Get Educated About Hvac With These Simple To Follow Tips
Many people do not give their HVAC units a second thought until it quits working. Then, it becomes critical quickly. It can be hard to find a good HVAC contractor. Simply continue reading to learn more about how to go about doing this.
When purchasing a new HVAC system for your home, be sure it is energy efficient. These days, most new HVAC systems are energy efficient; there is a energy star label on the equipment. However, to be sure your utility costs do not go through the roof, choose equipment that is energy efficient.
Before calling someone to repair your system, make sure you know what kind of HVAC system you actually have. Know the model and brand and find it's maintenance history, if possible. This will let you know that you're able to give the contractor the information that can help them.
Clean the coils and blades in your condenser at the beginning of summer. Shut off power before working or cleaning your system. The outside condenser unit should be kept free of leaves and other debris.
In order to cheaply cool your home, turn the temperature up. If you take a few showers a day or just drink a cold ice water, you'll find that you're saving a lot of money on your utility bills by keeping the thermostat a little higher than usual in your home.
Equipping your home with a programmable thermostat can be an excellent way to cut utility costs. It may save you as much as 10 percent of your overall utility bill if you turn your thermostat down by 10-15 degrees for a portion of the day. Plus, some models allow you to control them over the internet or from a smartphone.
Outdoor condenser units need to be turned off when the weather turns cold. When the temperature goes below 60 degrees, shut off the unit in order to prevent damage. This can keep your HVAC running and can save you money on repairs.
Don't ever let your home temperature get dangerously high. An air conditioning unit is really only able click here to reduce the temperature by twenty degrees in a short time span. The temperature will only reduce to about 80 if your home heats up to 100 degrees. This won't be a healthy environment to live in.
If you want to turn off your air conditioning at night to save money, consider putting a standing fan next to your bed. You can set it to oscillate from your toes to your head, blowing cool air over your body and letting you sleep comfortably all night long.
If you have fans in place to help make your HVAC more efficient, be sure that they're turning in the right direction. They should be pushing air downwards over the people in the room to help cool their skin. If it's blowing upwards, all it does is push hot air into the room.
As you can see from the above article, you now understand how it vital it is to have a properly maintained HVAC system. If you don't provide regular maintenance, you could have costly fixes down the road. You should not want that, so remember these tips to help you keep your HVAC system running right for many years to come.
Ancient 'air-conditioning' cools building sustainably
How did buildings keep cool before the invention of air conditioning? As architects consider how to reduce the energy demands of new builds, some are turning to the past for simple, low-tech solutions.
At the height of summer, in the sweltering industrial suburbs of Jaipur, Rajasthan in north-west India, the Pearl Academy of Fashion remains 20 degrees cooler inside than out -- by drawing on Rajasthan's ancient architecture.
While the exterior appears very much in keeping with the trends of contemporary design, at the base of the building is a vast pool of water -- a cooling concept taken directly from the stepwell structures developed locally over 1,500 years ago to provide refuge from the desert heat.
Award-winning architect Manit Rastogi, who designed the academy, explains that baoli -- the Hindi word for stepwell -- are bodies of water encased by a descending set of steps.
"When water evaporates in heat, it immediately brings down the temperature of the space around it," he says.
While traditional stepwells often go many stories below ground level, Rastogi's go down just four meters. However, the effect is the same and -- like the ancient Mughal palaces before it -- the academy enjoys its own microclimate.
Read more from Road to Rio: The slums of Mumbai: A model of urban sustainability?
Rastogi wonders: "How did they think up something so elaborate and yet so simple in its basic philosophy?
"How do you begin to think that you can dig into the ground and use the earth as a heat sink, have access to water, put a pavilion into it so that its comfortable through the year? It takes a lot of technology for us to think up something that simple now."
But it's not just the stepwells that are involved in this process of "passive cooling" -- the general term applied to technologies or design features that cool buildings without power consumption.
The whole building is raised above the ground on pillars, creating an airy and shaded pavilion that is used as a recreation and exhibition space. Here, according to Rastogi, the walls are made from a heat-absorbing material that creates a "thermal bank" -- so the warmth is slowly released at night when the temperature drops.
Centuries ago, latticed screens or "jaali" filtered direct sunlight into the palaces. The effect was decorative and helped reduce the heat. Likewise at The Pearl Academy, a latticed concrete screen runs the length of the building and provides a cooling outer skin.
"We've been able to demonstrate that good green building is not only cheaper to run; it's not only more comfortable to live in -- it's also cheaper to build," says Rastogi.
The success of the academy's eco-design has had an impact. Regulations -- based on these passive cooling techniques -- were introduced last year for all new Indian government buildings.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lsY92_nmCH1u72gjMYI4ZChOCJLeKAXLe9ieG5qDeR4/edit?usp=sharing