Well, it’s not even been a full month of the summer heat and humidity and I’m already willing to admit defeat.

When my wife bet me that the smart thermostat could do a better job of saving on HVAC costs, I was game.

This wasn’t any sort of man vs machine hubris. The fact is that I’ve gotten very adept at saving money on heating and cooling costs. Well, the mild winter should take credit for the HVAC heating cost savings. We live in a region where the temperature rarely, if ever, gets to the freezing point. And since I make sure that the house is well insulated and sealed up tight to maximize the air conditioning efficiency, the house is resistant to chill. But the rest of the year, I’m on top of the thermostat like no other. That means checking it and programming the digital thermostat. I’ve been very good at making sure that during the peak heating hours of the summer, the thermostat is never more than 15 degrees cooler than outside. So I really thought that I could at least hold even with the smart thermostat. And honestly, I knew this was a ploy by my wife to simply upgrade the HVAC technology in our home. Still, it didn’t even take a full month of the heat of summer for me to wave the white flag. Already, the smart thermostat has saved almost 15 percent more than what I could do with the digital thermostat. More importantly, I’ve also completely fallen in love with the smart thermostat and really enjoy this new hands off nature of heating and cooling.

business

There are so many reasons that I have a hard time motivating to get to the gym or workout in general.

Probably the main reason is I’m just lazy when it comes to exercise.

Getting out of the air conditioning in order to enjoy a hike or some tennis isn’t the same as working out to me. The exercise I’m getting just happens to be a byproduct of getting out of the air conditioning to have an experience. That’s just not the way it was with the gym. And I happen to live with a partner who is such a total gym rat. My wife has been an athlete since highschool and she loves the gym. Often, she’ll go to the gym on the way to the office and then hit the gym again on the way home from all day in the zone controlled HVAC of the office. That’s commitment but it’s also just such a passion. If I only had one tenth of that passion, I think I’d be in great shape. Well suddenly, I’m finding it a lot easier to get motivated to workout. And that has turned into far more time inside the gym. But it’s not the same gym anymore. When the pandemic started, we opted out of our gym membership for obvious reasons. My wife and I then started putting together a great home gym with used equipment we found online. Having the HVAC company come out to install a ductless heat pump in the basement makes our home gym even that much more inviting for me.

electric heating

The best HVAC technology and residential HVAC are wonderful to have. But without proper installation from an expert HVAC contractor, the best HVAC equipment won’t be what it could be. So when we chose to build our first house, we also chose an HVAC method that would require an expert HVAC professional. We had a great family home with good quality heating and air for 25 years. The HVAC equipment we installed when we bought the place ended up lasting until we sold it. In fact, the reality that we had to replace that HVAC equipment was the tipping point for us deciding to sell the house. And once we got the latest in residential HVAC along with some other upgrades, the house went fast and for a ton of money. This gave us more leeway when it came to choosing the things we wanted to put inside our new home. And we really wanted to have a geothermal heat pump. The fact is that this is perhaps the most sustainable heating and cooling equipment available. It uses the earth’s near constant temperature to extract heating and cooling. But a geo heat pump installed by the wrong HVAC contractor seriously and adversely affects the performance. So we had to look high and low to find the right HVAC contractor. But it was so worth the time and effort to find the right HVAC professional because we have the best heating and cooling ever these days. That would not be the case had we gone with an HVAC contractor who didn’t have experience installing a geothermal heat pump.

space heater

I really and sincerely wish that every person who lives in this country could experience the rest of the world.

• There are so many places on this planet where people are just struggling to get enough to eat on a daily basis.

Certainly, that’s the case in our country as well. But then, there is the side of all the consumption. When I come back to this country to visit, I’m always shocked right away by the levels of HVAC cooling. Just walking through the airport is remarkable when you live your day to day life without any sort of residential HVAC. Well for that matter, I don’t see much commercial HVAC either. There are some commercial HVAC units in some of the government buildings but by and large, there just isn’t much quality heating and air. My parents live in the south and they are getting older. So I try to get home at least two or three time a year to see them. While I’m a citizen of this country, I live outside the country in order to help developing countries. It’s a challenging job and you have to go without things like air conditioning. And the places where I do most of my work are areas that are super warm and humid. So coming back to the States is always a real eye opener for me. First, I get hit with the max HVAC cooling and then it’s all the other stuff. It’s like information overload when I get here. Honestly, I’m ready to get back to my life of no air conditioning in order to just get my peace of mind back.
air quality systems

I have to admit that my wife was absolutely right when it came to adding central air conditioning to our home.

This was something that I had long resisted.

Where we live, I hardly even thought about the air conditioning part of the HVAC equation. That’s because our region is known for a winter that lasts like six months with temperatures that often never get above freezing. That is a lot of winter. And a lot of winter takes plenty of HVAC heating and plenty of preparation. When it comes to the HVAC preparation, the local HVAC company has that handled. They come out in the fall to do the heating maintenance on the gas furnace. I like having this done every year for a couple of reasons. First, having the HVAC maintenance done on the gas furnace in the fall gets it ready for the load winter will drop on it. This maximizes the efficiency of our gas furnace and saves us plenty of money in heating costs over that long, cold winter. Second, I rest easier knowing that the gas furnace has been inspected, tuned up and is ready to chug through the winter without failing. But for me, the winter prep starts in the summer because I use a wood stove as supplemental heat as well as an emergency heating source. And all that would doesn’t cut, split and stack itself. Even though we have central air conditioning now thanks to my wife, I don’t spend a lot of the summer sitting around in it. There’s just too much to do in order to be prepared for the coming winter.

energy saving tips

I think the idea of settling down was one that really scared me.

Watching my dad sort of get ground down after a lifetime of being the provider wasn’t easy to watch.

The poor man had nothing but the air conditioning and his recliner to look forward to each day. My mom was constantly on his case yet didn’t help out. And the pressure to be all things to all people slowly wore that man down. He died inside that air conditioning and in his recliner. Fitting perhaps but also quite sad. The fact is that watching a man get chipped away made me go the other direction once I was out of college. I focused intently on working my way up inside the zone controlled HVAC of the office I worked in. Getting married just wasn’t for me. However, I always took my lunch outside of the air conditioning on the days that would allow it. I liked the midday break from air conditioning and I enjoyed the quiet of a nearby park. Sure enough, that’s where I met the woman who would end up being my bride. These days, we are both getting accustomed to settling down in our late 30’s. We bought a house that came with just the best quality heating and air system I’d ever experienced. I’m loving the domestic life thus far but I’m also in a partnership and that makes a world of difference. But I can’t help thinking of my dad when I come home to the best air conditioning ever. I just wonder sometimes if his life could have been a bit easier.

click for more->

When I was a kid, my dad actually went to the extreme of locking us out of messing with the thermostat. This was long before the days when there were digital thermostat available. In my parent’s home, the thermostat was the old school mercury bubble type. And it was big and prominent on the wall. My mom, sister and I were always eager to get more air conditioning in the summer or more HVAC heating in the winter. But dad was a miser when it came to spending money on stuff like heating and cooling. I get where he was coming from now that I too try to limit the HVAC costs. But dad took the extraordinary step of buying a plastic case that locked over the top of the thermostat to maintain thermostat discipline. I think I would be marched out of my home if my wife didn’t have the manual override code to the smart thermostat. However, I am locking up some of the HVAC equipment in our home these days. Due to a recent criminal trend, I had to order a cage to lock down the HVAC unit outside to the concrete pad it rests on. For some desperate thieves, the HVAC unit holds copper fittings that they can get pennies on the dollar for. So it’s worth just ripping apart an HVAC unit to get them. Hard to get my head around that sort of desperation but then again, I don’t know what I’d do if I was addicted, broke and hungry. So I’m now locking down the HVAC equipment outside of my house. I wonder what my dad would think about that.

a/c service

It didn’t cost much to seal up my house super tight

I realize the central air conditioning is now on more than it’s not. Summer is in full swing where I live and that’s a good thing. But another good thing is all the money that I saved this past winter when it came to heating my home with our gas furnace. In fact, this was the first winter since we’ve owned this house that we were really cozy and we saved money on HVAC heating. That’s a winning pair in my book. And perhaps that’s why I’m still on a victory lap about it even though the HVAC heating has now been replaced by the HVAC cooling. However, in this part of the country, central air conditioning isn’t the focus of heating and cooling. We’re fortunate to live in a house that has central air conditioning alongside a great gas furnace. But I know plenty of people who don’t have central air conditioning and don’t think otherwise. That’s not the same with HVAC heating. We all are very focused on the heating side of the equation. But this past fall was the first time that I actively attempted to help maximize the efficiency of the HVAC equipment. And it worked. All I had to do was go onto the HVAC company’s website and go step by step. It didn’t cost much to seal up my house super tight. But I sure made all my money back when and then some when it came to the HVAC heating bills this winter. I’m sort of surprised that I’ve extended that victory lap to the summer but man, I love saving money on HVAC heating!

a/c corporation

It’s that time again.

• I couldn’t believe it when I actually saw a forecasted temperature for later in the week that was in the triple digits.

But, this isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with that level of heat and it won’t be the last. The best thing to do this time of year is just accept that the heat and humidity will be high for the next four months. Then, I just move slower and make sure to get all the HVAC cooling I need. To that end, I have the air conditioning tune-up done by the HVAC professionals in March. That’s when the temperatures begin to spike. And while I don’t go straight for the thermostat and the HVAC cooling that early, I like to get the HVAC maintenance done well before the summer. The idea of living in this region without the aid of HVAC cooling would be pretty crazy. It might even be a deal breaker for me and I’ve lived here all my life. Still, I just can’t imagine what even my grandparents went through without residential HVAC. For sure, I love coming home to cool, crips air inside my home. But there is another element of the HVAC cooling process that is equally important. And that would be the automatic humidity balance in our houses. The HVAC process of moving heat energy out of the house also automatically reduces the moisture content in the air. That’s why the house feels crisp and we aren’t spending all summer with bleach and water trying to stop the mold & mildew growth.

hvac home services

This is the year that I finally get with the program when it comes to the air conditioning in my home. I’m here in the south now for four years. This will be my fourth summer. I’m hoping that my third summer was the last one to simply drain my bank account over HVAC cooling. When I chose to move down here for a job, I was just so ready to do without all the cold. Since I was a kid, I’ve been trying to get accustomed to the winter up north. But I failed at it for so long that I finally figured it might be in my best interest to give up. I hated all the HVAC heating and being stuck inside the house with the gas furnace going like mad. I wanted to be outside but doing that meant freezing my hind end off. So I stayed put inside the HVAC heating until spring. The first thing I did when I moved here was to enjoy the winter weather. It was the first week of January and the highs were in the 60’s. I soaked it up like no other. But when it came to the summer heat, I almost found myself doing the same thing I did up north but in reverse. The hotter it got for those four months of heat season, the more I cranked the thermostat. But that made being outside in the heat even worse. So this year, I waited as long as possible before even turning on the air conditioning. And I’ve become more acclimated to the heat so I can keep the thermostat setting in the low 80’s during the worst heat of the day.

cooling system