When making repairs on A/C equipment here is why you should use OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturing) parts. Evaporator motors now days are using X13 and ECM (Electronically Commutated Motors). These motors are engineered and are factory preset for specific air volume. The manufactures have designed them for use in their equipment (gas furnaces and air handlers). This is why you need to replace that motor with the part that the manufacturer has designed for that equipment. Two stage gas furnaces use a variable speed draft blower motor which operates low and high, which draw combustion gases through the heat exchanger to maximize heating efficiency.

There are two types of heat pumps, air to air and geothermal. Air to air is the most used; its source of cooling and heating is the outside air. It uses a reversing valve and two expansion devices. The reversing valve changes the refrigerant flow. The therory on this principal is that heat transfer will move from higher temperatures to lower temperatures allowing the heat transfer coil to be kept at a lower temperature. The surrounding air will pick up heat making the evaporator coil and the condenser coil the heat transfer devices. The problem with air to air heat pumps is deminished capacity. When the temperature outside drops so does the output. These heat pumps are best suited for southern climates. The problem that we have found is the sizing of the auxillary heat (heat strips). The heat strips should be sized for the heat load for heating. For example: if the loss is 60,000btu, and 1kw is equal to 3,413btus,then the heat strip should be 20kw, equal to 68,260btus of heating. A 15kw heater is equal to 51,195btus of heating, some customers would be happy with that. So the ideal heater would be 68,260btus of heating. When using air to air heat pumps the heat strip sizing is everything.

In the 1990's ASHRAE wrote an article called The Peridox of High Efficiency. This article talked about laden sensible heat. As the seer rating increases the BTU output drops dramatically. (One ton of air conditioning is equal to 12,000 BTUs). Equipment manufacturers in their quest to keep up with government mandates started manufacturing condensers with decreased compressor BTU output.

The EPA(Environmental Protection Agency)can force up to 20% of coal fired power plants to shut down. The regulation will cost utility companies $129 Billion Dollars. With the closures of these plants there are only two possible outcomes when supply exceeds demand; energy bills will be rising, rolling blackouts will happen. This will bring on incentives for higher air conditioning equipment efficiencies. This has already happened with the three region zoning I talked about in my recent blog (All A/C and Gas Furnaces are not equal).

Nowadays when you are looking for a building or office to lease it is so important to have your air conditioning company
to look at the a/c unit. So much of what I have seen is questionable:
ie: needs to be replaced or has not been properly maintained, leaving you to repair or
replace it at your own expense. and as for the leasing agent's a/c company, you know who they are working for. If you have any questions feel
free to call me. Hope this helps!

So you are changing out your HVAC system. Consider this, a
permit only insures that the company did the minimum standard
installing your new HVAC system. 70% of the new installations are installed wrong and 40% do not achieve the season energy
efficiency ratio (seer), so permitting is only part of the process.
Make sure that you get an air conditioning system performance report. If you bought a 13,14,15, seer system then this report makes sure
you received it. You do need a permit!

When an air conditioning transfomer goes bad (shorted) you need to check the thermostat wire from the air handler or
gas furnace to the condenser. Most of the time it is out side at the condenser, the low voltage wire is exposed and is touching the other conductors causing the short. When you have the transformer replaced it is best to have a fuse in the low voltage line to protect the transformer from shorting out again. Also, make sure that the weed eater stays away from the wire and the wire nuts are not upside down causing rain to make it short out.
Hope this helps.

Some equipment manufactures require an online registration of your new equipment to be registered with them. In most cases this adds some time on to the warranty. We have seen that this is not being done. It is to your benefit to look into this. Hope this helps.

Air conditioning systems are designed to deliver 400 cubic feet of air per minute (cfms) to provide one ton of cooling capacity. ie: 1 ton = 400 cfms, 2 tons = 800 cfms, 3 tons = 1200 cfms. Most technicians and installers have never measured how much air blower is moving through an evaporator coil or heat exchanger. The evaporator coil exhorbs heat from the air; so with low air flow the system operates at a low pressure, so most technicians will add freon to the system. This causes overcharging of the system, which will cause excessive refrigerant oil return, washing the oil off of the compresser. This will cause premature failure. The best way to check air flow is with a static pressure guage.

When changing out your existing air conditioning equipment it is very important to get a air conditioning system performance report done by the company installing your new system this ensures that you get the maximum return on your investment!!!!!!

Well, it's starting to cool off in Houston, Texas please check your carbon monoxide tester
and have your furnace inspected before it really gets cold to make sure that there is no
carbon monoxide coming back into your home. It is a must to have a walk through your house carbon monoxide test while the furnace is running. If you have any questions or need any help please feel free to call us. Thank you.

IN ORDER FOR EQUIPMENT TO RUN AT ITS MAXIMUM EFFICIENCY, A/C UNITS SHOULD BE CLEANED ONCE A YEAR. I WAS AT A HOUSE IN RICHMOND THE UNIT WAS NEVER CLEANED CAUSING CONDENSATION TO ACCUMULATE ON FURNANCE PC BOARD, WHICH CAUSED FAILURE.

Did you know that you can actually heat the water in your water tank by using your air conditioning ? By taking the wasted heat from the condensing unit and running it through a heat recovery unit, produces hot water. This raises the seer rating up by three point and saves up to about 15% on your electric bill by heating your water in your water tank. We used it in our home and loved it. We always had hot water, and saved on our electric bill.