Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Category: Community Involvement

Every year, Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning accepts nominations for local families in need of a new furnace. We accept nominations from mid-October through mid-November and announce the winner shortly after Thanksgiving. This year, we had an overwhelming number of well-deserving nominees, which shows the need within our community to reach out to our neighbors to help when we can.

The winner of the free furnace was a local woman with years of medical issues and a passion to help others. She lives in a 40-year-old home in Laporte that still operates on the original furnace. Here is a snippet of the nomination letter we received from her former daughter in law:

“She has raised 3 children as a single mother and domestic violence survivor. She has been in a wheelchair for over 20 years, but that has never stopped her and hardly slows her down. She has an auto-immune disease that gnarls her joints and bones much like Rheumatoid Arthritis, but has never been diagnosed to a particular name. It is an idiopathic disease in which her own body attacks its own joints and bones for an unknown reason. This has brought her tremendous pain throughout her life. She has never felt sorry for herself or let her disabilities take her to a victim mentality. … I remember about 6 years ago, in the summer, I stopped by after work and found her on the front porch, in her wheelchair, sanding the paint on her house and deck with the one good arm she had! I asked her what on Earth she was doing?! She simply said, sanding the house and the deck for a fresh coat of paint that I plan to do over the next few weeks. We laughed and I offered to help her, but ended up visiting with her instead. She didn’t need my help and has always valued conversation and time with her family over everything else! … She has shared her home with so many in need, even though she has very little to give. … She continues to clean her home and even painted her living room walls from her wheelchair this past year. This is a woman with so many reasons to lay down and give up, but she continues to have hope day after day!”

We are excited to be able to give back to her and provide her comfort in her home. She is certainly well-deserving of this giveaway.

From our family to yours, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season!

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The City of Fort Collins is changing its utility billing structure to address peak demand use. Come October 1, 2018, Fort Collins Utilities will be switching to time-of-day pricing. This change will be reflected on your November utility bill. Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning wants to help you understand what these changes mean and how you can save on increased utility rates coming to Fort Collins, CO.

Unlike your gas utility that can be supplied constantly and be sitting, waiting for when you need it, electricity is much different as it must be produced on demand.  This creates challenges and increased costs during the peak demand times, and worst-case scenario, electric providers can’t produce enough to supply the demand and the power is reduced.  In some instances, you may not lose power completely, but voltage drops and certain appliances don’t work correctly. This is called a “brown out”. A “brown out” is hard on motors and compressors and can cause damage to devices. You will even experience dimming of lights.

In comparison to current utility rates, off-peak billing is going to reduce slightly (about 35%) when you use the least amount of energy, and it is going to increase by 150% during peak times when you are home using electricity the most.  With zero change in behavior, you could see your utility bill go up two to three times what it is now. For example, if your electric bill is currently $100 it could very likely go to $200 or even $300 immediately.

Here are the times that you will pay much more for your electricity.

A Big Change in Your Utility Bill

To estimate how these new rates might change your electric bill, the City of Fort Collins has created an rate estimator that you can find at www.fcgov.com/utilities/tod-estimator

Wondering what you can do to save money? Here are some tips from FCHA CEO Glenn Frank that he says you can try to reduce the impact of your utility bill increasing dramatically:

  • Invest in LED bulbs and keep lights off when not in use.
  • Consider installing timers on bath fans and lights in rooms that tend to be occupied for short times.
  • Install a programmable thermostat to adjust the temperature in your home during the day to help heat and cool during off hours so that you can use less energy during peak hours.
  • Install bath fans that have high-efficient ECM motors and humidity sensors to turn on and off automatically.
  • Plan to do laundry during off peak times. If you have an electric dryer, it could cost you between $1.50 to $2 to dry your clothes.
  • Avoid electric stove top, oven and microwave cooking. Plan more crock pot meals in the winter to be ready by the time the rate changes and utilize outdoor BBQ cooking in the summer.
  • Use the timer for delay start on your dishwasher to start after the peak time.
  • Potentially using your gas fireplace rather than running the furnace and fan depending on your situation (consult your expert HVAC company).
  • Maintaining your heating and cooling equipment by having it serviced, cleaned and running efficiently will be even more important with the new utility rates.
  • Keep your dryer lint screen clean and have your dryer vents cleaned.
  • Consider converting your electric appliances such as clothes dryers, ovens and cook tops to gas.

Schedule a maintenance visit on your HVAC equipment to make sure that it’s running at peak performance with the experts at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning.

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We are pleased to announce the grand opening of our new sales and showroom office at 1700 S College Avenue. Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning brings over 80 years of experience in the heating and cooling industry and is committed to providing expert service at sensible prices.

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Our Grand Opening will be on Saturday, March 11 between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Regardless of your current heating and cooling needs, come for FREE BBQ, refreshments, door prizes and other special offers only available to those who drop in; you’ll even get to mingle with Mitchell Frank — the voice of our jingle! We extend this invitation as our way of introducing ourselves to the neighborhood.

Let us know if you can make it by viewing the event on Facebook!

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At Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning, we take pride in our Fort_Collins_RFC_Logocommunity. We’ve been a part of this community and helping it to keep comfortable for over 80 years, after all. That is why we are so pleased to be a Business Partner of Realities For Children. This incredible organization is making a difference in the lives of underprivileged children each and every day. We are happy to support this organization through our business relationship.

We’d like to highlight the difference being made by Realities For Children in this week’s post. We hope that you’ll consider all that they are doing for their community, and maybe take some inspiration from all that they do. We certainly have, and we can attest to the fact that making a difference feels great!

What Is Realities For Children?

Realities For Children is a 501c3 non-profit organization. They work to educate, engage, and inspire local businesses, youth agencies, and the community at large to help improve the lives of Northern Colorado children who have been abuses, neglected, or are at-risk. Every child deserves a chance, and Realities For Children aims to give it to them — Because No Child Should Be Forgotten!

Our unique relationship with Realities For Children helps to ensure that all of the money we pay to the organization is going toward improving the lives of these children. We are grateful for the opportunity to be involved in this way. We have very deep roots in this community, and Realities For Children provides a great chance to strengthen our community involvement even further.

Realities For Children has received many awards and recognitions over the years. They aren’t in it for any glory or praise, of course. However, these recognitions stand as a testament to just how much of a difference the organization is really making. They have been named the Charity of the year by the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, the Charity of Choice as chosen by the Colorado Family Support Council, and much more. Review all of their recognitions and awards here.

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One of the greatest aspects of Realities For Children, and one of the main reasons we are so happy to work with them, is the diverse way in which they give back to the community. The Weld County Division of Realities For Children Charities provides emergency funding and special youth services to at-risk populations in Weld County. The Back to School program provides new backpacks filled with school supplies, and the Bikes for Tykes program gives bicycles and helmets to children in need. All of their programs are incredibly beneficial in their own ways.

As a local business, we are incredibly grateful to our valued customers that have helped to make our story one of success. We relish the opportunity to help make these kids’ story one of success as well. That’s what being a part of a community is all about.

When you need quality HVAC services in Loveland, CO, contact the professionals here at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning.

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Spring of 2014 Fort Collins Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. celebrated 80 years in business! This anniversary was a special one for this family owned business that dates back to 1934. Fort Collins Heating and Air Conditioning has a long history in Fort Collins and has been family owned and operated for 4 generations dating back to 1964 when Hollis Frank and his son Vic moved to Fort Collins and purchased the company then named Fort Collins Sheet Metal Co. The name was later changed to Fort Collins Heating and Air Conditioning, Inc. in 1996 when Glenn Frank, grandson of Hollis Frank purchased the company. “It was sort of like starting over at that point” says Glenn describing how his Grandfather had retired several years prior to this acquisition after his father Vic Frank had moved on from the family business due to disagreements on the future of the company back in the early 80’s.

Currently the company is led by Glenn Frank with his father Vic Frank playing a key role in the company for the past 17 years. Glenn’s son Jesse Frank also joined up in 2012 after graduating from Fossil Ridge High School as a lead installer. The company culture really has a family feel to it and considers everyone on the team a part of the Fort Collins Heating and Air family that is proud to be the premiere heating and air conditioning company serving Fort Collins and surrounding areas in residential & light commercial HVAC sales & service. Glenn said “I am humbled and honored to be leading this company at this stage, and I am very grateful of the ground work that was laid before me along with the loyalty we have with both our employees and customers. I would not be here if it were not for all of them.”

With this announcement, we would like to thank Fort Collins and the surrounding communities for their support. We focus on customer satisfaction and we could not have gotten this far without you. We look forward to continuing to offer you the best in HVAC service in Fort Collins for years to come!

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