A Whole-Home Approach: How HVAC Systems Affect One Another

Just like organs in the body, the HVAC systems in your home work together to do their jobs. To keep you comfortable year round in the Broken Arrow area's challenging continental climate, all your systems need to be in top form at all times.Know Your Systems' RolesHVAC stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning While each of your HVAC systems has its own distinct role, those roles are interconnected.Heating -- A fuel-burning furnace heats air over a flame while a heat pump in heating mode uses refrigerant to absorb warmth from the outdoor air and move that warmth indoors. Both then move warm air into your duct system.Air conditioner -- Your air conditioner or heat pump in cooling mode use refrigerant to absorb heat from inside your home and move that heat outdoors. The resulting cooled air is moved into your ducts.Ventilation -- Your ventilation system consists primarily of your fan, air ducts, and the ducts' supply air registers and return air vents. The same fan and duct system is responsible for distributing both hot air from your furnace and cool air from your air conditioner throughout your home.Why the Connections MatterAny issue with your motor or duct system affects both your heating and cooling systems. For instance, skipping your springtime A/C tuneup could allow problems to develop with your ventilation system. Come winter, those problems will either cost you during your fall furnace tuneup or prevent your furnace from working efficiently.An improperly installed air conditioner can cause cold air to leak into your furnace in winter, increasing your heating load and raising your energy bills.If either your furnace or air conditioner is oversized for your home, you'll end up with uncomfortable temperature swings, excess component wear, poor dehumidification in summer, and needlessly high energy bills.If you expect all your HVAC systems to run reliably, you can't afford to favor one system and skimp on another.For help with the maintenance, repair or upgrade of your heating, cooling or ventilation system, contact us at Air Assurance anywhere in the Broken Arrow area.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).

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Right Furnace Sizing: It's Fundamental for Comfort, Savings

Right Furnace Sizing: It's Fundamental for Comfort, Savings

When you're choosing a new heating system, the most important step is the furnace sizing process. It involves a thorough analysis of your home to find the right Btus (British thermal units) so that you avoid installing a system that's too big or too small.Heating equipment that's too large will short cycle, which means it runs in short spurts and shuts off quickly, leaving you chilled between cycles. This drives up your energy bills, increases the wear and tear on the equipment and can cause rust in the heat exchanger, which may prompt an early furnace replacement.One that's too small will leave you cold when the weather is exceptionally cold, and it will run continually, increasing energy bills and wear of all the components.Your contractor should use software tools called Manuals J, D and S to select the best size for your home before you select the energy efficiency of the system. The inputs include your home's energy efficiency, its cubic footage, floorplan layout and your lifestyle.The result of this furnace sizing exercise will yield the Btus you need, and from there, you can move onto selecting the AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency). The minimum you can purchase is 80, and the ratings go as high as 98. The AFUE indicates how much of the fuel the system actually uses for heat. In the case of an 80 AFUE system, it uses 80 percent and wastes the other 20 percent.If your home needs 80,000 Btus of capacity and you select a furnace with an 80 AFUE, it means that you'll need a furnace that has a capacity of 96,000 Btus. By selecting a system with a 90 AFUE, you'll only need a system with 88,000 Btus. Selecting a more efficient system will cut your energy bills each time it turns on.The experts at Air Assurance can help you with furnace sizing and selecting the best AFUE for the short and long term. Please contact us to learn more. We've provided outstanding HVAC services for the Broken Arrow area for nearly 30 years.Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USX-NONEX-NONE/* Style Definitions */table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}

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). 

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