What Are the Pros and Cons of an Electric Fireplace?

Is an electric fireplace a worthwhile home addition? Just more than 40% of recent new houses come with a fireplace, and a substantially higher percentage of homes built in the decades since the 1970s incorporate at least one fireplace.

Though not all standard fireplaces get the regular use they once did, many people still miss the appearance and comfort of a warming fire inside the house. An electric fireplace may provide a simpler, less labor-intensive alternative to the real thing. Here are some pros and cons of having an electric fireplace in your home. 

Pros

• Convenience. No need to obtain and/or store firewood and lug it into the house to build a fire. An electric fire starts with the flip of a switch, eliminating the sometimes difficult process of lighting a real fire. After enjoying the fire, just turn it off. No cleanup and disposal of ashes.

• Safety. Because there’s no combustion nor flames, certain safety issues are eliminated, such as possible carbon monoxide gas, chimney fires, and sparks or embers from the fireplace triggering an indoor fire.

• Less heat loss; higher efficiency. A wood fireplace loses substantial heat up the chimney. An electric unit, conversely, requires no venting or chimney, so all generated heat goes into warming the room. While the process of burning wood is considered an inefficient method for home heating by the Environmental Protection Agency, electricity produces heat with a 99% efficiency rating.

Cons

• Less ambiance. Few persons would claim that electric fireplaces produce the same classic, charming indoor atmosphere on a winter evening as a crackling, natural wood fire.

• Modest heating performance. While electric fireplaces are efficient in terms of energy consumption, perceptible heat these units produce is about the same as a standard electric space heater.

• No boost to the home's value. While a wood fireplace may increase home value up to 8%, most realtors agree that an electric fireplace adds no value to the home.

• Higher electrical demands. Household circuits must be adequate to handle the fireplace’s considerable electrical load.

For more pros and cons of having an electric fireplace, contact the pros at Air Assurance.

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.

Can a Humidifier Help During the Heating Season?

Whenever humidity falls below 30 percent, both you and your home suffer. The dry air causes a host of problems that are easy to solve with a humidifier, from chapped skin to cracks in the wood inside your home.

Comfort Issues

Dry indoor air speeds the evaporation of moisture from your skin, which has a cooling effect. Turning up the thermostat to combat dry air increases heating costs, and may not increase comfort as much as raising the humidity can. As air warms, it dries even more, increasing the discomfort. Besides feeling cooler, air that’s too dry will:

• Spread viruses and bacteria faster. Winter is the cold and flu season because overly dry air speeds the transmission of the bacteria and viruses. When these microorganisms enter your body, parched throats and nasal tissues are particularly vulnerable to infection.

• Dry skin quickly. Besides being uncomfortable, chapped skin can result in skin cracks that may become infected.

• Heighten respiratory distress. Dry air increases symptoms associated with allergies, asthma, and sinus issues.

Home Health Issues

Besides the health concerns, a humidifier solves problems associated with your home, like:

• Wood shrinkage. As the humidity falls, the air pulls moisture out of anything made from wood inside your home. Cabinets, flooring, furniture and even the wood from which your house is made will shrink, which may or not recover once humidity rises.

• Electrical damage. Static electricity increases as the air dries, and appliances and devices are vulnerable to static electricity, especially the low voltage components inside them.

Increasing the Humidity

Whole-house humidifiers offer the most energy efficient and easiest way to combat dry indoor air. They tap into the plumbing system and deliver water automatically. Unlike portable devices that need manual filling and weekly cleaning, central units require little maintenance.Working in tandem with furnaces, they use little energy and control the level of humidity with a humidistat, which operates just like a thermostat.A humidifier is an indispensable way to manage humidity indoors during the winter. For more information, contact Air Assurance, providing trusted HVAC services for Broken Arrow homeowners.

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 humidifiers and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “freedigitalphotos”

Programming Your Thermostat for Colder Weather

Bravo if you know how to correctly set your home's programmable thermostat for maximum energy savings. But it's important to remember that the temperature settings need to be changed once the weather shifts from summer to fall and winter. A programmable thermostat with improper settings is no better than an old-school manual thermostat.

A properly set programmable thermostat allows you to program temperature changes (sometimes called "setbacks") to fit your lifestyle and schedule, or those of family members. It turns down the heating or cooling when nobody's home or when everybody's sleeping. A manual thermostat can save money, too, though it requires a vigilant human being to monitor the settings and adjust them constantly. It also doesn't allow for temperature changes when nobody's around to adjust the thermostat.

Resetting the programmable thermostat is necessary when cooling season changes to heating season, since the setbacks need to be adjusted to account for the shift from a cooling system to a heating system. Here's a sample schedule for resetting the programmable thermostat for the heating season:

• Program the temperature several degrees — as many as 10 or 12 — lower for times when you're going to be gone for more than several hours, such as at work or school.

• Set it to return to your comfort level shortly before you expect to arrive home. Leave it that temperature throughout the evening.

• Lower the temperature several degrees for overnight, since most people prefer it several degrees cooler while they're sleeping and are covered with blankets.

• Program the thermostat to return to your daytime comfort level shortly before you expect to awaken in the morning. You might decide to skip this temperature change if you're planning to go right out the door after a quick breakfast. It may strain your heating system to crank up the temperature several degrees, for a half hour or so, then reduce it again for the day.

For more advice on resetting the programmable thermostat for the heating season, please contact us at Air Assurance. We provide superior HVAC services to 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). For more information about thermostats and other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273. Credit/Copyright Attribution: “sashkin/Shutterstock”