Category: Power

Why Install a Generator at Your Lake House

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

Outages from a natural disaster, grid failure, or deliberate sabotage can leave waterfront homes without power for hours or longer. As recent events in the Charlotte area show, hundreds of thousands of people can be left in the dark due to hurricanes or infrastructure attacks. Whether your Lake Wylie or Lake Norman property is your full-time residence or a vacation home, it pays to be prepared for unexpected electrical outages.

If you’ve ever wondered whether a whole-home generator would benefit your lake house, now’s the time to talk to the pros at Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical. We’ll explain how a generator can add value to your home and deliver a sizable return on investment.

Why Lake Houses Might Require Backup Power

Backup generators take up relatively little space but can provide incredible protection to your lake house. Reasons you should invest in a residential generator for your home on Lake Norman or Lake Wylie include:

Powering Critical Home Appliances

Refrigerators, freezers, water heaters, and HVAC systems are critical to keeping your lake home habitable. The right-sized generator protects perishables, keeps the hot water flowing, and ensures the indoor temperature is comfortably warm or cold.

Keep Your Home Office Up & Running

The last few years have seen many more people working from home. If you now commute down your hallway instead of across town, a generator keeps routers operating and equipment charged. A whole-home generator with a manual transfer switch powers critical circuits, including office equipment.

Power Home Medical Devices

Home medical equipment allows people to live at home instead of in an outside care facility. Others rely on breathing equipment like CPAPS or Bi-PAP machines to help them sleep. A home generator ensures life-saving or assistance devices like stair lifts, oxygen concentrators, and nebulizers work as they should when the power goes out.

Uninterrupted Power

A whole-house backup generator comes on as soon as the power turns off. You never need to worry about returning to your lakefront home and finding it without electricity. There’s no need to hook up or run a cord to a portable generator, which can be hazardous near water.

Quiet Operation

Some portable generators can be quite loud. A standby generator operates much more quietly, making them an excellent choice for lakeside locations where sound is easily amplified and dispersed.
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Types of Generators

Home standby or backup generators can be portable or permanently installed to provide near-immediate power without you having to leave the comfort of your home. Depending on your needs and budget, you can invest in a generator that runs on natural or LP gas to power your entire home or just select circuits and appliances. Portable generators provide power for furnaces, refrigerators, and device chargers.

Another advantage to whole-house generators is that they don’t need to be vented as portable models do. You don’t need to worry about tripping on cords or having to leave the windows open, which is particularly helpful if your lake house isn’t your primary residence. Either way, you enjoy lakeside life to its fullest with no worries about struggling without power.

Choose Acosta for Generator Services

It’s always a good idea to be prepared for a power outage at your Lake Wylie or Lake Norman property. While some people consider backup generators a luxury, we believe they’re just as vital to keeping a home up and running as other appliances are.

Working with an experienced generator installer at Acosta ensures you choose the right-sized generator for your needs and budget. Our team is trained and equipped to deliver high-quality home improvement services to residents throughout the greater Charlotte, NC, area, including installation, repair, and maintenance of whole-home generators.

Contact Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical onlineor call us at [phone] to learn more or schedule services.

Can Solar Power Panels Save You Money?

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

Homeowners who are thinking about installing solar panels on their roofs are not just considering the advantages that this can have on the environment, but probably the advantages that this can have on their wallets as well. On top of saving you money on your power bill, there are numerous state rebates and tax incentives that come with using solar power panels. Check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency website for more information.

As natural resources dwindle, the prices of traditionally produced power can only go up, which is why so many people are now considering micro-generation in their own homes.

Solar power panels can be fitted to the roof of a building and connected to the electricity supply within a matter of days, after which time, a considerable proportion of the property’s energy needs will be drawn from the biggest free resource we have – the sun.

Although using solar power panels is an investment, the rewards can be huge and save you a lot of money, especially as the cost to power the average home has grown exponentially over the last decade. Solar panels can also greatly increase the value of your home, which could be very critical in the current housing crisis. It could be the difference between selling your home or being stuck with that second mortgage.

For more information on solar power panels and how they work, check out this interactive diagram from PBS.

A Solar Heating System That Breaks New Ground in Home Comfort

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

The SunSource solar heating energy system from Lennox brings a new dimension to home comfort that goes way beyond obtaining power from the sun. Helped by roof-mounted modules, it converts sunlight into actual electricity, which can be used to run your air conditioner or heat pump while reducing your cooling and heating costs by up to half.

This solar heating system uses abundant, free solar energy to not only generate electricity to heat and cool your home, but it can even provide sufficient electricity to power your appliances, lights and more. The system is affordable, expandable and incredibly uncomplicated. This illustration shows how it works:

Innovative features of the SunSource solar heating system:

  • Select heat pumps and air conditioners from the Lennox collection can be modified with simple upgrades to act as platforms.
  • The condensing units meet or surpass the Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for energy efficiency. When used in conjunction with just 4 solar panels in a whole-home energy system, they can lower cooling and heating bills by up to 82% percent.
  • Up to 15 solar heating modules can be added in the future or at the time of installation.
  • You can use your broadband connection to send online performance information for each module to a 3rd party website where you can see how the system is working.
  • You get 24/7 access to real time data that shows the system’s status, environmental benefits, energy production, and carbon offsets. This monitoring system is free for five yearsVisit our Solar Solutions page for in-depth information about the SunSource system. If you live in the Charlotte area of North Carolina and would like to find out more, contact us to speak with a solar specialist today.

9 Benefits of Converting to Solar Power Panels

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

As you can surely imagine, the benefits of converting to a system using energy produced by solar power panels can be enormous. If you are tired of relying on traditional power usage and being subject to the rising costs of traditional power, perhaps converting your house to solar energy panels is a viable option for you. Here is a short list of benefits you may experience.

  • Though there is an initial cost of converting to solar power, the net investment is relatively low.
  • The amount of money you pay for electricity in the long run will likely be greatly reduced.
  • Using solar power panels will give you independence and security from rising oil and fossil fuel prices.
  • Energy produced from solar power panels is coming from a renewable source; as long as you have the equipment to harness the energy, there is no end to it.
  • There may be federal and/or state tax incentives available to you for converting to solar energy. Talk to a professional technician in your area to find out details.
  • The system is expandable, so you may initially choose only to have some of your power system reliant on solar power panels. For example, you could set up your home power system, so only your heating and cooling is solar powered; heating and cooling can account for 70% or more of the average household energy usage.
  • With a grid-tie system, which most systems are, it is possible to produce more energy than you use, and the excess energy goes into the power grid. In such a case, your electric company may actually pay you or give you a credit on your bill.
  • The value of your home will be appreciated with the installation of a solar power system.
  • Energy produced through solar power panels emits no pollution.

Static Electricity? No Problem — Use a Humidifier To Take Care of It

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical
Lightning striking in a stormy sky above residential rooftops, illustrating potential HVAC challenges during severe weather.

Dry winter air can cause a variety of issues, ranging from mildly irritating to downright damaging. Static electricity typically falls into the former category, although it can cause more serious problems in extreme cases. In any event, if you’d like to eliminate static and reduce all the issues associated with dry air, a humidifier is the way to go.

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Compact Healthy Climate air purification unit designed to improve indoor air quality and reduce static electricity.

Static Electricity in Your Home

You’ve probably noticed static electricity from the many forms it takes: frizzy hair, clingy clothing, and those telltale sparks when you touch a doorknob or other object. Occasionally, static can also build up to levels that can be damaging to sensitive electronics, so it’s important not to let it get too out of hand.

How a Humidifier Helps Reduce Static

Static electricity tends to be much more of an issue in winter because the air tends to be driest during the season. Moisture in the air prevents static electricity from building up, and that’s where humidifiers come in. Maintaining an optimum humidity level around 30% or 40% can significantly reduce static electricity.

Other Benefits of Humidifiers

A humidifier can ease all of the many issues caused by dry air, such as chapped lips, dry eyes, and itchy skin. Avoiding dry air can also help you recover from colds more quickly, and it makes breathing easier, especially for sufferers of asthma or other respiratory conditions. Humidification also protects wooden floors, furniture, and fixtures in your home from drying, separating, and cracking.

Humidifier Options for Your Charlotte Home

When you consider humidifiers, you basically have two options. The first is one or more portable humidifiers, which can each effectively eliminate dry air in a single room. The second is a whole-house humidifier, which works with your HVAC system to humidify the air throughout your home. Although portable models are less expensive, they require more work, such as regular deep cleanings and constant refills. Whole-house humidifiers are more efficient, do not require constantly having to be refilled with water, require little maintenance, and are usually installed out of sight and away from your living space.

For more information on the benefits of humidification, contact Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical. We’ve been locally owned and operated since 1972 and provide expert HVAC service throughout the Charlotte area.

How Well Are You Prepared for a Power Outage?

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

Winter storms in the Greater Charlotte area have been known to knock out power and leave homeowners stranded in their homes for days at a time, until local crews can get roads cleared and power back up and running. Being ready for a power outage, therefore, is an essential step homeowners should take to make the experience as pleasant as possible.

Here’s a list of some basic preparations homeowners should make for potential power outages:

  • Keep at least one flashlight on hand, or ideally one for every family member, along with replacement batteries.
  • Get a battery-operated radio so you can keep up with reports on weather, road conditions, and so forth. This should also have replacement batteries.
  • Have a backup heating source in the form of a fireplace or wood-burning stove to provide warmth, and be sure keep wood in stock.
  • Tightly seal your home. This step should be done regardless of whether or not a power outage occurs, but if you are without power, the last thing you want to happen when you’re trying to stay warm is to have air leaks in your home. So take the time to seal leaks with caulk.
  • Insulate the water pipes in your home. You can use specially designed insulation for pipes, but if there’s an imminent storm ahead and you haven’t performed this action, you can do a quick insulating job by wrapping pipes with newspaper, sealed with plastic to keep moisture at bay.
  • Locate your home’s water supply shut-off valve so you can turn that supply off during a storm.
  • Keep reserve water on hand. If you don’t keep a supply of gallon water jugs already filled, a good alternative is to fill a clean bathtub with water, and fill any and all containers you can find with water. Remember that you’ll need some extra water for flushing the toilet.

Is your power outage toolbox filled with the appropriate materials? Take a few minutes and prep your home. For help with all of your home heating and cooling needs, contact the experts at Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical, serving the Greater Charlotte Area since 1972.