5 Smart Heating Options for Your Home

Keeping your home warm in the winter can be a difficult task. Heating needs change throughout the day, and often, you have to keep adjusting the thermostat to maintain comfort. Fortunately, there's a solution: Smart heating can help you make your home comfortable all day, with a lot less effort, by adjusting to your home-comfort needs automatically. Here are five different types of smart heating for your home:

1. Multistage heating. A multistage furnace has two or more speeds. On colder days, it delivers heat to your home at full power. When the temperature is milder, it provides a lower, gentler heat to keep you warm without bombarding you with hot air.

2. Programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat allows you to set heating and cooling preferences based on your family's schedule. It goes into energy-saving mode when you're not home, so you're not paying to heat an empty house.

3. Wi-Fi thermostat. A Wi-Fi thermostat connects directly to your mobile device, so you can control it from anywhere. It shows you temperature, relative humidity, and a variety of other indoor and outdoor climate factors at a glance, allowing you to adjust to your comfort level quickly and easily.

4. Learning thermostat. A learning thermostat actually learns your heating and cooling preferences over time. Do you like it warmer in the daytime and cooler at night? What's your family's schedule like? A learning thermostat can use this information to make automatic adjustments to your heating throughout the day, keeping you comfortable without you having to lift a finger.

5. Zoning. A zoning system puts multiple thermostats in different areas of the house based on their individual heating and cooling needs. If the living room is too warm but the bedrooms are still cold, it can redirect heat as needed to keep everyone comfortable. Some systems can even sense where you are in the house, so if everyone's in the living room, it can save energy by sending less heat to the empty bedrooms.

To learn more about smart heating options for your home, contact us at Air Assurance. We provide quality solutions for Broken Arrow's home-comfort needs.

The Best Ways to Keep Outside Pets Warm in the Winter Season

Winter has arrived, and that's great news for millions of people across the country, but sometimes our pets need a little extra care to make sure they stay warm. Here are a few quick tips that will make keeping pets warm in the winter an easy task:

Don't Turn Off the Thermostat When You Leave

If you were home during the day, you most likely wouldn't turn your thermostat off, so don't do this to your pets either. That being said, since their acceptable range for temperatures is wider than people, you can lower the temperature down to 60 to 70 degrees while you're away and they will be fine.

Supply a Shelter and a Feeding Station

If you have an outdoor dog or cat, he or she may want to stay indoors more often, but there's still a good chance that they'll go outside too. Make sure that you've set up a shelter outside to help them stay warm, along with a feeding station so they don't get hungry.

Pick Up Some Pet Clothing

You may think that pet clothing, such as sweaters, looks a little silly, but it keeps them quite warm. In addition to the standard pet sweater, you may also want to consider some doggie booties so that ice doesn't collect on the bottoms of their paws.

Use Caution with De-Icing Chemicals

If you're planning on using antifreeze or another type of de-icing chemical, then be very wary about using them where pets might have access to the toxic substance. Also, keep the container in a place that your pets can't get to, and if a spill occurs, wipe it up immediately.

Pay Special Attention to Older Pets

Elderly animals can suffer from arthritic aches and pains just like we do. If your older pets seem to be uncomfortable, consider contacting your vet and getting him or her some pain medication.

If you'd like more expert advice on keeping pets warm in winter or have other HVAC issues that you need to discuss, please reach out to the friendly professionals at Air Assurance. We've been serving Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas for more than 35 years.

How to Keep a Garage Warm in the Winter

An unheated garage is suitable for very little beyond storing your vehicles, your yard equipment and whatever else you can't stow away in the house.

But what if you'd like to make better use of that garage space? Maybe you'd like to create a workshop where you can do projects, for instance. Winters here in Broken Arrow can make that problematic.

The solution is to heat the garage. Read on for suggestions on creating a warm garage.

First, Insulate

Before you start shopping for heating equipment, do make sure your garage is air sealed and insulated. That can be a big project in itself, because some garage doors tend to fit loosely around the edges.

Finish the garage with drywall and don't stint on the insulation. Choose from these types of insulation: fiberglass batts or rolls; wet applied or blown-in cellulose; spray foam or injection foam.

Types of Heating for the Garage

Electric space heater: Electric space heaters are the simplest solution, but they are not necessarily the most efficient. While newer models cost less to run than in former days, they don't heat up the space as quickly as other types of heating.

Combustion space heater: These are inexpensive to run and do an adequate job of heating a small space, but a major concern is that they give off carbon monoxide. You will have to make sure the garage is well vented and that you are running a CO detector if using these.

Ceramic heater: These require electricity to run, but the heating element is ceramic instead of metal. Similar to the metal element heaters, they use a fan to distribute the heat.

Ductless mini split: These systems can provide cool air and/or heating. They are a type of heat pump, consisting of an outdoor condenser and an indoor air handler. They can be small and compact and are ideal for conditioning the air in a smaller space. They can be somewhat expensive but are efficient to run.

For more information on how to attain a warm garage, contact Air Assurance of Broken Arrow.

The Truth: Radiant Heat vs. Furnace

There are many different options when it comes to heating your home. The most common is a forced-air furnace. But you can also install a radiant heating system. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Let's take a look at radiant heat vs furnace options.

Radiant Heating

With radiant heat, heating coils are installed beneath your floorboards. Heat then rises, spreading throughout the room and providing an even, comfortable layer of warmth. Not only are you warmed by the ambient heat, but also by direct contact with the heating source. There's nothing like walking on a radiant floor on cold mornings.

Radiant heating doesn't use ductwork, which eliminates the energy losses that can come from leaky or damaged ducts. Thus it uses much less energy than a forced air system, while heating a room more evenly. The drawback is, no ductwork also means no cooling in the summer. If you do get radiant heat, a dedicated duct system would still have to be installed for your A/C.

Radiant heat is also expensive to install, particularly when retrofitting an existing home, as it means tearing up the floorboards. And if you have thick carpet or area rugs on the floor, they act as insulation, and the radiant heat won't be able to spread effectively throughout your home.

Furnaces

A forced air system has its own advantages when it comes to radiant heat vs furnace. It warms your home more quickly and provides better air circulation.

The main drawback is dealing with energy loss from damaged ductwork, air leaks, poor airflow, and more. Additionally, the ductwork can circulate allergens and other contaminants through your home. The heat isn't as even, and the lower areas of your home will have trouble getting heat at all.

So ultimately, which is better? It all depends on your specific heating and cooling needs. Talk to an expert and let them help you decide which is the best option for your home.

For help solving the radiant heat vs furnace conundrum for yourself, contact us at Air Assurance. We proudly serve all of Broken Arrow's heating and cooling needs.

How Wood-Burning Affects Indoor Air Quality

Wood burning for indoor heating has sure gotten a bad rap these last few years, and no wonder. Wood smoke is full of particulates that adversely affect the indoor air quality of a home, and that aggravate all kinds of respiratory problems, from allergies to bronchitis and asthma. It can even aggravate conditions leading to heart and lung failure.What's more, wood smoke is full of the carbon emissions that are contributing to the greenhouse effect; plus it creates a layer of smoke that can hover over cities in the winter time. Some municipalities have even had to ban the burning of wood to diminish the haze.Still, some people are mighty partial to having some kind of heating option in addition to their central HVAC system. Let's look at some choices that might not have as many potential problems as a wood-burning fireplace.

Other Heating Options

The majority of wood stoves sold have some of the same issues as wood-burning fireplaces. They give off carbon emissions and particulates that foul your IAQ, and are inefficient to use. However, a new generation of so-called catalytic stoves are a much better option. These stoves have a catalytic combustor that traps smoke and other combustion byproducts. A chemical coating in the combustor interacts with the smoke, igniting it at a much lower temperature than the 1100 degrees F that is normally required for wood stoves.The fact the ignition occurs at low temperature means the stove is more efficient, and that the amount of emissions given off is reduced. Wood also lasts much longer. These stoves do require maintenance to keep them clean so they continue to burn efficiently. Also, the parts can be expected to wear out within a decade or so.Non-catalytic stoves are easier to maintain, but release more emissions and have a higher burning rate so are less efficient.Pellet stoves are another option. They burn cleaner than non-catalytic wood stoves and fire places, but require some electricity to ignite the pellets.

For more on fire places and indoor air quality, contact 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 other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.