work harder. Using caulk, weatherstripping or spray foam (depending on the location and size of air leak), seal your house so it's as airtight as possible.

• Upgrade insulation. Without adequate insulation in walls, foundation, ceilings and attic, heat energy has an easier time transferring to the outside in winter and inside in the summer. As with air leaks, this forces your furnace to work harder, wasting energy and stressing parts. Attic insulation especially is important to keep heat inside.

• Get a programmable thermostat. These devices allow you to set energy-saving programs to match your daily schedule. The thermostat will lower heating when nobody's home or when everybody's asleep at night, and return it to your comfort level shortly before home occupants are expected to awaken or return home from work or school.

• Use ceiling fans. In the winter, set the fan blade rotation to clockwise. This blows air upward, where it displaces warm air that collects near the ceiling, pushing it down into the room where people can feel it.

• Schedule preventive maintenance. Make sure you schedule a maintenance tuneup on your furnace once a year, to ensure it's operating effectively, efficiently and safely.

More more information on how to lower the heating load in your Broken Arrow area home, please call 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 heating loads and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay”

How to Perform Your Own Energy Tests

How's your home doing, energy-wise? If you're like most Americans, you probably don't know how efficient it is at using energy. A professional energy audit could probably enlighten you, but maybe that's an expense you're not quite ready to tackle. Until that day comes, you might perform some energy tests of your own and see what you can find out.

Air Leaks

Air leaks are one of the easiest energy wasters to locate, and correcting them can help you save 10-20 percent on your utility bill each year.Locate air leaks by waving a lit incense stick near obvious places for leaking air, such as around door and window frames, the edge of the floor, along baseboard gaps and where the walls and ceiling meet. Also check around plumbing and light fixtures, switch plates and electrical outlets. Places where two different types of building materials meet on the outside of your home are also likely places for air leaks.When you locate air leaks, repair them with caulk and insulation. Put door sweeps under doors and foam gaskets under the plastic covers of switch plates.

Insulation

Most homes, whether old or new, are insulation deficient and need a boost. Cover the attic floor with enough insulation to reach over the rafters. Make sure the attic door is insulated and weather stripped. Insulate ductwork in unconditioned spaces.You can blow in wall insulation this way: locate studs with a stud finder, cut out 2-inch holes in the drywall (saving the sections), then aim the applicator hose in the holes and blow in the insulation. You will have to reinsert the drywall hole sections and patch and paint.

Check Your Equipment

Check the efficiency of your HVAC system. If it's an older model, it could be time for replacement. Choose a more efficient Energy Star model.

Change to Efficient Lighting

Switch to efficient incandescent, fluorescent or light-emitting diode bulbs to save on electricity.Want to learn more about do-it-yourself energy tests? Contact Air Assurance. We provide safe, effective and efficient service and installations in Broken Arrow.

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 energy tests and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “geralt/Pixabay”

How to Increase Air Conditioner Efficiency

A high-efficiency air conditioner keeps your home cool while at the same time using less energy and costing you less money. Over time, however, issues can develop that decrease air conditioner efficiency and drive up your cooling costs. Here are a few steps you can take to boost A/C efficiency, reduce energy usage, and trim your monthly bills.

• Have preventive maintenance performed — A preventive maintenance check-up gives your trusted HVAC professional to opportunity to inspect your cooling system from end to end. He will make adjustments and minor repairs that will increase efficiency and performance quality. Maintenance should be done at least once a year, usually in the springtime before cooling season sets in.

• Change air filters — Dirty, clogged air filters can restrict the air flow your cooling system needs to work properly and at its best level of efficiency. Check filter condition at least once a month. Put new, fresh filters in when the old ones get dirty.

• Cut down on heat gain — Heat gain is the accumulation of heat inside your home from external sources. These include sunshine coming through windows, heat from appliances, and heat radiating downward from a hot attic. To avoid sunshine, close drapes and curtains. Avoid running ovens and clothes dryers at the hottest times of day. Make sure your attic is well ventilated and insulated to keep it cool.

• Use a programmable thermostat — Programmable thermostats help you get the best efficiency from your air conditioner. Use pre-programmed set points to control when the air conditioner turns off and on. Program the thermostat to reduce cooling when you're not at home, such as during the workday, then automatically increase cooling to make your living spaces comfortable when you get back.

• Seal ductwork to stop air leaks — Make sure ductwork connections are fitted tightly together and that they are sealed with mastic or metal tape.

Air Assurance is Tulsa's leading choice for professional HVAC sales, installation, maintenance, and repair. Contact us today for more information on air conditioner efficiency and how to keep your cooling system working at its best throughout the summer and beyond.

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). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Juergen-Faelchle/Shutterstock”