Heating And Air Conditioning Maintenance

2011 Super Service Award

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:17:00 GMT

Magnolia Heating and Cooling Earns

Coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award

Award reflects businesses’ consistently high level of customer service

Why Get a Tankless Hot Water Heater?

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 19:39:00 GMT

A Tankless job for the New Year

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s some good info about tankless hot water heaters.

Natural Home Magazine: To understand how tankless water heaters operate—and why they’re more efficient than standard water heaters—let’s look first at storage water heaters, common in most American homes. A storage water heater consists of a 40- to 80-gallon glass tank wrapped in insulation and encased in steel. Cold water enters the tank and is heated by a gas burner or electric heating elements that start every time the water temperature inside the tank drops below a predetermined setting, ideally around 120°F.

Storage water heaters work well, although they may not provide enough hot water when demand is high. They also lose a lot of energy maintaining a constant temperature between active periods—what’s referred to as “standby” losses, which typically account for about 20 percent of the energy they consume.

One key advantage of a tankless model over a storage water heater is that by using a device known as a heat exchanger, it heats on demand rather than maintaining a 24-hour-per-day hot-water reservoir.

U.S. Department of Energy: Demand (tankless or instantaneous) water heaters provide hot water only as it is needed. They don’t produce the standby energy losses associated with storage water heaters, which can save you money.

Energy Star: By heating water only when you need it, ENERGY STAR qualified tankless water heaters save the typical family more than $100 per year on gas bills compared to a standard storage model…cut water heating expenses by 30%, while also providing continuous hot water delivery

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How much does a new A/C & Heating system really cost?

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:57:00 GMT

How much does a new A/C and heating system REALLY cost?

Often, when looking at buying a new central A/C and heating system, prospective owners tend to focus primarily on the initial cost. With the rising costs of everything from food to fuel putting a big squeeze on all our pocketbooks, most of ushave to pay attention to make sure we have more funds coming in every month than going out.

The fact that our website has a cost comparison grid might reinforce the natural tendency of our readers to focus too much on the initial cost. I recently read a really good article that reminded me of the following:

A lot more goes into the ongoing cost of AC system ownership than initial cost – there are really four parts to the total cost picture.

Approached in a different sequence than normal, those four parts are:

· Monthly energy costs in utility bills

· Maintenance and repair

· Eventual replacement cost (10 or more years, historically)

· Initial cost of the system and installation

Before going further, let’s take out the biggest variable of all, which is the quality of the installation of your new equipment. In HVAC circles, it is often said that a skilled technician can make even a lousy AC system cool your place, while an inexperienced technician might not be able to make the best AC system cool at all. So for this article, we’ll assume that whatever system you choose will be professionally installed and equally well. Of course, this includes the having the correct size and type equipment for your home or building. This leaves the four costs above to consider:

Monthly Energy Costs In Utility Bills
Other factors kept equal, energy efficiency of the new equipment is the primary driver of monthly energy cost. Of course, more efficient equipment costs more. It usually has more features, such as variable speed blowers, more copper, and more sophisticated controls. If the electricity and gas portion of your utility bill for heating and cooling only total $60 /month, this could be the largest part of your eventual and total cost of owning your new A/C and heating system. So, higher efficiency costs more up front, but will pay back a part of the extra cost each month in lower bills.

Maintenance and repair
As covered in our blog last month, regular maintenance will pay for itself in lower repair costs and more efficient operation. Don’t skimp on it. You should select a local company you trust and ask for their candid input on which equipment will have the lowest maintenance cost and factor that in. In the HVAC trade journals, I see a trend of manufacturers offering up to 10-year warranties on major components to the original purchaser. Ask about this and include it on your cost comparison grid.

Eventual Replacement Cost
Of the four parts of total cost, this one is the most subjective. Before you spend too much time on it, think about how long are you likely to stay in your current home or building. Ask your HVAC company for their opinion and what they base it on. Also, remember that if energy prices keep going up, lower efficiency equipment will reach economic obsolescence faster (and probably before the equipment wears out mechanically).

Initial Cost
Our HVAC equipment cost comparison grid helps to cut through the noise to understand the initial cost at a glance.

Taking a bit of time to go through these will help you avoid buyer’s remorse, experience more comfort indoors and save money on your monthly bill.

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Optimizing your Heating and Cooling System Part 2

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:49:00 GMT

In part 1, we went over how having proper insulation, weather seals for doors and windows, and maintaining a clean system can help optimize your heating and cooling system to help it reach its full potential while keeping costs down. Today, we’re going to touch on three other key points that will help you optimize even further.

Optimizing your Heating and Cooling System Part 1

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:47:00 GMT

Everybody likes saving money, yet we all like using our air conditioners and heaters to keep comfortable in our homes. To help you achieve both, we’ve put together this handy little list of ways you can maximize your heating and cooling systems efficiency without costly investments.