Rentmeister Total Home Service Blog: Archive for May, 2014

3 Components of Your Home that Affect Air Conditioner Sizing

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

**Rentmeister Total Home Service No Longer Services Boilers Or Radiant Heating Systems, We Apologize If This Is An Inconvenience**

When installation a new air conditioner, you first need to properly size it for your home. By sizing, we mean the air conditioner’s power load, which needs to be balanced against the needs of the space. If the unit is underpowered, it’s not going to get the job done. If it’s overpowered, it will engage in “rapid cycling,” turning on and off far more often than it should. Air conditioners use exponentially more power when they turn on and off than they do when they’re running, so rapid cycling will cost you a great deal in unnecessary energy, as well as increasing wear and tear in individual components. Proper installation for air conditioning in Salt Lake City will take all of these considerations into mind and find an air conditioner that is neither too large nor too small but just right.

3 components of your home that affect air conditioner sizing

  • Square footage. The most basic measuring stick is the amount of square footage in your home, which the air conditioner size must roughly match. In basic terms, an AC unit needs about 40 BTUs per square foot of space, though there are significant variations based on the precise size of your home. A trained technician can make the precise estimates.
  • Insulation. Insulation in your home is often used to keep warm air inside in the winter, but it also works to keep hot air outside in the summer. The amount of insulation in your attic or crawlspace will have a bearing on how well your hold retains the cool air, and hence how large your air conditioner must be.
  • Sunlight exposure. Sunlight can warm your home through radiant energy, and if your house gets a lot of sunshine, it’s going to require a larger air conditioner. In particular, look for large windows with a western view, as well as the presence or absence of nearby trees that might shield your home from the sun.

That means you’ll get the perfect unit for your home, saving you money on monthly bills without skimping on cooling power.

The experts at Rentmeister Total Home Service handle air conditioning in Salt Lake City, and thoroughly inspect the components of your home that affect air conditioning sizing. Call us today!

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Reasons to Install a Humidifier for Your Air Conditioning

Friday, May 23rd, 2014

Air conditioning in Salt Lake City means more than just generating cool air. We all know that AC systems use refrigerant to cool the air, but the process also removes humidity from the air as well. Living in a desert community like ours, which can lead to excessively dry air, which can often be as uncomfortable as hot air. You can correct the problem if you install a humidifier for your air conditioning, which will add moisture into the air and help keep it comfortable. Here’s a brief explanation of the reasons why.

Humidity is a way of measuring the amount of moisture in the air, which in turn affects how comfortable we feel. Generally speaking, human beings are most comfortable when the relative humidity levels are between 30% and 50%. If it drops lower than that, the air feels dry and uncomfortable. Static electricity goes up, skin may become dry and cracked, and if you suffer from allergies, you might find the frequency of incidents increasing. Household furnishing may suffer as well, particularly wood and wallpaper.

And for all the good they do in the summertime, air conditioners can lower the humidity in your household, making the problem worse. When they lower the temperature of the air within the system, they cause the ambient moisture to solidify as condensation (similar to the way dew forms in the cool early hours of the morning). The condensation is usually removed from the system via a drain pan and line, but the result is excessively dry air in the household.

A humidifier installed in the system can address that, elevating moisture levels and keeping you home comfortable the way it should be. That can also result in fewer health problems like dry skin, less damage to your furnishings, and a reduced frequency of asthma and/or allergic reactions. The experts at Rentmeister Total Home Service handle all kinds of issues related to air conditioning systems in Salt Lake City, and we know the reasons to install a humidifier for you air conditioning. Give us a call today to schedule a consultation, and let us show you what we can do. You’ll be glad you did!

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Alternative Options for Air Conditioning Systems

Friday, May 16th, 2014

Salt Lake City has famously beautiful winters – and even hosted an Olympics to prove it – but our summers can be hot and brutal, and residents need a good air conditioner to help them through it. In most cases, people rely on traditional centralized systems which generate cool air via refrigerant and blow it through a system of ducts to lower the temperature in the home. It’s an efficient and reliable system, but it’s not the only one you can consider for your home.

Here Are Some Alternative Options for Air Conditioning in Salt Lake City

  • Heat Pumps. Heat pumps work on the same principle as air conditioning, circulating refrigerant through a closed system of valves and coils. But it uses the hot air generated by the system to warm the air in the wintertime, whereas more traditional air conditioner simply vents the hot air outside the home. Heat pumps struggle a little in cold weather, and often appear as part of a hybrid system to compensate, but they benefit from a lower overall monthly cost than traditional air conditioners.
  • Ductless Mini Split Systems. Ductless systems eschew the centralized format, which relies on bulky ducts to transfer the air. Instead, they set up a series of individual units, each of which can cool a single room or area.  Ductless systems benefit from letting you tailor the temperature to each room, or even turning off the system in parts of the house you aren’t using (saving you money in the process).
  • Geothermal Systems. These systems require a large up-front cost and usually a fairly large piece of property to work. On the plus side, they cost very little to operate, and are environmentally friendly to boot. Coils are buried beneath the ground – where temperatures don’t change regardless of the weather above it – and a mixture of water and antifreeze is pumped through them. The mixture facilitates a heat exchange with the ground, pulling heat from your home and releasing it into the earth outside.

The HVAC experts at Rentmeister Total Home Service can discuss alternative options for air conditioning in Salt Lake City with you, then find the system that works best for your home. Give us a call today to setup a consultation. You’ll be glad you did!

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Why Conduct Heating Repairs Now?

Friday, May 9th, 2014

Your heating system has likely not seen use for a little while, and with summer on the way, most homeowners in the Salt Lake City area are focusing on their air conditioners rather than their heaters. Ironically, this actually makes an ideal time to schedule heating repair service. Why conduct heating repairs now? The short answer is that it’s all about convenience.

In the first place, you should know that not all of the problems with you heater announce themselves with a rattling noise or breakdown. Many of them quietly leech power and efficiency from the unit, and grow steadily worse over time even while your system seems to be functioning more or less normally. You can spot these issues by looking for unexpected spikes in your monthly energy bills. In any case, winter usually isn’t the best time to address them since you need your heater to fend off the cold temperatures. With spring here, however, you don’t need your heater every day and you have the convenience to schedule a repair session without losing the ability to warm your home.

In fact, convenience forms the other principal reason to conduct heating repairs now. In the late spring, you have the time and flexibility to set the schedule you want, maneuvering around all the important things you have to do in your life such as school, work and family matters. Since you don’t need the heater for the summer, you have the maximum number of options. But that flexibility will slowly diminish as time goes on. If you put it off, you may find your days growing short until the fall is here. Suddenly, you need your heater to perform every day, and the repair issues haven’t been addressed. The sooner you can do it, the easier the process will be.

If you’ve decided to conduct heating repairs now, then the experts at Rentmeister Total Home Service are ready to help. We have a long history of providing quality heating repair services in Salt Lake City, and we know how to perform with speed and efficiency. Give us a call today to set up an appointment and let us show you what we can do!

 

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Plan for Air Conditioning Repair Services before the Summer

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

Here in Salt Lake City, air conditioning season can sneak up on us sometimes. It seems like just yesterday that we were dealing with your heating system, and now it’s already spring. This is the time to plan for air conditioning repair services before summer hits in force and you need your air conditioner to perform at its peak every day. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure as they say, and you can take steps right now to ensure that you don’t face an air conditioning crisis later.

For starters, you should always plan for a routine maintenance session every spring before the hot weather starts. This is a kind of tune up which cleans off dirt and fixes a lot of tiny little issues like loose bolts and screws. That improves overall efficiency (saving you money on your monthly bills) while lowering the chances of a bigger repair coming along later. In fact a maintenance session is designed to spot small problems that could become major repairs if left untreated. That way, you can deal with it early on, saving money and again preventing a larger crisis.

Similarly, little improvements around the house can help. Use weather stripping to cover cracks around your doors and windows, set your thermostat slightly higher than you normally would, and if you have room in your attic or crawlspace, see about adding more insulation. All of that helps your house retain cool air more readily, as well as reducing the load your air conditioner needs to bear and lowering the chances that it will break down just when you need it the most.

If you’re planning for air conditioning repair services before the summer, it pays to have a qualified company on your side. Air conditioning services in Salt Lake City can be provided by the experts at Rentmeister Total Home Services. We provide all manner of repair and maintenance sessions and our commitment to quality means that we won’t finish until you are completely satisfied with our work. Give us a call today!

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