Atlantic Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Inc. Blog: Archive for November, 2015

Avoid High Heating Bills This Christmas

Monday, November 30th, 2015

Dover, DE gets its share of snow and ice every Christmas, and with relatives coming over for the holiday season, your heater is apt to see a lot more use than it might otherwise. You never want to deal with faulty heating systems when you’re preparing a Christmas dinner or welcoming friends and family into your home, which is why now is the perfect time to cut down on those high heating bills. The steps you take today could make a big difference tomorrow, and ensure that high bills won’t put a pinch on your holiday cheer. Here’s a few tips on how to avoid high heating bills this Christmas.

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Common Issues with Radiant Heating Systems

Monday, November 23rd, 2015

Many homes in Dover, DE use alternative means of heating trying to escape the issues and problems associated with traditional furnaces and boilers. Radiant heating systems, which warm your home through heater coils planted beneath the floorboards, are an excellent way of doing this. They cost less to run than other types of heating and their reliability means that repair issues are rarely a problem. Sometimes issues do crop up, however, as much as we might like them not to, and you can do yourself a favor by watching closely for some of the common issues with radiant heating systems. When you spot them, shut your system down and call in a repair service immediately.

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Energy Recovery Ventilators Improve Your Home’s Efficiency

Monday, November 16th, 2015

With winter on the way in Dover, DE, homeowners needs to consider every option in keeping their houses as energy efficient as possible. The better your home can retain its warm air – or cool air in the summertime – the more money you save on monthly energy bills and the less strain you put your heater and air conditioner under. There’s plenty of simple steps to improve your home’s energy efficiency, but one you might not have considered is an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) placed in your attic. We’re provided a quick outline of how it all works.

Ventilation without Loss of Temperature

The central purpose of an energy recovery ventilator is to swap out the stale air in your home with fresh air from outside, without losing the warmth (or coolness) your heater or air conditioner have worked so hard to provide. This is true year ‘round, but bears especial importance in the winter, when we shut out homes up tight to retain the heat. All of that stale air can force your heater to work harder to do its job – lowering humidity to unacceptable levels and forming a breeding ground for germs and bacteria to circulate endlessly. An ERV fixes that by linking two vents – one blowing fresh air in and the other blowing stale air out – to a heat exchanger in your attic. The air doesn’t co-mingle, but the heat exchanger pulls the heat out of the outgoing air and into the ingoing air.

What You Can Expect

As a result of this exchange, your air is refreshed and yet your household temperature remains the same. Even better the load on your heating system is reduced considerably, which means it doesn’t need to run as long to retain the warm temperatures in your home. Your monthly rates go down and your system doesn’t suffer from as much of a risk of a breakdown.

Atlantic Refrigeration and Air Conditioning, Inc. installs and services energy recovery ventilators.

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3 Advantages of Heating Maintenance

Monday, November 9th, 2015

Fall has arrived in Dover, DE and that means winter will be on its way soon. Your heating system will be called upon to perform at its peak each and every day, and even if there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it, now is the time to schedule a service session from a trained technician. The benefits to a heating maintenance session performed now, before the snows begin falling in earnest. Some homeowners may question the benefits of paying for heating maintenance if there’s nothing wrong with the heater, but in fact, it can provide a number of tangible benefits. Here are 3 of them listed below.

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When Should I Call an Emergency Service?

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

Quality HVAC companies know that repairs don’t always fall during normal working hours, and given the hot summer and cold winters here in Dover, DE, a qualified technician needs to be on call 24/7. That’s invaluable when you have an emergency to deal with… but how can you tell when that moment arrives? What qualifies as an emergency service, and what can wait until normal operating hours (and a lower expense)? Only you can answer that question for sure, but here’s a few suggestions to help guide you in the right direction.

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