Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Tag: Bellvue

While spring and fall are ideal times to conduct maintenance on your air conditioning system, summer, too, can be a good time to ensure that it’s running properly.

Why is it important to schedule regular maintenance for your air conditioner? In a nutshell, regular maintenance can help you avoid costly repairs, save you money, make your air conditioner run more efficiently and increase its longevity. How? We’ll outline below what you can expect from air conditioning maintenance in Bellvue and why it’s important.

What Happens During Maintenance?

Three main things happen during a routine maintenance visit from your Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning specialist:

  • Inspection
  • Cleaning
  • Adjusting

Inspection

During a maintenance appointment, all aspects of your air conditioning system are thoroughly inspected for any current and/or potential problems. Items that are inspected include the different components in both the indoor and outdoor units, electrical connections, wiring, belts, ball bearings, coils, etc. The inspection allows your Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning specialist to see everything happening with your air conditioner and detect any possible problems.

Cleaning

It is normal for your system to accumulate a certain amount of dirt and dust, including debris like leaves, grass and twigs, particularly in the outside unit; what is unhealthy for your air conditioner is when these things aren’t removed. Debris can cause a number of problems if left unattended, including clogs, breakage and potential breakdown of the system. During a regular maintenance appointment, both the indoor and outdoor units are cleaned, including the coils. This cleaning can help save you money down the road by preventing repairs that can develop from having a dirty system.

Adjusting

Regular use of your air conditioner can cause screws to come loose, ball bearings to become dry, wires to fray, and other small issues. These items will be adjusted as needed during a routine maintenance appointment, preventing them from becoming bigger and potentially more costly problems.

Behind on Your Maintenance? Call Us!

Regular maintenance is one of the best ways to ensure that your air conditioner runs optimally throughout the year.

If you haven’t scheduled air conditioning maintenance in Bellvue with us yet this year, call us, and let one of our experts help keep your AC running great this summer!

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Before zone control systems, turning on a central air conditioner meant cooling down all of home, regardless of whether certain rooms required it or not. An AC was either on or it was off, and there was no in-between to account for the changing temperature needs for different rooms or individuals.

The installation of zone control systems has changed this, however. Zone control divides a home into different regions (“zones”) with separate temperature controls that operate individually of each other for room-to-room air conditioning. A homeowner can lower or close off cooling power to locations that either require less cooling or which aren’t being used. This not only alleviates energy waste and lowers utility bills, but it accounts for the variable temperature needs of people in a household and gives them control over the cooling level wherever they are.

To find out more about how zone air conditioning can work for you in Bellevue, CO, call our AC professionals at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. Whether you are looking for a completely new air conditioning installation with zone control, or you want to retrofit your current system for zone control, we can handle the job.

Zone Control and Ductwork in Bellevue, CO

How do zone controls actually work with air conditioners? They aren’t part of the AC unit itself but are placed inside the ductwork that channels the cooled air from the unit throughout the house. Installers place dampers inside the ducts to separate the house into its various zones. These zone dampers control the airflow and air pressure. Each of the zone dampers is connected to an individual thermostat located on the wall in the zone, allowing someone to control the temperature locally without affecting the other zones.

The network of zone thermostats hooks up to a central control panel where the homeowners can oversee the temperatures in all zones and change which ones receive cooling. The system can be programmed to regulate the different temperatures throughout the house automatically.

Zone control installation is complicated and requires accessing the ducts without damaging them and creating air leaks. The electrical work required to hook up the dampers to the thermostats and the thermostats to the central panel is also intricate. You will need to hire trained professionals with years of experience working with air conditioning and ventilation to perform the job correctly.

If you find that you waste a large amount of energy each summer cooling down rooms that don’t need it (such as guest rooms), or if you find it difficult to locate a temperature setting that keeps everyone in your household comfortable, then consider a retro-fit zone control system.

Our installers at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning can handle fitting your house in Bellevue, Co for zone air conditioning. Call us today and set up an appointment.

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For whatever type of business you run, if it requires that you see to the comfort and happiness of employees, customers, and clients, it’s vital to have an effective HVAC system. Just as vital is who you permit to install, repair, and maintain that system. You can’t turn to amateurs, or to technicians who mostly work on residential systems. For this job, it takes the special knowledge and experience of commercial HVAC specialists to do it right. We’ll explain some of the reasons you need commercial HVAC services for your business.

It’s not hard to locate high quality commercial HVAC repair in Bellvue: contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. We’ve served Northern Colorado Since 1934 and take pride in the work we provide to businesses to keep employees and customers happy and comfortable. Call us today.

Why go with commercial HVAC specialists

  • Commercial systems are unlike residential systems: It may seem that an air conditioner is an air conditioner no matter where it’s installed. But commercial HVAC systems are specially designed for the larger workload and ventilation systems of business spaces, so they require a particular skill set beyond that of working on residential systems. The great workhorses of the commercial HVAC world, the rooftop packaged units, aren’t something that a technician who only works on smaller home systems can accurately repair or maintain.
  • Remain within local codes: A key difference between residential and commercial HVAC work is that the second needs to remain within a strict set of local building codes that govern fire hazards and indoor air quality for employees and customers. These codes vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but professional HVAC technicians will be familiar with all of them and make certain that any repairs or installation for your company’s system will not put you at risk of being closed down. You cannot afford to have your company shuttered for any length of time because of shoddy HVAC work that ignored local codes.
  • Ensure correct comfort for a larger number of people: A residential comfort system must maintain the happiness of, on average, four to six people. A commercial system must cover more than that, and usually over a larger space. This makes it doubly important that commercial specialists size your system so it can provide even and effective heating and cooling, and that they repair the system to restore its proper level. Many more factors go into determining the amount of power a system must have to provide the correct comfort for everyone in the workplace.

We have a best of both worlds background, and you can trust to our commercial HVAC repair in Bellvue whenever you need us—24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning has more than 80 years of experience with both commercial and residential systems. Call us today to make an appointment.

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One of the essential parts of a gas-powered furnace or boiler is the burner, where an ignition system burns the natural gas from the jets to create high temperature combustion gas. This gas either heats up the water in a boiler or the air in a furnace and provides the heat necessary to keep warm through a Colorado winter and any of its other cold days.

When a burner malfunctions, it will threaten your supply of heat and lower the performance of your boiler or furnace. But a faulty burner will also cost you money, as we’ll explain. To fix a burner problem, you need to call on professional heating repair in Bellvue, CO. Look to the company with a long track record, Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning: we’ve served Northern Colorado since 1934.

A Faulty Burner and Heater Efficiency

The principle way you can waste money with a heating system in your home is for it to run inefficiently: it must draw increasing amounts of energy in order to perform at the same level. For example, a furnace with a 85% AFUE rating will turn 85% of the natural gas supplied into heat. However, if the furnace develops problems, it can drop to the point that it only turns 60% of its fuel into heating power. To reach the same level of heating, it must work more and waste more.

How does the burner affect efficiency? The burner is the place where a furnace or a boiler burns natural gas. Although many other components in these systems can affect efficiency—such as heat exchangers, pumps, and air handlers—it all begins with burner. If the burner becomes dirty, making it difficult for it draw oxygen to ignite, a larger amount of gas will go to waste, and the burner will remain on longer to reach its regular heat levels.

Another possibility for waste is a burner with rust flakes in it. Corrosion of any kind will damage a furnace or boiler and needs to be avoided at all costs. Rust flakes in a burner will restrict oxygen flow, the same as with dirt and grime.

A burners connection to the gas line can become clogged, restricting gas flow. The burner will struggle to maintain enough heat to reach the temperature indicated on the thermostat, and continue to waste gas to reach it.

All of this wasted natural gas means elevated energy bills. If you notice a spike in your costs for gas on your monthly bill, you have may have a repair need in your heater… and the burner is a likely candidate.

But Don’t Try to Fix the Burner Yourself!

Repairs to gas heaters must remain in the hands of trained professionals; it’s extremely unsafe to do this work on your own. Call up the technicians at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning (we’re available 24 hours a day) and schedule heating repair in Bellvue, CO if you suspect you have a malfunctioning heater.

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“Sizing” refers to determining how large and powerful a heating system should go into a particular space. To properly size a heater such as a furnace requires knowing the “heat load” of the space to be heated, i.e. that amount of heat required to provide the desired level of comfort. Before installing a furnace in your home in Bellvue, CO, you’ll need to have your furnace sized before you have it put in.

Sizing makes a huge difference in whether a furnace will work well or not. Although it may sound easier simply to pick the largest model possible, sizing requires finding a balance. As we’ll explain, going either too small or too large will cause serious trouble with your home’s heating. For the professional assistance you’ll need to size your furnace, contact Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. Our NATE-certified technicians can do the job right.

Problem #1: The Furnace is Too Small

Most homeowners understand why ending up with an undersized furnace will result in poor heating. If the furnace cannot supply the level of heat needed for a space, it will result in cold spots throughout the house and rooms with insufficient warmth. The furnace will also need to run almost constantly as it tries to reach the setting on the thermostat, so an undersized furnace won’t save you money either.

Problem #2: The Furnace is Too Large

“Come on, how can I have too much heat?” It’s a common error to think that going too large is superior to going too small. However, what happens when a furnace is too large is that it “short cycles”: turns off before completing its full heating cycle because it raises the temperature too fast. Short cycling means extra stress on the furnace, shortening its lifespan and incurring repairs, and it drains extra power because a furnace uses the most energy during start-up.

Prevention: Professional Furnace Installation

There’s an easy way to avoid both problems: have professional installers size your furnace. Using a procedure called a heat load calculation, HVAC technicians will determine the heat load of your home and match it to the right furnace. After this, you can relax and let them take care of performing the installation fast and effectively.

Let Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning be your dependable heating system service in Bellvue, CO. Northern Colorado residents have trusted to us for great heating service since 1934. Give us a call today!

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We understand the importance of carefully budgeting for your company, both in the short-term and the long-term. Perhaps when it comes to installing a new commercial HVAC system for your business, such as new rooftop package units, you’ll want to save money with an amateur contractor who offers you the lowest price available. However, here is a place where apparent savings will soon turn into much higher costs—not to mention employee and customer dissatisfaction with conditions. The same way you would only entrust professionals to handle important outside tasks for your business, you should only entrust commercial HVAC installations to companies with the licensing and the experience necessary to make the work goes fast, accurately, and with high prospects for long-term problem-free operation.

For your commercial HVAC installation in Bellvue, CO, call our contractors at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. We have been in business since 1934, and our commercial experience is extensive and covers all aspects of heating and cooling.

Why Experience is Important

We would never recommend anyone hire non-professionals for a residential job, but at least the potential for damage from shoddy work in a home is smaller than in a large workplace. Commercial HVAC systems are powerful and must work to heat and cool a larger number of people over a greater space. The ventilation systems in particular are intricate. Proper commercial work not only requires years of training, but it needs hands-on experience to make all the training click together so a technician knows the right tools and repairs to apply to any situation.

There’s also the importance of local health and safety codes: as a business owner, you know your workspace must be up to code. Only experienced commercial technicians will know exactly how to install your new units so they meet health and safety regulations. In fact, in some areas it may be illegal to have amateur installation done at all. Don’t take the risk—fines and a possible business shutdown aren’t worth it. An experienced professional will do the job right the first time so you will have no worries.

You will also need experienced installers to figure out the right size system for your workspace. Sizing any heater or air conditioner is a difficult task, but it becomes exponentially trickier for a large space with many people in it. Trust the experience of a qualified commercial HVAC service to make sure you have the proper-sized HVAC system.

You’ll Find Experience at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning

Our founding date says a lot about us: 1934. We have always been family-owned and operated, and have passed down experience from one generation to another. You will have a harder time finding a better contractor than Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning for your commercial HVAC installation and other heating and air conditioning service in Bellvue, CO.

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Most commercial HVAC systems are flexible and reliable, allowing you to keep your employees, customers, or tenants feeling comfortable no matter what the weather is like outside. Like any other mechanical system, however, they suffer from occasional breakdowns. If your system breaks down, you not only want it fixed fast, you want it to be fixed right the first time. Here’s why you should hire licensed professionals to handle your Bellvue commercial HVAC repairs.

In the first place, you want to get your system up and running quickly when it goes down. To do otherwise is to make your employees or tenants less comfortable and to discourage customers from entering your place of business. A trained professional knows exactly when to look for, while a more general handyman (such as the kind employed in most buildings) will probably need to hunt awhile before finding the issue. Hiring a professional saves time and effort, which translates to retained business and happier employees overall.

Then there’s the question of reliability. A professional can offer guarantees that any work they do will be to your satisfaction. That comes on top of the specialized expertise you get with a professional service technician, meaning that those guarantees are backed up by experience. If you don’t hire a licensed HVAC contractor, then you’re still responsible if something goes wrong with the repairs. Even worse, if you end up damaging other components in the process, then you’ll be on the hook for those repairs as well.

The best reasons to hire professionals to handle your commercial HVAC repairs come down to money. Specifically, the money you save and the peace of mind that comes with that. If you need commercial HVAC repair in Bellvue, call the pros at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. We’re experts in these kinds of systems and we stand by every aspect of our work so you know it’s being done right. Call us today to make an appointment.

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Why is there frost on my heat pump?” It seems counter-intuitive, but it’s one of the most common issues faced with heat pump repair in Bellvue. Heat pumps work reasonably well in Colorado, especially when combined into a hybrid unit to help it carry the load on those cold winter nights. But problems can always arise, and frost build-up is one of them. To understand how it is created, it is important to understand how heat pumps work.

Heat pumps cycle refrigerant to help warm and cool the air. The frost issue usually occurs at the evaporator coils, where liquid refrigerant returns to a gaseous state and pulls heat out of the surrounding air in the process. Heat pumps usually have two sets of coils, one indoor and one outdoor. In the summer, the indoor coils serve as the evaporator in order to cool the air. In the winter, the outdoor coils perform that function, releasing the cool air outside instead of in your home.

That process requires specific amounts of refrigerant to work; the exact amount depends on the precise brand and model of your heat pump. If the refrigerant levels are too low – usually because a leak has sprung up in the system – then the process is knocked off kilter and frost shows up on the coils. That frost represents lost cooling potential that is stuck on the surface of the coils instead of moving into your house (or safely out of the system in the winter). Moreover, it serves as an insulator between the refrigerant and the air it’s trying to cool, further restricting the process.

Unfortunately, you can’t just scrape the ice off and expect it to get better. The problem lies with the lower levels of refrigerant and besides, scraping the ice off may damage the coils. Fortunately, a trained expert can hunt down the source of the leak and seal it before recharging refrigerant levels to their required levels. If you’re asking “why is there frost on my heat pump?” then the professionals at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning are ready to help. We handle heat pump repair in Bellvue, and our staff is well trained in dealing with refrigerant leaks. Call us today to set up a repair session!

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You’ve just finished with your heating installation in Bellvue, CO—now how do you get the best performance from your new heater? We have some tips here that will help your heater live up to its potential without undue wear and tear.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning has kept North Colorado warm since 1934. Trust to our experience when you need help with your new heater.

Keep the thermostat set to energy-saving temperatures

Your thermostat may have a very high setting—sometimes 90°F—but you shouldn’t turn it up that high because it will waste energy and force your heating system to work too hard… which will wear it down faster. The U.S. Department of Energy suggests maintaining a temperature of 68°F while you’re awake, and 58°F when you’re asleep. Most people can be comfortable at these temperatures with an extra layer of clothes or an additional blanket.

Expand your heat pump with a hybrid heating system

If you have installed a heat pump, you might consider upgrading it to a hybrid system. Heat pumps can sometimes struggle with extracting sufficient heat from the outdoors when the temperature drops below freezing—a common occurrence in Northern Colorado! However, a hybrid system hooks your heat pump up to a back-up system that uses a different fuel source, such as a propane furnace. This second heater will turn on whenever your heat pump needs help with the cold. It’s a great way to have the benefits of a heat pump without spending too much on additional heating energy, since the back-up system will only come on when necessary.

Schedule regular maintenance on your heating system

Your new heater may seem like it’s invincible, but it isn’t. Don’t wait to start regular heating maintenance for it until it starts to malfunction. Your heater should have a yearly check-up and tune-up from professionals so that it will stay in “like new” condition for many years, and so it will last up to and beyond its manufacturer’s suggested lifespan.

Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning want you to have the best heating you can get from your newly installed system. Along with the above suggestions, make sure that whenever you detect problems that need repair, you call up professionals to take care of it right away.

Contact us to help you get the most out of your new heating installation in Bellvue, CO.

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In rainy towns like Bellevue, heating installation services need to be performed correctly the first time, every time. Our weather doesn’t forgive shoddy workmanship, and if your heater struggles because the installation wasn’t spot on, you’ll find yourself paying much more than you should in monthly bills and repair costs. Finding a good HVAC technician for the job is a good first step, but you can go further by educating yourself about what goes into a quality heater. Here’s how to get the most out of your heating installation.

For starters, make sure the technician you’ve hired is fully qualified and ready for the job. Licensed, certified servicemen will prepare for the job diligently and keep you informed every step of the way. They’ll treat your home like your own, and double-check their work so that your new heater performs exactly as it should.

Selecting the right heater can play a big part in this as well. You want one that is neither too large nor too small, but just right for the size and conditions of your house. A good technician can measure the square footage of your home, as well as noting such elements as sun exposure and the insulation in your attic. If you’re getting a new type of furnace, he should make sure that your ducts and lines are compatible with it, and keep things like the foundation size in mind when making his preparations.

An efficient heater is a good idea too. Heater efficiency is measured in AFUE ratings, which stands for “Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency.” The higher the rating, the more efficient the heater, though you can cheat a bit by looking for the EnergyStar sticker which is given out to the most efficient heaters on the market.

For more help on how to get the most out of your heating installation, rely on Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. We operate in Bellevue, heating installation is a specialty of ours, and we understand the need to make your new heater the best it can possibly be. We also stand by the quality of our equipment and service, and won’t rest until you are fully satisfied. Pick up the phone and give us a call today.

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