Summers don’t come any hotter than they do in Hammond, LA, where the Deep South brings both high temperatures and stifling humidity. Good air conditioning systems are an absolute necessity in such an environment, but you also need to ensure that your energy costs don’t run away with you in the process. Many local residents prefer to use a heat pump instead of a traditional air conditioner, since it is a strong money-saving alternative to home HVAC systems. But how does a heat pump work? More importantly, what’s the difference between a heat pump and a standard air conditioner? We’ve included a quick primer below.
Are You Taking Full Advantage of Your Programmable Thermostat?
April 27th, 2015In warmer weather, your bills can really take a turn, since the heat and humidity in our area leave us running the air conditioner for most of the day. Air conditioners contain many parts that require a lot of electricity to run, so in some homes, the AC is responsible for up to half of the energy bill. Using your thermostat wisely can help to cut down on costs and reduce unnecessary wear and tear on your AC system. Here are a few tips to help you cut back.
Do You Need an Air Conditioning Maintenance Visit?
April 20th, 2015If you plan to run your air conditioning system this season (and let’s face it; it is very difficult to get by without it) air conditioning maintenance is a must. Many homeowners decide not to schedule maintenance every year, and still others are not even aware of this vital service. But without it, your air conditioner may run into trouble at some point in the season, and you may notice that your energy bills get worse and worse.
Are You Doing Enough to Reduce Allergens in Your Home?
April 13th, 2015The beautiful sights of spring are all around us, but unfortunately, that means that so is the pollen. When you go outside, your allergies can really act up in response, but when you don’t have a quality system in place for indoor air quality control, the inside of your home may be just as prone to contaminants, if not more so. Try these tips to reduce allergens indoors and make it a little bit easier for those with asthma and other respiratory conditions.
3 Things You Should Know about Air Conditioning Replacement
April 6th, 2015Finding a new air conditioner can be a stressful experience, but a lot less so if you have the right technicians to work with you. A quality air conditioning technician will help you find the most efficient system for your money, and make sure that everything is secure and operating properly.
Sooner is better than later
If at all possible, replace your air conditioning system before it breaks down. Of course, it’s difficult to determine if your air conditioning system is on the verge of breaking down. But if you find yourself making frequent repairs for a unit that is over ten years old, early AC replacement may simply be more cost-effective. Sometimes, it is more expensive to remove a broken-down system than it is to replace a working one, especially if it’s early enough in the season that replacement is not urgent. Scheduling replacement early allows you time to choose an efficient system that will help you to save money later on.
A unit that is too big or too small may cause a lot of trouble
If your air conditioning system is not the correct size for the layout of your home, there are a number of problems you could encounter. An undersized system won’t get the job done, but it may run for a long time to try to condition the home, using up energy and failing sooner than its expected lifespan. And if it’s too large, an air conditioner may start and stop frequently, wearing down the components. But installer beware: the existing system needing replacement may not be the proper size, so the home should be reassessed before any installation.
Refrigerant must be measured out precisely upon installation
Adding refrigerant to an air conditioning system is not as simple as you might guess. You must have the right amount of refrigerant for the size of your unit, or else your home may not cool down quickly enough. What’s worse is that you may encounter compressor damage or a frozen coil, among other issues. Professionals can determine just how much refrigerant is necessary, and they have the proper certifications to handle it.
Professional installation is key to efficiency and proper performance. Call the professional technicians at A–Professional Heating and Air Conditioning for air conditioning replacement in Hammond, LA.
Why Your Air Conditioning Systems Has Ice on It
April 3rd, 2015Air conditioners are a type of refrigeration system: using the action of a compressor to circulate refrigerant, they remove heat from one location to lower the temperature, and then exhaust the heat elsewhere. You may, at some point, notice ice developing along the inside of your air conditioner. Considering the chilled air coming from the system, this might seem like a normal side-effect of how an AC operates.
However, as we’ll explain below, the development of ice on an air conditioner isn’t something you want to happen. But please don’t try to solve the problem by scraping the ice off. This won’t work! Instead, call A–Professional Heating and Air Conditioning and we’ll help you with the necessary air conditioning repair in Hammond, LA that will restore your system. We are on call 24 hours a day for your convenience.
The Reasons Ice May Develop on Your Air Conditioner
- Low refrigerant: If the refrigerant lines in your air conditioner develop a leak and permit refrigerant to escape, it will often cause the evaporator coils to ice up. The reason this occurs is that the lower amount of refrigerant in the coils can no longer absorb enough heat to warm itself above freezing. The coils will remain cold and cause water moisture along them to turn to ice. This will further slow heat absorption, causing more ice to grow… and eventually you’ll have a solid block of ice over the AC coils and a system that won’t work at all. Repair technicians will need to seal the refrigerant leaks and restore the proper refrigerant charge for the air conditioner to work again.
- Dirt and grime along the coils: If contamination has entered the air conditioner’s indoor cabinet, it can cause the coils to become dirty. This will limit their ability to absorb heat through evaporation, and the coils will start to freeze water vapor along their length. You must have professionals detach the coils, defrost them, then clean them.
- Clogged air filter: An air filter that is too congested with dust and debris to allow sufficient warm air to enter the AC cabinet will cause the evaporator coils to stay too cold. Make sure that you change the filter once a month during the summer season when the air conditioner runs to avoid this problem.
At the first sign of ice on your AC, call for repairs. Our technicians at A–Professional Heating and Air Conditioning are ready around the clock to provide you with the professional air conditioning repair service in Hammond, LA that will find why the ice is appearing and fix it.
Do I Have Other Air Conditioning Installation Options Than a Standard Split Unit?
March 25th, 2015The majority of homes use a split system central air conditioner to provide cool temperatures during the summer and other periods of warm weather. The “split” means that cooling system is divided into two separate units: an outdoor cabinet that contains the compressor and the condenser coils, and an indoor unit that contains the blower fan and the evaporator coils. The two units connect through power and refrigerant lines, and the indoor unit hooks to the ventilation system that distributes the cooled air throughout the home.
Aside from a small window unit, which is only effective for small homes or apartments, are there other options when it comes to a new air conditioning system aside from this old standard? There are, and we’ll look at a few of the choices for a new AC installation available today. Give A-Professional Heating and Air Conditioning a call today to learn more about your alternatives for air conditioning installation in Mandeville, LA.
Ductless Mini Split
This is an excellent choice for homeowners who want to combine the power of a central air conditioner with the point cooling of a window unit, bypassing the need for ductwork. Ductless mini splits still use an outdoor cabinet, but replace the single indoor cabinet with multiple small air handlers placed on the walls of the rooms. The mini air handlers send conditioned air directly into the living spaces without using ducts. Ductless mini splits offer increased energy efficiency and indoor air quality.
Zone Control Systems
Zone control is an improvement to central air conditioning that can either be part of a new installation or done as a retro-fit. Zone control systems permit you to manipulate temperatures separately in different areas of the house, and this allows for customized comfort for the rooms and the people in your home, as well as lowered energy bills.
Heat Pumps
Outwardly, there isn’t much different between a heat pump and a central split air conditioner. But there is a huge difference in their operation: a heat pump can also provide warmth as well as cooling. They make very energy efficient options for the mild winters in Southeast Louisiana.
What choices for central air conditioning are right for your home and family? You will need to talk to AC professionals, like our skilled team at A-Professional Heating and Air Conditioning, to make the right decision. We’re here to see that you receive the ideal comfort and savings from your new air conditioning installation in Mandeville, LA.
Why You Shouldn’t Wait for Heating Repairs Even at the End of Winter
March 17th, 2015As we approach the end of winter, most of us will start thinking less about the heating systems in our homes and more about turning on the air conditioning systems to keep everyone in our households cooled down through another warm Louisiana summer. But we can still expect to rely on heating in Ponchatoula, LA for a bit longer, as well as during occasional spring cold days, so it’s important that we don’t forget about our homes’ heaters during this time. Especially if they show signs that they need to have repairs done.
If you believe that your heater, whether a furnace or heat pump, has a malfunction, you should never delay schedule repairs just because warm weather is around the corner. Pick up the phone and call A-Professional Heating and Air Conditioning as soon as possible, and our expert technicians will see that you have the necessary repair work done.
But why should I bother with repairs now? Why not wait for fall?
There are a number of good reasons that you should always have repairs done when malfunctions crop up. If you have a gas-powered furnace, the #1 reason is safety. Gas furnaces are built today with safe performance uppermost in mind, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore repair issues. The best way to keep a gas furnace from creating health hazards due to toxic and combustible gas leaks is to have any repairs done promptly. It’s not worth taking the risk.
However, even if you have an electrically powered heating systems, it’s important to have repairs done s soon as you can arrange them. You will still need your heating system at points during the spring, and if you don’t have the necessary repairs taken care of, there is a much higher chance that the heater will completely break down, leaving you scrambling for emergency service to fix it. The unit will also drain additional power to operate and result in unnecessarily inflated bills.
Also keep in mind that a heating system that operates with faults will age must faster because of the additional stress placed on it. If you keep running the heater, you will start shortening its lifespan. The most expensive “repair” you can have done for a heating system is to need to replace it early. To see that this doesn’t happen, always move fast to have any repair work done.
A-Professional Heating and Air Conditioning offers emergency repairs for heating in Ponchatoula, LA any time of the day or night. You can trust to our skilled technicians to find the problems in your heater and have them fixed so you are always ready for cold weather.
Ways to Tell You Need Duct Sealing
March 11th, 2015Is a small break along the ductwork in a home’s ventilation system really that major a problem? How much of an issue can a small hole be?
You’d be surprised. Any loss of the airtight integrity in the ductwork attached to a residential air conditioning and heating system can have significant consequences: it will lower comfort, place extra strain on the AC and heater leading to higher bills, and create indoor air quality issues. Studies have shown that leaky air ducts can result in an increase of 30% on heating and cooling costs for a home. If your house has damaged air ducts, you need to call on professionals to seal the air leaks. (No, you can’t do the job with duct tape. Don’t even think about it.)
For excellent duct sealing service in Covington, LA and throughout Southeast Louisiana, get in touch with A-Professional Heating and Air Conditioning. We offer a number of quality services to take care of your ventilation system—so that it takes care of you.
Because you can’t see most of the ductwork in your home, you will need to watch for warning signs that will tell you the ducts have air leaks:
- Low airflow from the vents: Leaks in ducts will cause the air pressure inside the ventilation system to drop, which will cause a reduction in the airflow from the vents. If you notice that a room feels too cold or too hot, check on the vent register in the room. If the airflow from it feels sluggish, the issue may be damaged ductwork.
- Elevated heating and cooling bills: It’s difficult to miss a 30% increase in how much it costs to heat or cool your home. When your monthly bills take an unpleasant upswing, there is something wrong with the HVAC system, and one of the likely culprits is a loss of integrity in the ventilation system. Call for professionals to find the cause and take care of it.
- Musty smells from the vents: Since the ductwork runs through enclosed parts of your home that have musty air and dust inside them, gaps in the ducts will cause this air to enter the ventilation system. If you notice musty and moldy odors coming from the vents, you may have trouble with ductwork damage.
As we mentioned before, don’t think about using duct tape to fix the problem yourself. Not only is duct tape ineffective on ducts (yes, duct tape is a misnomer), but you will have trouble even locating or accessing the duct leaks. Take the easy route: call A-Professional Heating and Air Conditioning and let our experts handle duct sealing in Covington, LA to restore your ventilation system.
Important Differences between Residential and Commercial HVAC Systems
March 4th, 2015In many ways, the HVAC systems that keep homes and businesses comfortable throughout the year, providing cool temperatures for summer and warm interiors for winter, operate the same way. The majority of commercial HVAC systems are heat pumps that work through the circulation of refrigerant through two sets of coils, and this is identical to the way that a heat pump installed for a home works.
However, there are some important differences between the two, and they are one of the reasons that you must always rely on HVAC technicians who are experienced with working on commercial comfort systems whenever you need to have work done for your business. When you require excellent quality services for your commercial HVAC in Hammond, LA, call A–Professional Heating and Air Conditioning. We can deliver the work you need, done fast and accurately, and we offer 24-hour emergency services for when your business needs attention for its heating or air conditioning right away.
Where residential and commercial HVAC differ
Although there are a number of differences we could list that separate the heating and cooling systems for a business space from those for a home (such as size), there are two key ones that make a major difference in how they are installed and serviced:
- Packaged units: Most commercial HVAC systems are what is known as “packaged units,” i.e. they do not use separate indoor and outdoor units the way that most home air conditioners and heat pumps do. Instead, they house both coils, as well as the compressor, engines, and fans in a single unit, which is usually placed on the roof. This configuration requires that specialists handle any repairs and maintenance the system may need.
- Modular units: Commercial systems are modular; they can have new condensers and blowers added onto them to increase heating and cooling power. This is helpful for companies that wish to expand. Residential systems must be completely replaced if the homeowner wishes to increase heating and cooling power.
Call us for commercial HVAC in Hammond, LA
It’s important for your business that it receives quality heating and cooling. To make sure that you receive the best from your HVAC system, call on the professionals at A–Professional Heating and Air Conditioning. We provide new installations and replacement, repairs any time of the day or night, and regular maintenance to see that your comfort system is always ready to go to work.