Author: ciwg_CEO@906

Whether you are trying to relax after work or are working in a hot area every day, staying cool during the summer months is a must. A/C is definitely one way to go about it.

Sometimes though, the A/C can break down if it’s left unmaintained or cleaned. If that happens in the middle of summer, depending on the size, the state of disrepair, and how busy your HVAC professional is, it may take a while to get the A/C system fixed. You also can’t take a full system with you outside if you’re traveling from your cool home to a hot workspace or if you’re heading out on a camping trip!

For these reasons and for your health and sanity’s sake, we have some tips on how you can stay cool during the hottest months of the year, whether you’re using the A/C or not!

Tip 1: Cool off the Hottest Rooms

Naturally we don’t use our house when we go to work (unless you work from home, in which case, lucky you!) or when we have to run errands. This means you should only focus on cooling off rooms where it’s absolutely necessary. For example, don’t worry about cooling off the bedroom when you’re not using it, but do cool off any room where sunlight pours in the most or where it’s hottest, such as the kitchen.

Tip 2: Curtains are Your Friend

Some homes are built with massive windows that have some pretty spectacular views. However, there’s one drawback: the sunrise or sunset, depending on where the windows are positioned. That much direct sunlight can add a ton of heat to your home! This is why curtains or blinds are your friend in this case. Keep them closed when it’s the hottest time of day and open them when it’s cooler out.

Tip 3: Shade is Also Your Friend

Whether you’re driving around or you need to run errands down the street, always stick to the shade. Typically, the weather gets the hottest between 10am and 3pm depending on where you live. Stick to the side of the road in the morning where the shade is most likely to reside and then switch sides when it’s the late afternoon. Do your best to park in shaded areas so that you don’t get burned by your own car’s seatbelts!

Tip 4: Let Your Body Adjust

Sometimes it takes only a few minutes for our internal temperature to adjust to a room’s heat. Turning the A/C on right away will only cause an imbalance in our bodies, in that it will make us cold too fast too soon. It’s also crucial you allow your body’s temperature to adjust when you’re trying to go to sleep. If it’s absolutely too hot, try sleeping on top of the covers while the A/C is on at low rather than under them. Make sure the A/C is timed so that it shuts off when you’re falling asleep.

Tip 5: Use Ventilation

Typically when summer arrives, that’s when the fans get taken out of the closet. Ventilation is a great way to stay cool and it makes for a decent replacement if A/C is too expensive right now. However, be sure the fans are well maintained and kept clean just like the A/C, otherwise that handy fan could also break down when you really need it.

Tip 6: Soak Your Feet

Like your hands, your feet are pure bone and muscle, meaning there’s no insulation between your body and the floors you walk on at home. If you walk a lot against a hardwood or tiled floor at home, that’s where heat can get soaked up quickly by your body, making you feel hotter than normal! Grab a bucket or shallow pan, fill it with cool water from the shower, and let your feet soak in it while you relax with Netflix in the evening, or before you go to bed, or simply after you’ve been on your feet for a long while.

Tip 7: Use Your A/C—the Right Way

We’re not going to go too deep into this tip because we’ve actually already talked about it on our blog (you can check out the post here if you’re interested!). However, there are indeed wrong ways to use air conditioning in your home or at work worth recapping about, such as the following:

• Placing obstacles over vents, such as furniture
• Lowering the temperature on the A/C
• Leaving the A/C on all day when no one is around

Stay frosty!

At Rep-Air Heating And Cooling we provide our customers with many options that will best suit your needs from heating and cooling to refrigeration. Contact us today for your complimentary quote: 1-844-218-3362 or contact@repairheatingandcooling.com and don’t forget to take a look at our website: https://repairheatingandcooling.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for free giveaways!

Whether you’re trying to stay cool on a hot summer day at home, or you need ventilation for your office computers, having HVAC equipment installed is a must. But is there such a thing as an ideal time for when installation is required? We say: yes! Here is what we have to say regarding its timing.

When is there NOT a good time?

We know that’s a silly question, so here’s our silly answer: anytime is a good time to get HVAC equipment installed. However, there are certain areas where the timing should be sooner than later in order to use the systems to their full potential. It’s these situations we’re going to go over below, and it’s good to keep this information in mind if you’re planning on doing any of the following:

• Buying a new home or apartment, whether it’s your first or third
• Building a new home
• Shopping around for a new office location
• Moving your company from one location to another
• Planning on renovating your work space or living areas
• Replacing old or broken HVAC equipment

Home Renovations

Depending on where you live, odds are high you either have purchased an older home circa 1970 or even older, i.e. before energy efficiency was something to worry about. These older homes don’t have the same airtight walls or insulation that modern homes are typically now built with in mind. That’s why renovations are and can be made, and one of those—if the humidity levels are high—should be installing HVAC equipment. In some cases you should also install an HRV system if certain conditions are met (you can check out our post on HRV’s perks, if you’d like).

New Home Construction

Talking about modern homes, installing HVAC systems during construction when building a new home is beneficial. That way, expensive renovations won’t need to take place after the fact. These systems should be included in the blueprints when drawing up the designs for new housing, and once installation is complete, it should and must be tested afterwards by a professional home inspector to ensure every component is working properly. This installation would also make an excellent selling point to mention to new homebuyers or tenants since HVAC is typically installed during new construction.

Office Building Renovations or Initiations

If your company relies on computers day in and day out, you need ventilation. This is not a suggestion, either (our blog post on the subject goes further into why this is the case). For the sake of keeping your workspace safe and comfortable, having HVAC systems such as A/C around the office is a must. Having it installed will keep productivity high for you and your employees since the temperature can help everyone be comfortable. It will also keep your most valuable resources—your computers, like we said before—safe and secure.

If the ideal building you want to post your office in is older, it’s a good idea to install HVAC systems before officially opening for business. If it only occurred to you now to get the job done, the sooner it is installed, the better.

Before Summer and Winter

Regarding the seasons of the year, naturally it’s ideal to keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Fall and spring are typically the best seasons to get new equipment installed so that you are prepared for the hottest and coldest months of the year. This is because summer and winter are also technically considered to be the high seasons for using the equipment, whereas fall and spring are considered as off season.

Much like Christmas when everything goes on sale after the big day, rebates and discount sales are offered on good quality systems after the high seasons of using A/C or furnaces are finished. If you want a decent price, then fall and spring are the way to go. They’re also the best seasons to determine if your current system is working to its full potential when performing preventive maintenance. After all, the last thing you want to do is wait all summer wondering if your A/C is going to fail in the heat wave!

When Your Current HVAC Fails

It’s also a good idea to install new HVAC equipment if your home has it already, but you’re seeing the following signs:

• Higher than normal energy and hydro bills
• Failure to heat up or cool down the room, even though it’s working to its full potential
• Weird noises coming from the units, like grinding
• Weird smells coming from the units
• The unit’s age is over 10 years and up
• Poor air quality
• Faulty components, such as a failing thermostat or a compressor that switches on and off

These are all major signs to call in a professional and get new equipment installed.

Do you need assistance with installation or maintenance?

At Rep-Air Heating And Cooling we provide our customers with many options that will best suit your needs from heating and cooling to refrigeration. Contact us today for your complimentary quote: 1-844-218-3362 or contact@repairheatingandcooling.com and don’t forget to take a look at our website: https://repairheatingandcooling.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for free giveaways!

We’ve talked about HRV systems before; if you need to brush up on your know-how, check out our previous blog post. One thing a lot of people can get confused about, however, is the other similar-sounding system that pops up in conversation: ERV systems.

What’s the difference, you ask? Great question! Though they sound similar, HRV and ERV systems are actually not as interchangeable as you may think. Let’s go over what exactly these systems are, the major differences between the two, and what each can bring to your home or work in terms of benefits and usage.

What is an HRV System?

An HRV system, or a Heat Recovery Ventilation System, takes the heated, stale, contaminated air to warm up fresh air. It does this through its heat exchange core and the two fans typically installed to create the desired effect. HRVs are flexible systems in that you can add them to your current HVAC equipment or install them as independent devices.

What is an ERV System?

An ERV system stands for Energy Recovery Ventilation. The system’s process is similar to an HRV in that it consists of exchanging the energy within stale air in order to treat the incoming outdoor air. However, an ERV goes a little further than the HRV. It takes the humidity from the air in the room and keeps it on the same side as the thermal envelope where the humidity came from.

So, What’s the Difference?

Let’s recap the differences real quick before getting to each system’s benefits:

• HRVs are best suited to homes in colder climates where excess humidity occurs during the hotter seasons; ERVs are best suited to homes in cold climates where that excess is not a problem.
• While both recover heat, the ERV goes further by recuperating what energy is trapped in humidity, thus greatly improving overall recovery efficiency.
• An HRV takes the stale air from inside and exchanges it with fresh cool air from outside.
• An ERV limits the humidity levels coming from inside your home while it’s hot outside and A/C is on, plus it limits the humidity being expelled from your home when it’s cold outside, low humidity levels are present, and a humidifier is being used.

How Can These Systems Help Me?

It’s definitely worth considering getting an HRV or ERV system installed if your daily life applies to the following:

• You have severe allergies, such as pollen and dust
• Your home is too hot, and the air too stale almost daily
• You want to keep the windows closed and the air cool when it’s hot, or the windows closed and the air warm when it’s cold, all without giving up fresh air
• Humidity and excess condensation in your home is an issue—this will depend on how old it is

Talk to a professional if you want to learn more about these systems!

At Rep-Air Heating And Cooling we provide our customers with many options that will best suit your needs from heating and cooling to refrigeration. Contact us today for your complimentary quote: 1-844-218-3362 or contact@repairheatingandcooling.com and don’t forget to take a look at our website: https://repairheatingandcooling.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for free giveaways!

Refrigeration is an absolute must in our daily lives. After all, it keeps our perishable and frozen foods chilled and ready for when we need it. Most fridges nowadays come with a built-in filtered water tap so we can enjoy not just a cool glass of water, but a glass of clean water.

However, with great refrigeration comes great responsibility, meaning proper maintenance and cleaning is essential. For some reason though, most people tend to forget about that until it’s too late! It helps to know what the signs of trouble are, as well as the causes creating the problems so that your fridge lasts you a long, long time. Without further ado, let’s go over the signs your refrigerator needs maintenance as well as the potential causes.

Sign 1: Weird Noises

Your fridge should always produce a low, quiet hum during certain times of the day before stopping. This is its cooling process at work where the compressor, fan, and coolant work together to produce the chill you normally feel whenever you open the fridge. Any weird noise that sounds like grinding, mechanical groaning, or knocking should be of concern. The causes?

• A breaking down compressor
• A broken down fan motor
• A faulty condenser
• An overworking cooling system

Sign 2: Hot Air or No Cool Air, Period

Fridges should never, ever feel like the air inside of them is warm or non-existent! A lack of air flow and thawing or spoiled food, or food covered in condensation in the freezer, are some of the most telltale signs something is wrong—very wrong. The cause is likely a fan motor that’s broken down, not enough power to the fridge, a dirty condenser, or a compressor on its last legs.

Sign 3: Too Much Ice

Evaporator coils that are too iced up and gone uncleaned for some time will cause a ton of frost buildup. This in turn causes the temperature in the fridge and freezer to fluctuate. Most fridges come with a self-defrosting system built in, which normally does the trick as it runs 4 times a day per 24 hours. However, if that doesn’t work, it means the coils are failing.

Sign 4: Puddles

Water in front or surrounding your fridge on the floor is always a red flag of something gone wrong. Ditto if it looks like your own fridge is sweating through a current heat wave. This excessive condensation can mean a few things:

• The seal on the fridge door is not sealing up properly
• The drip pan, where condensation from the freezer’s defrost drain goes to evaporate, is overflowing due to a blockage of ice or food debris
• An electrical problem, usually associated with the power lights, ice dispenser (if it’s applicable), or the thermostat

Most, if not almost all of these signs, make it difficult to tell if it’s time for you to buy a new refrigerator or if it’s a fixable solution. If it’s been over 10 or 20 years since the last time you bought a fridge, it’s going to be less expensive to buy a new one than it would be to repair your current, aging one. If you’re not sure at all, or the fridge isn’t that old, it’s best to call in a professional technician for help—and a good idea overall to clean and maintain your fridge regularly.

At Rep-Air Heating And Cooling we provide our customers with many options that will best suit your needs from heating and cooling to refrigeration. Contact us today for your complimentary quote: 1-844-218-3362 or contact@repairheatingandcooling.com and don’t forget to take a look at our website: https://repairheatingandcooling.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for free giveaways!

Summer has arrived early this year! The sun is shining, it’s warm out, and the heat is on. That means many people are already dragging out their fans and dusting off their A/C units in order to keep their homes cool and to chill out.

Did you know, however, that there are terrible ways one can use their air conditioning? It’s true! Here are some major no-no’s that are worth knowing about, as well as solutions for how best to stay cool.

1: Placing Obstacles in Front of Vents

Just because you got new carpet for your home’s renovations doesn’t mean it can go anywhere. Likewise, certain obstacles such as furniture place over a vent where cool air from the A/C system is supposed to go will cause problems. Without an opening for air to flow through, this can result in limited air circulation which means your room will not be cooled off properly.

2: Forcing the Unit to Run 24/7

We know how hot summer is, but there’s being smart with your air conditioning by letting it run when it’s necessary and then letting it run every minute of every hour of every day. This is not a smart use of your A/C! Not only will it shorten the unit’s life span, but also it’s going to cost you precious pennies.

3: Lowering the Temperature

Did you know it’s actually a terrible idea to lower the temperature on your A/C? Doing so can cause the unit (if it’s central A/C) to freeze up, especially if it reaches below 20 degrees Celsius, leading to a damaged compressor. It may be tempting to do so if you come home to hot, stuffy air, and want the room to cool faster. But this is not a smart way to use the A/C. Even after it’s reached the ideal temperature, the unit will keep working and thus the life span will be shortened.

4: Having Heat-generating Units on Also

Appliances that generate heat such as stoves, ovens, washers, and dryers all generate heat in order to do their jobs. This can actually prevent the A/C unit from doing its job, as the A/C will work harder to cool a temperature that keeps on escalating. The end result? You guessed it—a shorter life span on the A/C.

What to Do Instead

To ensure your A/C lasts as long as you want it to, try applying these actions to your daily life this summer:

• Keep the temperature above 20 degrees Celsius to prevent icing up the coils.
• Wait a while before turning on the A/C; sometimes it only takes a few minutes for our bodies to adjust to a room’s temperature.
• Remove any obstacles, such as furniture, from the vents.
• Keep your blinds and curtains over the windows during the hottest times of the day and only open the blinds when it’s cooler out.
• Close the vents off before you leave for work, and close the closet doors too so that these spaces don’t suck up the cool air.
• If you simply must let cool air flow to help you sleep at night, the A/C unit should run at a much lower capacity and be timed so that it shuts off when you fall asleep.
• If hot, stuffy rooms are a real problem where you live, consider getting programmable or smart A/C instead. That way, ideal temperature is guaranteed.
• Limit your use of heat-based appliances so that the A/C doesn’t work harder than it ought to.
• Keep your units clean and well-maintained. If you can’t remember the last time either maintenance or cleaning was done, you may want to call in a professional.

At Rep-Air Heating And Cooling we provide our customers with many options that will best suit your needs from heating and cooling to refrigeration. Contact us today for your complimentary quote: 1-844-218-3362 or contact@repairheatingandcooling.com and don’t forget to take a look at our website: https://repairheatingandcooling.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for free giveaways!

How does the air feel in your office? Are you surrounding by a lot of computers day in and day out? If your answer to our former question was “stuffy” or “warm” and there are computers nearby, that’s not a good answer. Why? Because without ventilation, a lot of problems could arise.

“But that’s nothing to worry about,” you’re probably wondering. “I switch my computer off every day.” That’s not a smart way to think though! Here are some valid reasons why that computer room of yours does in fact need ventilation.

Reason 1: Heat

What happens when a computer is switched on all of the time is it will generate heat. Many computers now come complete with a built-in fan to keep the inner mechanics cooled off, but extra ventilation can help limit the amount of heat being generated from the machine’s long-term usage.

The bigger your computers, the more heat they will generate. This is why data center companies will absolutely insist on installing ventilation as well. So, if you run a business or rely on your computer at work, cool air flow is a must, not only for your sake but also for the sake of your employees. Those computers contain the most vital information your business and everyday life needs, after all! If you use a lot of electronics as a hobby or to work remotely, you want the electronics to last as long as possible. Having ventilation installed is the answer.

Reason 2: Dust

The downside of owning so many electronics in one area is that dust tends to collect faster than per usual. Those dust bunnies if left alone can spell danger! Dust and dirt buildup left alone for a long period of time can cause all sorts of problems, the worst being overheating.

Reason 3: Humidity

In addition to dust, humidity levels can contribute to overheating within a computer room. When mixed with dust, condensation can occur if you move the computer from an extremely cold environment to a humid indoors one swiftly. The best way to keep humidity levels down is—you guessed it—ventilation.

How to Keep the Computer Room Cool

There are several types of ventilation you can install to ensure your computer room at home or at work stays cool and keeps the air circulation flowing:

• A portable air conditioner (if your home is smaller, such as an apartment)
• Central air conditioning (for larger homes and office buildings)
• Precision cooling and containment (for large server rooms such as at IT companies or data centres)

The size of your computer room itself is also very important. Portable air conditioners are not built to last every hour of every day for the entire year. However, too much A/C can cost you too much (especially if you the computer room is a small one). If size is a concern, a professional can help to inspect your computer room and then advise you on what type of cooling would be best from there.

Ideally, your computer room’s temperature should not fall below 10 degrees Celsius or go above 27 degrees Celsius. Either temperature level exceeding those numbers in either direction can spell bad news for your computer’s inner mechanisms! The most ideal temperature should range between 18-21 degrees Celsius.

As for keeping dust bunnies away from your computer, effort on your part is going to be needed. A can of compressed air should be your best friend, especially when it’s time to clean and vacuum near this room (and if you haven’t already, you really, really should!). The compressed air can get rid of any invisible dust and dirt buildup that may be trying to creep into your computer’s nooks and crannies as well.

Use a vacuum cleaner only after dusting off all of your electronics with the compressed air—notto clean the computer itself! Doing so will create static buildup and send a discharge into the most sensitive parts of your computer. Only vacuum around the computer area and not within the machines themselves.

You should get maintenance help immediately if you notice the following:

• There’s more heat in the computer room despite the A/C being on
• There’s loud noise coming from the HVAC units being used for cooling
• The temperature keeps going above the desired 27 degrees Celsius or below 10 degrees Celsius
• Humidity levels are skyrocketing despite your use of cooling

At Rep-Air Heating And Cooling we provide our customers with many options that will best suit your needs from heating and cooling to refrigeration. Contact us today for your complimentary quote: 1-844-218-3362 or contact@repairheatingandcooling.com and don’t forget to take a look at our website: https://repairheatingandcooling.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for free giveaways!