Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Indoor Air Quality

Why Hire a Professional to Clean My Air Ducts?

June 6, 2016

When you are going about your spring cleaning projects, you probably don’t give the conditions inside your ductwork all that much thought. If you really want to get the most from your air conditioning system this summer, though, we strongly recommend that you take the time to call our number and schedule professional duct cleaning in Fort Collins, CO. When your air ducts are dirty within, there is no way in which you can expect your AC system to truly excel, or to enjoy the type of environment that you deserve in your home. Consider the following, and let us know if you have any concerns about your air ducts.

How Does Dirty Ductwork Affect My AC and My Environment?

All of the air that is cooled by your air conditioning system is distributed throughout your home via your air ducts. That means that the air you pay to cool can pick up pollutants as it travels throughout this system if your air ducts are not clean. When that happens at a point beyond your air filter, those pollutants can simply be pumped into your home, dragging down your indoor air quality. When that happens, any allergy and asthma symptoms are going to flare up, and your comfort is going to suffer.

Additionally, you should keep in mind the fact that these pollutants can build up on sensitive components in your HVAC system, such as your evaporator. This can impede the cooling process, and also cause your air conditioner to perform at reduced energy efficiency levels. We believe that you deserve better than to overpay for an underwhelming performance from your AC. That is why we recommend giving us a call to schedule professional duct cleaning today.

Contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning to schedule top notch indoor air quality services.

How Can Professional Duct Sealing Work in My Favor?

May 9, 2016

The air ducts that follow a circuitous path throughout your home serve a very vital function in a forced-air heating and/or cooling system. Because your ducts are more or less entirely hidden from view, you may fail to give them the attention that they require. This is unfortunate, since problems with your ductwork can negatively affect you in a number of different ways. We encourage you to review the following information, and to contact us if you have any reason to believe that your air ducts are compromised. You can count on us for great duct sealing services in Fort Collins, CO.

Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

A major concern with leaky ductwork is the effect that it can have on the quality of the air in your home. When your ductwork is not properly sealed, it can draw pollutants in through gaps and cracks. When this happens, your ductwork itself can be responsible for distributing those pollutants throughout the house. Thanks to professional duct sealing, you can ensure that these pollutants do not infiltrate your system.

Protect Efficiency

When your ductwork leaks, your HVAC system is not going to be able to heat and cool your home with the efficiency that it ought to. This can leave you paying higher heating and cooling costs than you normally would. If you notice that your heating and cooling bills are on the rise, it may be due to leaks in your ductwork system.

Live More Comfortably

Another problem that leaky ductwork can lead to is the inability to live in ideal complete comfort. When your ductwork is leaking, it will likely result in the uneven heating and cooling of your home. This is not the best situation, obviously. When hot or cold spots start appearing around your home, it just may be time to have your air ducts professionally sealed.

Call Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning for great duct sealing services.

Will I Need a Dehumidifier Installed in My Home?

April 12, 2016

The air in our part of the country is not particularly known for high humidity levels, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never find yourself dealing with excessively humid air in your residence. If you are at all concerned about the early warning signs of high humidity, which we’ll detail a bit below, just let a member of our team know. We install whole-house dehumidifiers in Fort Collins, CO, and we always do the job right. Don’t waste your time messing about with ineffective and inconvenient portable dehumidifiers in your home. Instead, schedule service with the pros on our staff, and ensure that the air in your home is sufficiently dry.

What Are the Signs of High Humidity?

Chances are that you’ve heard someone say, “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” at some point. There is some truth in this saying, actually, though it’s a bit of an oversimplification. Very humid air does indeed retain heat very effectively, which can make you feel even more uncomfortable than you otherwise would. However, it also impedes the evaporation of sweat on your skin, which is your body’s natural cooling system. If your skin constantly feels sticky and hot, you may have too much humidity in the air in your home.

Not only will excess humidity leave you feeling less comfortable, but it can also lead to damage to your property. If you notice signs of wood rot in your home, if you see mold beginning to take root, or if the wooden floorboards are starting to warp, it could be because your home is just too humid within.

If you notice these warning signs in your household, contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning to inquire about the whole-house dehumidifiers available to you.

Should I Have My Air Ducts Tested?

March 7, 2016

Do you use a forced air heating and/or cooling system in order to maintain comfortable temperatures throughout your home all year long? If so, we recommend that you take precautions to guarantee that you are getting the very best performance possible from your HVAC system. This means scheduling routine heating and air conditioning maintenance, of course, but there are other, more specialized services that you may benefit from as well. If you are concerned about the performance of your system, for instance, you may want to schedule professional duct testing in Fort Collins, CO.

How Does Duct Testing Work?

When you schedule duct testing with a member of our team, we will seal off your vents and registers in order to create a closed system. We use a calibrated fan in order to pressurize your ductwork, essentially forcing air into the system. We measure the pressure within the ductwork against the pressurization put forth by the fan. If we see a difference in these numbers, we know that your air ducts are leaking, and that duct sealing or repair services are going to be necessary. Duct testing gives us the conclusive data that we need in order to determine if your system is in trouble.

When to Schedule Duct Testing

Not every homeowner is going to have to schedule professional duct testing services. If, however, you notice that you are having trouble heating and/or cooling your entire home evenly, if you see an inexplicable spike in your heating and cooling costs, or you hear a hissing or whistling sound coming from your system, you may want to have your air ducts tested. Decreased indoor air quality is another strong indicator that there is a problem with your ductwork.

If you are ready to schedule duct testing, contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning today.

Why Should I Use a Heat Recovery Ventilator?

February 15, 2016

During the winter season, it can be difficult to strike the right balance between comfort and energy efficiency. You pay to heat your home, after all, so you don’t want to let the energy that you’ve used to heat the air go to waste. However, you also want to keep your home sufficiently ventilated so that indoor air quality remains high. It may seem like you’re destined to remain between a rock and a hard place, but there is actually a pretty simple solution to this problem. Just give us a call to schedule a heat recovery ventilator installation in Fort Collins, CO.

What Is a Heat Recovery Ventilator?

A heat recovery ventilator is a device that facilitates the exchange of heat between incoming and outgoing air currents in a home. During the winter season, when the air outside is fresh but cold, the HRV brings that air in in order to maintain great indoor air quality within the house. In order to prevent it from making your home too cold, though, the HRV passes this incoming airstream very near the outgoing one. This allows the system to pre-warm the incoming air with the outgoing warm, but stale, air. The process works in the summer time, too, with the outgoing air cooling the incoming air, HRVs are more common in areas such as ours, though, with very cold winters.

Benefits of Heat Recovery

There are a couple of ways in which heat recovery can benefit the homeowner. First of all, it helps to keep the air quality in a home high. This can help you to fend off allergy attacks, and even illnesses. Additionally, a heat recovery ventilator allows you to ventilate your home sufficiently, without putting efficiency on the chopping block. If you think that your home could benefit from the use of an HRV, give a member of our staff a call today.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning is here to handle your IAQ service needs.

Should I Be Using UV Germicidal Lights?

January 25, 2016

Homeowners today realize that maintaining comfortable temperatures in their homes is really only part of the comfort equation. The other is maintaining great indoor air quality within their homes. This can be more difficult during the heating and cooling seasons, as opposed to the more mild spring and autumn months, due to the fact that we seal up our homes quite tightly in order to maximize efficiency. With the right IAQ products and services, though, you can still maintain a clean, healthy environment. Using the proper equipment is key, though. If you are up against biological pollutants, for instance, you really need to consider the use of UV air purifiers in Loveland, CO.

When to Use UV Germicidal Lights

Not every home is going to require the use of UV germicidal lights. But those that do will benefit significantly from them. UV germicidal lights use small, safe amounts of ultraviolet radiation to destroy biological pollutants within ductwork. They are typically installed near the air handler, so as to treat all of the air passing through the system. Biological pollutants include viruses, bacteria, and mold spores. If you have issues with frequent illness in your home, or if mold keeps popping up, using UV germicidal lights is an option to consider.

Limitations of Use

Most residential HVAC systems cannot fully filter out biological pollutants, as the pollutants can continue to reproduce even once they’re trapped in the filter. That is why air purifiers that destroys pollutansts are so beneficial. Remember, however, that such systems won’t do anything to remove more run-of-the-mill contaminants from the air in your home, such as dust and dirt. That is why purifiers should be used in conjunction with more traditional air cleaning/filtration systems, and not be mistaken as a replacement for those options.

Contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning to learn more.

Is the Air in Your Home Too Dry?

January 18, 2016

During the summer time, the air outside tends to be rather humid. Running your air conditioner nonstop can dry the air in the house excessively, though. During the winter, we are already starting off with dry air, and heating that air over and over with a furnace or other forced-air heating system can degrade its overall quality further. If you think that the air in your home is too dry, remember that the best way to deal with such issues is with a whole-house humidifier in Fort Collins, CO.

Is Your Skin Dry and Itchy?

When you surround your body with very dry air, you can and should expect your skin to dry out as well. This may lead your skin to become quite flaky, and it will probably get very itchy as well. It may even begin to split and crack, causing further discomfort. By sufficiently humidifying the air in your home, you can alleviate such symptoms.

Is Your Property Suffering?

Have you noticed that wooden fixtures or floorboards in your home are splitting and cracking? Does it seem like your paint is chipping away, or that your wallpaper is splitting? These issues could also be the result of very dry air in the home. It won’t only affect your body, after all.

Is Your Immune System Compromised?

If your sinuses and mucous membranes dry out, then your risk of getting ill is greatly increased. Plus, very dry air can cause you to suffer from frequent sore throats, or even nose bleeds. We believe that you deserve better than all of this, which is why we encourage you to use a whole-house humidifier in your home, should you encounter such problems.

Keep an eye out for these warning signs, and contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning to schedule your humidifier services with a qualified professional.

When Is Professional Duct Sealing Necessary?

December 21, 2015

Do you use a forced air heating system in your home, such as a furnace or a heat pump? If so, you are going to be depending upon your air ducts a lot in the months to come. Winter may not really be starting off with a bang this year, but there is still plenty of cold weather to come. If your air ducts are not properly sealed, then you are going to run into some pretty serious problems as you attempt to heat your home in an even and effective manner. Fortunately for you, we are here to offer professional duct sealing in Windsor, CO. Give Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning a call today if you are concerned about your ductwork.

Signs That Duct Sealing Is Necessary

Your air ducts are not easily accessible, nor are they visible in any substantive way. How, then, can one hope to determine if his or her air ducts are in need of service? There are actually a number of potential warning signs that can alert you to the need of a service such as duct sealing. You just have to know what it is that you are looking for.

Increased Heating (and Cooling) Costs: Did your cooling costs over the summer surpass the normal level? Have you gotten a utility bill representing your heating costs that seemed over the top already? It could be due to air leaking out of your system. Let us evaluate the situation in order to determine if duct sealing could resolve the problem.
Reduced Indoor Air Quality: Air leaking out of your ductwork is a major concern, but it’s not the only one. You also don’t want pollutants to be making their way into your HVAC system. They can be distributed throughout your entire home via your ductwork, which will drag down the quality of the air filling that space.
Whistling or Hissing Sounds: Do you hear odd whistling or hissing sounds when using your HVAC system? It could be the result of air leaks in your ductwork. Contact us if notice this problem in your home.

Ways in Which Professional Duct Cleaning Can Benefit You

December 14, 2015

When you own a home, you have a lot of responsibilities to take care of. While many of them, such as lawn care, shoveling, house cleaning, etc., are jobs that you can handle on your own, there are others that demand the skill and expertise that only a trained professional has to offer. When it comes to ensuring that your HVAC system is operating properly, for instance, you need to hire a trained professional. Remember, though, that basic maintenance may not be all that is necessary for getting the most from such systems. If you use a forced air HVAC, then you may need professional duct cleaning in Wellington, CO as well. Read on to learn more about the benefits of duct cleaning, and call Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning to schedule service.

Maintains Efficiency

You are not likely to have such excessive dust and pollutant buildup in your ductwork that it is impossible to force air through the system. However, it is very possible that the pollutants within that ductwork will build up on sensitive components within your HVAC system, and that your air filter will clog up. Both of these issues can lead to serious efficiency problems. If you hope to heat and cool your home in the most efficient manner possible, then it is in your best interest to ensure that your air ducts are clean.

Protects System

As your HVAC system struggles to operate properly in the face of clogged air filters and other issues pertaining to excessive dust and other pollutants in the system, it is going to operate under more strain than is normal. Over time, this strain can adversely affect the condition of your HVAC system. By having your air ducts cleaned, you can actually help to protect the overall condition of your HVAC system.

Improved Air Quality

When your air ducts are dirty within, there is no way that you can hope to enjoy the great air quality that you want throughout your home. Your ductwork itself can distribute pollutants throughout your living space, dragging down indoor air quality in a serious fashion. Clean ductwork helps to promote a clean living environment.

Why Have My Air Ducts Tested This Winter?

November 9, 2015

Now that the heating season is really getting underway, it is time to start thinking about ways in which to ensure that your heater not only functions effectively and reliably throughout the winter season, but efficiently as well. One great way in which to do so is to have your air ducts professionally tested. If you use a heat pump, furnace, or any other ducted home heating system, then ensuring the quality of your air ducts is paramount to ensuring the successful operation of your heater. The good news is that we offer professional duct testing in Fort Collins, CO. Contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning to have the condition of your air ducts assessed by a trained professional.

How Does Duct Testing Work?

There are a few ways in which professional HVAC and IAQ technicians may go about testing one’s ductwork. Most commonly, though, this entails sealing up the registers and vents of the air ducts, effectively turning the ductwork into a closed system. A fan is then used to pressurize the air ducts, and the difference in air pressure is carefully measured to determine if air is leaking out of the ductwork. Your technicians can then go about using the information gathered in regards to the condition of your air ducts in order to address any issues which may be afflicting them.

Benefits of Professional Duct Testing

The major benefit of professional duct testing, of course, is knowing for certain what type of condition your air ducts are in. Because leaking ductwork can lead to issues with indoor air quality and plummeting energy efficiency, it only makes sense to ensure that your air ducts are in the fine condition necessary for distributing heated air throughout your home in the most effective manner possible. Don’t let ignorance of your air ducts lead to comfort and health problems in your home. Schedule professional duct testing with a member of our staff today.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Indoor Air Quality

How Does Dirty Ductwork Affect My AC and My Environment?

Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Protect Efficiency

Live More Comfortably

What Are the Signs of High Humidity?

How Does Duct Testing Work?

When to Schedule Duct Testing

What Is a Heat Recovery Ventilator?

Benefits of Heat Recovery

When to Use UV Germicidal Lights

Limitations of Use

Is Your Skin Dry and Itchy?

Is Your Property Suffering?

Is Your Immune System Compromised?

Signs That Duct Sealing Is Necessary

Maintains Efficiency

Protects System

Improved Air Quality

How Does Duct Testing Work?

Benefits of Professional Duct Testing

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

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