Image by Scott Burbidge via FlickrWe all know that we can pay our auto mechanics a little now for routine service, or pay them a lot later for a major repair. The same idea holds true for your air conditioner or heat pump. If you don’t service your air conditioner or heat pump regularly, you’ll [...]
To save maximum energy you must learn where to insulate to minimize cost .Perform a tour of your home to determine where it may need insulation. A good rule of thumb is that all heated or cooled areas should be separated from un-conditioned areas with insulation. Regardless of your home’s layout, you can [...]
Vermiculite is a mica-like laminar material; Perlite, a naturally occurring volcanic glass. Both are heat-expanded materials familiar to gardeners as planting media. Because they are inexpensive insulators, they are useful as home insulation.
Besides their relatively low cost, other advantages include being easy to install because they pour to fill irregular spaces, they are also [...]
Properly sizing an air conditioner is important, especially on whole-house systems. An improperly sized unit can cost you more to operate, and worse, leave you either uncomfortably warm, or cold and clammy depending on whether it is under or over sized. To shop knowledgeably, you should know that air conditioners are rated by [...]
The refrigeration cycle uses a fluid, called a refrigerant, to move heat from one place another. We usually think of the cycle being used to create cooling, but if you have ever felt the back-side of a refrigerator or air conditioner, you know the cycle also produces heat. This is especially true of a heat [...]
THE DUCT SYSTEM, used in air heating and air cooling your home, is a collection of tubes that distributes the heated or cooled air to the various rooms.
This system can make a big difference in both the cost and the effectiveness of heating and cooling the home. The duct system can have an important [...]
Humidity is the condition of the atmosphere in relation to the water vapour it contains and is a fairly complicated subject to deal with fully, but a few brief notes will help you to understand enough of the subject for our purpose.
Water vapour is always present in the air in varying amounts, [...]
A good ventilation system is designed to keep the temperature and humidity at comfortable levels, to create enough air movement of acceptable velocity and direction to produce a feeling of freshness and comfort, and to maintain the purity of the air reducing the concentrations of dust, bacteria, odours and carbon dioxide [...]
Unfortunately, many duct systems are poorly insulated or not insulated properly.
Ducts that leak heated air into unheated spaces can add hundreds of dollars a year to your heating and cooling bills. Insulating ducts that are in unconditioned spaces is usually very cost effective. If you are buying a new duct system, [...]