Your Go-To Fall Maintenance Checklist

Now that the summer season is over and the kids are back in school, you may be wondering what's next for your household. Well, like any responsible homeowner, it's time to fill out that fall maintenance to-do list. Here are a few of our favorite tasks:

Set an Appointment with Your Technician

If you want to improve the performance of your HVAC system while also prolonging its operational lifespan, set up an appointment with a technician. He or she will check to make sure that everything is running smoothly, perform maintenance on the unit, and inform you of any problems.

Clean Your Floor and Ceiling Fans

Using your floor and ceiling fans is a great way to save energy and money by giving your HVAC equipment a bit of a rest. Just keep in mind that dust has possibly accumulated during the months prior to the season, so you should definitely wipe them down so that the dust doesn't spread and clog up your air.

Clean or Replace Your Air Filter

Once your HVAC system’s air filter has been clogged up with debris, harmful particulates can enter your air and your equipment won’t work as efficiently. Check your filter every 30 days and replace it as necessary for the best results.

Seal Cracks and Gaps Around the Home

For small problem areas, such as around your doors and windows, use caulking or weather-stripping to prevent air leakage. Bigger problems, such as gaps large enough where a rodent could get through, can be covered up with heavy-duty hardware cloth.

Unblock Your Registers

Many households experience a lot of activity over the summer, so it’s easy for registers to become blocked by boxes, furniture, or other such items. Take the time to go around to each register and make sure nothing is impeding its airflow. Also check to see that the registers are open and clear of dust and debris inside.

If you have any other questions about fall maintenance or home comfort needs, then the professionals at Air Assurance can help. We've been serving Broken Arrow and the surrounding area since 1985.

How Water Hardness Affects Your Plumbing

Hard water is simply fresh water supply with a lot of calcium, magnesium, and a range of trace minerals in it. The mineral content determines the level of water hardness, which is measured in grains per gallon (gpg). Anything above 10.5 gpg is taken to be extremely hard, whereas 3.5 gpg is considered to be on the lower level of hardness.

Hard water doesn't pose health risks. Some studies suggest that it can aid heart health. Unfortunately, the supposed health benefits come at the expense of your plumbing system.

Clogged Pipes

As hard water continually passes through your plumbing system, the minerals start building up inside your pipes and restricting water flow. The reduced flow of water may not always be harmful, but it's annoying and inconveniencing. With time, the scale deposits from the hard water could clog your pipes leading to complete blockage or increased stress that results in leaks.

Reduced Water Heater Efficiency

Hard water lowers the efficiency of your water heater. If you ignore regular maintenance, a significant amount of mineral scale can build up at the bottom of your tank. The water heater will have to heat the water as well as all the scale that has built up, thereby using more energy than necessary.

If you have a tankless water heater, scale can build up in its heat exchanger. That not only makes your heater inefficient but could also cause overheating and burnout.

Damaged Plumbing Fixtures

Hard water can negatively affect any of your plumbing fixtures. Damaged seals and washers, valve blockages, and ruined finishes are some of its common effects.

Hard water can do damage behind the scenes for quite some time before resulting in clogged pipes, a failed water heater, and damaged fixtures. Therefore, it's best to be proactive by maintaining your water heater frequently, finding out how hard your water is, and installing a water softener if you find the hardness to be over 3 gpg.

For assistance with dealing with water hardness or any other plumbing issues in the Broken Arrow area, contact the HVAC and plumbing experts at Air Assurance.

Types of Air Filters

You need to change your HVAC system's air filter regularly to keep your air clean and your system functioning efficiently. Do you know what kind of filter you need? Here's a brief guide to different types of air filters and how they work.

Fiberglass

The cheapest and most basic type of air filter, fiberglass filters are the lowest rated ones on the MERV scale. They can capture and remove large dust particles, but things like mold, pollen, and other allergens remain in your air.

Pleated

Made of cotton fabric and folded into pleats like a curtain, these filters are designed to remove smaller particles from the air, such as dust mites and pet dander. The more pleats the filter has, the better airflow it allows through it, and the more efficiently your HVAC system can heat or cool your home.

Electrostatic

Rather than simply creating a barrier to trap allergens and contaminants, this one actually generates an electrostatic charge, which attracts contaminants to it. They stick to the filter, while the clean air passes through. Electrostatic filters can remove things like mold, mildew, bacteria, and even cigarette smoke, which makes them ideal for allergy and asthma sufferers.

HEPA

High Efficiency Particulate Air filters. Designed for medical uses and laboratory clean rooms, these filters can remove 99.97 percent of impurities from the air, down to 0.3 microns. That includes viruses, sea salt, milled flour, and more. Unfortunately, these filters are too thick to fit into a regular HVAC system without damaging it. If you want extra air protection, you'll need to invest in a separate air purifier for your home, that's designed for the HEPA filter.

Washable

There are two types of air filters that are washable. Some cloth filters can be washed regularly instead of replaced. More common, though, are washable electrostatic filters. Washable filters last three to five years, making them much more practical than the expensive disposable ones, which must be replaced every few months.

To learn more about different types of air filters, contact us at Air Assurance. We proudly serve all of Broken Arrow's HVAC needs.

Notable Women in HVAC History

When we talk about the great technological achievements throughout history, we tend to focus on the accomplishments of men. However, in any field, there are always plenty of women whose contributions are just as important, but often go unsung. The field of HVAC is no exception. Here are two women in HVAC history who helped define home comfort as we know it.

Alice H. Parker

For years, homes were heated primarily using wood or coal burning furnaces. Heat would eminate from the unit, which would then spread to the rest of the house. Then in 1919, African American inventor Alice H. Parker changed all that, by inventing a new, safer furnace that burned natural gas instead.

Furthermore, the furnace would heat up the air and distribute it throughout the house via a system of ducts and vents. This way, heat could spread through a home more evenly. Her furnace even allowed homeowners to set different temperatures for different areas of the house according to their individual needs - a concept that wouldn't become widespread until decades later, with the introduction of zoning systems.

Margaret Ingels

Another of the important women in HVAC history was Margaret Ingels. One of the first female engineers in America, she was the first woman to receive a professional Mechanical Engineering degree.

Spending six years in the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers research lab beginning in 1920, Ingels researched how to measure the amount of dust and contaminants in the air in public places. Her crowning achievement, though, was the sling psychrometer, which measures the amount of moisture in the air.

In so doing, Ingels was able to develop the "effective temperature" scale. This scale considers factors like relative humidity and air movement in order to determine the "feels like" temperature when it comes to home comfort.

These are just a few of the women who helped define home comfort as we know it today. To learn about other women in HVAC history, contact us at Air Assurance. We've provided Broken Arrow with quality home comfort solutions since 1985.

How to Babyproof Your Home and HVAC

Your home’s HVAC system is an important item to add to your babyproofing list. This equipment can cause injuries to curious children who get too close. Even if your baby is a newborn, it’s never too early to start making your Broken Arrow home safer with the following HVAC system babyproofing tips.

Check Your Metal Vents and Registers

The metal vents and registers around your home can be hazardous to kids due to their edges. Children can get cut on these edges if they come loose from the floor or wall. Check each metal vent and register in your home to see if any are loose, and secure them to the wall or floor. If you want to avoid having to worry about these metal edges, you can switch to plastic vents and registers instead. Plastic ones are easy to secure and don’t have any sharp parts.

Put Screens in Registers and Vents

Young kids can sometimes lose toys that fall through vent and register slats, but there’s an easy way to prevent this. Cut out a piece of vinyl window screening that matches the size of the register or vent, and attach it beneath the cover. This screening will catch any objects that fall into your registers and vents, so that they’re easy to retrieve. This will also prevent your child from getting fingers stuck in the slats trying to reach toys that fall in.

Enclose Your HVAC’s Outdoor Unit

The outdoor unit of an HVAC system is among the biggest dangers for children. These units have wiring, blades that move when the system is running, and metal pieces with sharp edges. It’s important to make sure that your child isn’t able to access this outdoor unit at all. You can do this by putting up a fence all around your outdoor unit. This allows you to easily access it if needed while also keeping your child from being able to get near it.

If you’re looking for help with HVAC system babyproofing your home in the Broken Arrow area, please contact Air Assurance.

How Dust Affects Your Indoor Air Quality

What is dust and where does it come from? In Oklahoma, most of us have to deal with pervasive dust in our homes, so it's important to know its source and not only keep it from gaining entrance, but also to control the dust that wafts inside. Controlling dust will vastly improve your indoor air quality.

What Is Dust?

Many online sources claim that dust is us -- that is, most of it is made up of shredded human skin and hair. Turns out, that's untrue. Most human skin and hair particles are washed off during showers and go down the drain. Only a small percentage of the dust in our homes is human-derived.

Most dust blows in from the outdoors, particularly in homes that are less than airtight, or where the doors or windows are kept open, or from tracking the outdoors inside on our feet or on our pets.

The other dust particles are derived from pet hair and dander, decaying insect bodies, carpet fluff and clothing and textile fibers. Some dust may be made of pollen and soot.

Controlling Dust

The best way to keep dust under control is by frequent vacuuming with a HEPA filter. Be sure to vacuum carpets, rugs, furniture and baseboards. But do be aware that vacuuming can scatter dust particles into the air, so whenever possible, clean floors, such as tile or hardwood, with a damp mop.

Your HVAC air filter can play an important role in controlling dust, but to do so effectively, it needs frequent changing. Use a good quality, polyester, pleated air filter so it can catch the smaller particles that the cheap fiberglass filters can't catch. Filters should be rated 8-12 on the MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) scale.

An in-house air purification system may also help. Consult your HVAC specialist to discuss the best type for your home.

Keep doors and windows shut to keep dust out. Air seal minute cracks around doors and windows that may be allowing dust inside.

For more on preventing dust from compromising your indoor air quality, contact Air Assurance of Broken Arrow.

The Biggest Changes in HVAC History in the Last 5 Years

If you haven't updated your HVAC system in a number of years, you may not be aware of big changes that have taken place in the HVAC industry. Here are some things you might want to know about recent HVAC history that can have an impact on your next HVAC system purchase.

Smart Technology

Of course smart technology has been coming on for a while, but in the last five years, it's moved front and center in the operation and control of HVAC systems. With the introduction of smart thermostats such as the Nest and others, more and more consumers are controlling their systems from near or far with a smart device.

Efficiency Standards

In 2015, the Department of Energy adopted new energy efficiency standards for heat pumps, air conditioners and furnaces. These standards have motivated the HVAC industry to work harder on technological innovations for achieving ever greater efficiency.

Refrigerant Phase-Out

The widely used refrigerant R-22, which has been proven to be harmful to the ozone layer, began to be phased a few years ago. While older systems still use R-22, as of Jan. 1, 2020, the refrigerant will no longer be manufactured and cannot be imported into this country. That means owners of equipment using R-22 will have to pay big prices for dwindling stocks of the refrigerant when their equipment develops a leak, as you cannot use the new refrigerants in air conditioners that require R-22.

Sensor-Driven Equipment

So many systems are now being designed to be activated by sensors that we can't list them all, but here's one that was introduced in 2015 and can provide precise room-by-room temperature control: the Ecovent. Controlled by a smartphone app, the sensor-driven vents replace existing wall, ceiling or floor vents.

Non-Vapor Compression Technology

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy began funding research for non-vapor compression technologies, which won't require coolants to chill air. This could reduce energy use for cooling equipment by as much as 50 percent.

For more on HVAC history and innovations, contact Air Assurance. We serve the Broken Arrow area.

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.

Expansion Tanks & Why They're Important

If your home’s utilizes a boiler and radiators for heating, expansion tanks are an important factor. Hydronic heating produces energy-efficient home comfort as water heated by the boiler circulates through radiators in each room. However, one specific fact of physics presents an issue: Water expands when heated. As the water volume inside a closed hydronic system increases with heat, the mounting pressure has nowhere to go and could potentially trigger pressure relief valves, over-stress system components, and degrade reliability. That’s where expansion tanks come in to relieve that pressure.

Here’s how an expansion tank protects your heating system:

• Connected to the water line between the boiler and radiators, the tank is divided into two segments: an upper half that receives water expanding under heat and an empty lower half that contains only pressurized air. A flexible rubber diaphragm separates the two halves of the tank.

• When the system cycles on and the boiler is heating, water volume in the system expands. The resultant pressure increase pushes water into the top half of the expansion tank. The flexible rubber diaphragm expands downward to accommodate this influx and moderating pressure in the system, preventing actuation of relief valves and/or damage to components.

• When the system turns off, water cools and system water volume decreases. Air pressure in the lower portion of the expansion tank pushes against the rubber diaphragm to expel water out of the upper portion and back into the system. This ensures that system water volume always remains in the safe range, without admitting air into the system.

Here’s a quick way to check expansion tank functioin. While the system’s running, feel the upper part of the tank. It should feel noticeably warm to the touch. The lower portion, however, should feel like room temperature. If both the upper and lower portions of the tank feel warm, contact a qualified HVAC service provider to check the condition of the internal diaphragm and make necessary repair or replacement.

For more information about the installation and maintenance of expansion tanks, contact the professionals at Air Assurance.