Climate Masters Blog: Archive for February, 2014

Reasons to Install a Dehumidifier in Your Furnace

Friday, February 28th, 2014

Florida is infamous for its high humidity, and if you’ve lived here for even a single season you’ll understand why. Humidity causes more than discomfort; however, it can cause problems throughout your home. With the heating installation of a dehumidifier onto your furnace, you can help remove the moisture from the air the furnace circulates through your home—a “whole-home humidifier” solution to your troubles from Florida’s muggy climate.

Having a dehumidifier installed isn’t difficult: you only have to call Climate Masters and ask about our dehumidifier installation in St. Augustine, FL. Our indoor air quality specialists will be glad to tell you about your options and schedule a professional installation that will take care of your home’s humidity problems.

Why Install a Dehumidifier? Here Are a Few Good Reasons:

  • Increased comfort: Humidity makes a house feel stuffy and uncomfortable. Whatever the temperature in your home, humidity will cause you to find it hotter than it should be because the moisture that condenses on your skin releases extra heat.
  • Prevent mold and mildew: High humidity inside a home will promote the growth of mold, mildew, and other bacteria, often in places you can’t see such as your vents. All these pollutants can lead to health troubles like nausea, dizziness, breathing problems, and flu-like symptoms—especially if they are growing in the ducts connected to your furnace. They also will damage building material and create musty, unpleasant odors. A humidifier on your furnace will help keep these contaminants from growing inside your home.
  • Prevent damage to furnishings: High humidity leads to such damage to your home’s décor as peeling wallpaper, warping floor boards, wet spots on the floor and ceiling, and damaged furniture finishing.
  • Alleviation of other health problems: Aside from the issues with mildew, high humidity can contribute to trouble sleeping, asthma, and increased problems with allergies.

You Need a Whole-House Dehumidifier

Although you can purchase portable dehumidifiers for single rooms, these are only useful to combat mild problems in part of the house. To effectively reduce the humidity throughout your home, without making the air too dry, you should have a professional install a whole-house dehumidifier onto your furnace. Make sure you have the dehumidifier serviced annually so that it works its best.

The indoor air quality specialists at Climate Masters are dedicated to helping you have the most comfortable and safe home environment possible. Call them today to talk about a heating installation in St. Augustine, FL that will help you control high humidity.

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Why You Should Use a Heat Pump

Wednesday, February 19th, 2014

The heat pump… a remarkable machine. The heat pump uses a simple concept—basically, creating a reversible air conditioner—to give homeowners a two-in-one answer to their comfort needs. During the summer, you set the heat pump to cooling mode, and just like an AC it cycles refrigerant through an indoor and an outdoor coil to remove the heat from your home and place it outside. But when colder weather comes along (or as cold as it gets in Florida), you set the heat pump to heating mode, and now the refrigerant direction reverses. Presto! Heat moved from outside and brought inside.

Heat pumps have some disadvantages, but a heat pump for your home in St. Augustine, FL will experience almost none of them. That’s why we think they’re great choices for installation here. To schedule an appointment for quality heat pump installation, call Climate Masters today and speak to one of our heat pump specialists.

The Heat Pump Advantage

You already know the main advantage of a heat pump: it takes care of the jobs of both a heater and an air conditioner. That’s money saved and space saved. And heat pumps hook up to the existing ductwork for your air conditioner (and furnace, if you used one), making them easy to install for professionals. If you don’t have ducts, the heat pump has you taken care of as well: ductless mini split heat pumps need no ductwork at all.

A specific reason that heat pumps are such good ideas for Florida is because of our climate. First of all, during cooling mode, the process of heat absorption along the indoor coil also removes moisture from the air, helping to control humidity. Second, heat pumps do not encounter a problem they often face in cold climates: struggling to extract sufficient heat from outdoors during heating mode. In places where the temperatures can drop well below freezing, a heat pump will lose efficiency. In Florida, however, we almost never have this problem. Heat pumps are ideal no matter the time of year.

Finally, heat pumps offer savings on your heating bill. You’re used to your AC costing less to run than a furnace or a boiler. That’s because those heaters must burn fuel to create heat. But a heat pump is just like an AC: no fuel burnt to create heat, only a small amount of electricity to run the mechanical parts so heat can be moved. An average family of four can save up to 30% on their heating bills each year if they switch to a heat pump.

Sounds Great! When Can I Get One?

We need to slow you down a bit. Heat pumps are fantastic choices for home comfort… but they still won’t work for every home. Call on Climate Masters today to find out about how well a heat pump in St. Augustine, FL will work for you.

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Who Wrote the First Valentine’s Day Love Poem?

Friday, February 14th, 2014

The celebration of Valentine’s Day is often seen as a modern institution, even if the roots of the holiday go back to Late Antiquity and the figures of St. Valentine of Rome and St. Valentine of Terni. It’s difficult to separate our view of February 14th from the more recent phenomenon of greeting cards, comical cupids, and specialty treats from candy companies.

However, not only are some of these traditions older than we might think (mass-produced Valentine’s Day cards were an enormous success in early 19th-century England), but the earliest Valentine’s Day love poem comes from none other than the first great English author, Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote in the second half of the 14th-century.

Chaucer’s most famous work is The Canterbury Tales, an enormous collection of linked stories in poetry and prose. But his 700-line poem “Parlement of Foules” has the special distinction of being the first surviving record of a connection between Valentine’s Day and romantic love. Chaucer probably composed the poem in 1381–82. At the time, he was a member of the court of King Richard II, holding an important bureaucratic position in London. The date suggests that Chaucer wrote “Parelment of Foules” to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of the English king to Princess Anne of Bohemia.

The poem follows the dream of the narrator, where he walks through Venus’s temple and discovers a meeting of birds where they all choose their mates. This is where the mention of St. Valentine’s Day appears (English modernized):

For this was on St. Valentine’s Day,

When every bird cometh there to choose his mate.

The poem also contains a familiar Valentine’s image, Cupid with his arrows:

Under a tree, beside a well, I saw

Cupid our lord his arrows forge and file;

And at his feet his bow already lay.

When Chaucer mentions St. Valentine’s Day, is he referring specifically to February 14th? Late winter isn’t a time when birds in England would mate. However, the date for the start of spring—when some birds would have started nesting in England—was on February 23rd in the calendars of the time, certainly close enough for Chaucer to take poetic license and nudge it a bit to match with Valentine’s Day.

Love birds remain a popular symbol of Valentine’s Day even now, and for this we can thank Chaucer. In fact, he may very well have invented the link between love and Valentine’s Day, although we will probably never know for certain.

Whoever started these traditions, all of us here at Climate Masters hope you have a pleasant February 14th.

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How Heat Pumps Can Save You Money

Wednesday, February 5th, 2014

A heat pump seems like an almost miraculous machine: a single unit that takes the principles of an air conditioner and uses it to provide heating as well. But in theory a heat pump is quite simple: if you’ve ever walked behind the outdoor unit of an air conditioner when it was working, you’ve noticed warm air blowing from its fans. That’s the action of the AC removing heat from indoors and placing it outdoors. So what would happen if you swapped the indoor and outdoor unit? Presto! Heat pumped into your home. A heat pump is essentially an air conditioner that can switch the direction it moves heat.

But there’s another important advantage to a heat pump aside from its dual function: a heat pump can save you money on heating during the winter. We’ll explain how this works. If you’re interested in heat pump installation, or if you have need for repairs or maintenance on your home heating in St. Augustine, FL, call the skilled technicians at Climate Masters today.

The Secret of a Heat Pump’s Efficient Operation

Okay, it’s not really a “secret.” It’s simply the difference between heat creation and heat exchange. Most heating systems create heat: they burn a fuel source to raise the temperature of air (a furnace) or water (a boiler). This uses a large amount of fuel. In the case of an electric furnace or boiler, it requires an enormous amount of electric current running through the heating elements in order to raise the temperature of the air or water.

It’s different with heat pumps. They also run on electricity, but they do not use this electricity to heat up the air the fans send through their vents. Instead of creating heat, heat pumps move heat around: from the outside to the inside in heating mode, and from the inside to the outside in cooling mode. This process is called heat exchange. The heat pump only needs electricity to run its mechanical parts.

How much of a difference does this make? The U.S. EPA conducted a study to see the difference in heating bills when families switched from a furnace to a heat pump. On average, families paid 30% less per year with a heat pump.

There Has to Be a Downside, Right?

Yes, heat pumps do have one negative… but fortunately, it isn’t one that matters much in Florida. During sub-freezing temperatures, heat pumps can have trouble extracting sufficient heat from outside. Don’t expect this to be a problem in our climate.

Please keep in mind that no matter what advantages a heat pump has, it isn’t necessarily the best choice for your home’s heating in St. Augustine. This is why you’ll need the assistance of experienced professionals, like those at Climate Masters, to find the ideal option for providing you effective and economical heating.

For questions and heating service needs regarding heat pumps in St. Augustine, give us a call today and speak with one of our HVAC specialists!

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