The holidays are a time of tradition with family and friends here near Oswego, Yorkville, Naperville, Aurora and Plainfield (IL). We mark and observe a season to be together, feel and share gratitude, and enjoy the sights and sounds of community.
The holidays are also a time of steadily shifting weather as we move further through fall into winter. As the sleigh-bell jingles get busier, so often do the phones here at Air Dynamics as we help make sure our local neighborhoods have the warmth, comfort and safety they need as the temperatures drop.
The service calls we respond to can often be as varied as the ornaments that hang on a tree. In the holiday spirit, we’ll share some recent stories from the front of how we’ve been helping to enhance home heating and air quality as we prepare for another winter.
Holiday Heating Issue: Oversized Furnace
An Air Dynamics customer purchased a home in which the heating system was struggling. The furnace had recently been replaced, but the contractor that had installed it grossly oversized the unit for its service to the home.
An oversized furnace will overproduce heat and so make the system overheat. The extra warmth will then back up into the system, where it is not meant to be stored. This will make the system blow cold air to cool itself down as a safety measure. As a result, cool air will blow through the vents.
Other problems with an oversized unit often include:
much lower comfort indoors when it’s cold out
rising energy consumption and utility bills
greater system strain, leading to more repairs and a shortened lifespan
a cracked heat exchanger in the system’s combustion chamber, which can release carbon monoxide into the home, as well as require a full system replacement
We visited the customer’s home and inspected the system. After defining the problem, we discussed the optimal solutions, which included replacing the equipment with a more efficient, properly sized system based on correct load calculations. We also provided duct modifications to improve the airflow to the home’s second floor.
Holiday Heating Issue: Newly Finished Attic
An Air Dynamics customer with an older home recently converted their attic into a finished space to serve as two separate play areas for their small children. Their main question concerned how they could best heat the new area for comfort in the play areas as well as energy efficiency in the overall scheme of the home.
We discussed the ideal solution according to the home’s specific variables, and the customer agreed that a dual zone mini-split system was the best way to go.
Also referred to as a ductless heat pump, a mini-split is a home heating and cooling system that can be installed in separate rooms without ductwork. Mini-splits let you maintain the temperatures you like without having to run your central air throughout the house.
To warm a room in winter, similar to how a refrigerator operates, the ductless mini-split transfers heat from a cool space (outdoors) to a warm space (indoors), which makes the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer.
(Conversely, to cool a room in late spring and summer, the mini-split uses thin copper tubing to pump refrigerant from an outdoor compressor into an indoor air-handling unit that distributes the air to the specified rooms.)
Mini-splits are highly efficient because they transfer heat into or out of your house without generating it. Unlike most central heat sources, mini-splits don’t need power to run. Even when backup heat is needed from the furnace, as can happen during our extreme cold in Oswego, Yorkville, Naperville, Aurora and Plainfield, the mini-split helps reduce the furnace’s efforts and need for energy.
Air Quality for the Holidays (and Beyond)
Indoor air quality has been a growing topic as more information appears about the increasing impurities that cycle through our HVAC. Studies have been indicating that indoor air is even more polluted than outdoor air. This becomes of particular concern when we consider that many of us spend up to 90% of our time indoors.
As we’ve received more calls about air-quality concerns this season, we’ve been informing more customers about a new product among our indoor air quality solutions.
Designed with technology used on the U.S. space station, the Air Scrubber by Aerus® attaches directly to your HVAC ductwork to reduce contaminants in the air and on surfaces while the system fan is running.
Where many air treatment systems make ambitious claims about what they can do, the Air Scrubber reinforces its performance with scientifically validated data about its ActivePure® technology.
In unaffiliated third-party lab tests, ActivePure has been proven to reduce up to 99.99% of pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus), avian flu, swine flu and E. coli. The system’s Proactive Pathogen Defense™ is so strong that it is used in operating and acute care rooms at hospitals.
For those who care about the quality of the air being breathed at home, particularly if someone has allergies or a respiratory condition, the Air Scrubber can contribute to purer indoor air this winter as well as throughout the year.
Heating & Air Quality Solutions: Contact Us Today
Considering that cold weather visits for a good five months (November–March), staying warm and breathing better indoor air are always worthy of discussion for those of us in Oswego, Yorkville, Naperville, Aurora and Plainfield (IL). Whenever you have questions or are seeking a solution to particular issue, just give us a call at (630) 731-1550!
