Category: Programmable

Your Home’s Relative Humidity, Whatever the Temperature

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

The humidity levels in your home, in part, will determine comfort. Too much, and your home can feel like a hot, muggy summer day in North Carolina. Too little, and your health can become affected, not to mention impacting the health of wood products in your home. Therefore, it’s important to understand how relative humidity works, and know what you can do to keep your home’s humidity at healthy levels.

Relative humidity, in the simplest of terms, means the amount of moisture that the air can hold at a given time, compared to complete saturation. So, if the relative humidity is 50 percent, the air is capable of holding 50 percent moisture when compared to saturated air at 100 percent.

Being able to control humidity is particularly helpful during the winter season. When air becomes cooler, it also becomes drier, and cool air is less able to hold or retain moisture. That’s why hot summer temperatures generally mean more humid temperatures. So, as the air gets colder, most Charlotte homeowners are looking for a respite from dry air, and for good reason.

Dry air can irritate nasal passages and allergies, because our bodies need moisture for healthy functioning systems. Wood materials in your home also need moisture, but not too much. Again, a balance is ideal here, as dry air can warp and damage wood, while too much moisture can also damage wood, causing it to expand. Continually expanding and contracting over the seasons can wreak havoc on your wood products.

To ward off dry air and the problems it causes, implement the use of a whole-house humidification system. Working in tandem with your heating system as it produces conditioned air, the humidifier will emit moisture into that heated air, which is then distributed throughout your home. Plus, a whole-house humidifier can be programmed to maintain healthy levels of humidity between 35 and 55 percent.

The experts at Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical, serving the Greater Charlotte area since 1972, are happy to help you solve your home comfort problems. Just give us a call today!

Set Your Programmable Thermostat for Optimal Cold-Weather Savings

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

Cold weather will be coming to the Charlotte area soon, so it’s important that you and your home are ready for it. If you’re familiar with the best practices to employ, you can use your programmable thermostat settings to get the absolute most savings possible. If you don’t yet have a programmable thermostat, upgrading can save you up to 30 percent on your energy costs.
The main advantage of programmable thermostats stems from the fact that they can be set to revolve around your daily schedule. Most people are away from their home for many hours of the day when they are out to work, and there is no reason that you should be paying to keep your home heated or cooled when it is empty. You can set your system back as much as eight degrees when you leave, and have it return to your ideal temperature shortly before you usually return home. This helps reduce your energy usage without sacrificing any comfort.

While this is the easiest way to create large savings, there are other things you do in the other parts of the day to conserve energy as well. For example, you can set your thermostat back four degrees at night when you are sleeping without noticing; then in the morning and evening, you have it at your ideal temperature. You shouldn’t try to have more than four distinct phases in one day as it can reduce your HVAC system’s efficiency.

You can keep the same schedule each day of the week or have changes on particular days to accommodate variations in your plans. If, for example, you get home late on Wednesdays from picking up the kids from band practice, you can save on energy for an extra hour or two by having your heating system kick back on later. You can also easily make quick one-time changes to your schedule, and then revert back to the usual plan the following week.

To learn more about the benefits of programmable thermostats, contact Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical today. We have proudly served the Charlotte Metro Area since 1972.

Prepping Your Home for Cooler Weather

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

As the summer winds down, residents in the Charlotte Metro area are beginning to prepare their homes for cooler weather. Having a winterized home is essential to ensure that your abode will stay warm without breaking the bank, and certain preventive measures concerning your HVAC equipment are required to keep your system running smoothly and efficiently.

To get your home buttoned up for the impending fall and winter, there are quite a few things you can do yourself, and a professional can help with the rest. Here are a few simple, yet effective ways to get your dwelling ready.

  • Remove window air conditioning units to prevent drafts from seeping through the opening.
  • Check the weather stripping around windows and caulked areas, and add additional sealant as needed.
  • Prevent pipes from freezing by adding insulation or wrapping them.
  • To circulate warmer air throughout the home, reverse the direction of ceiling fans.
  • Lower the temperature setting when no one is at home. Consider having a programmable thermostat installed for convenience.

Some of the preparations for cold weather are best left up to a professional NATE-certified technician, and these more in depth tasks include:

  • Taking care of a full system maintenance checkup on the furnace  or heat pump and any other heating related devices such as a whole house humidifier
  • Investigating the home’s air ducts for proper sealing and placement
  • Checking the insulation levels to ensure adequacy.

Keep in mind, furnace filters will need to be replaced or cleaned monthly for optimal results during the cold weather months.

Contact us at Acosta Heating and Cooling to find out more about our preventative maintenance money saving program, which will keep all of your HVAC equipment in optimal condition for every season.

The Ductless Mini-Split: A Tidy Little Solution to Your Heating and Cooling Problem

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

It may have a funny name, but a ductless mini-split system can provide some serious benefits.

A ductless mini-split is any air conditioning or heat pump system that has one to four indoor heating or cooling units, but only one outdoor unit. Each indoor air handler is designed to heat or cool only one or two rooms, and is therefore much smaller than a typical whole-house unit.

Splitting the system into several units, and eliminating air ducts, produces benefits in several ways:

  • Easier installation. One problem with an air duct system is that it takes up a lot of space, and therefore can be difficult to install. A ductless mini-split system does not have ducts at all. In place of ducts, each air handler just needs to have a conduit, no more than three inches thick, to carry the refrigerant tubing and condensation drain. That conduit can be up to 50 feet long, which makes it easy to reach parts of the house, such as new additions, that would be too far away for air ducts to effectively keep comfortable.
  • Better temperature control. Though they all run off the same outdoor unit, the different air handlers can function independently of the other and each has its own thermostat. That gives you better control over temperature, because each room receives exactly the amount of heating or cooling required to keep it at a comfortable level.
  • Higher energy efficiency. Air ducts can waste a lot of energy, due to air leaks and a lack of insulation. Ductless systems have zero leaks, and since they are located inside the rooms, there is no loss of heating or cooling output. Plus, by utilizing programmable thermostats, you can save energy by cutting back on heating or cooling rooms that are not occupied for long stretches of the day.

To learn more about ductless mini-split options for your Charlotte-area home, contact us at Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical. We would be happy to answer your questions.

Planning to Head Out of State This Summer? Use a Programmable Thermostat to Monitor Your Home’s Temperature

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

If a trip out of Charlotte or out of North Carolina is in your family’s vacation plans, you’ve probably made arrangements for someone to take care of your pets or houseplants. However, you may not have considered what to do about your home’s HVAC system. A programmable thermostat can help make your vacation more affordable by saving energy while you are away.

Programmable thermostats help homeowners save energy without sacrificing comfort year ’round by allowing you to set default temperatures for different times of the day. This means you can heat or cool your house less at times when nobody’s home or when the whole house is asleep. For maximum efficiency, set the thermostat 4 -6 degrees warmer or colder at these times, because your thermostat will have to work extra hard to change the temperature by 10 or more degrees. This will negate some of the energy you saved by allowing the house to cool down or warm up and can cause VERY LONG recovery time in extreme weather conditions.

Of course, it is technically possible to achieve the same basic effect with a standard thermostat, but you would have to remember to manually adjust the temperature many times a day.

With a standard thermostat, you can wait quite a bit of time between adjusting the temperature and feeling the difference. A programmable thermostat, however, will automatically make sure your home is the right temperature when you return home. If necessary, you can override the temperature setting manually at any time without affecting the daily and weekly default temperatures.

These thermostats also have a “hold/permanent/vacation” mode which you can use when you’ll be away from your home for the weekend or longer. It is best to set the “hold/permanent/vacation” mode at a constant setting that is more efficient than your day-to-day temperature: warmer than usual in summer and cooler than usual in winter.

If you are interested in learning more about thermostats or have any other HVAC questions, don’t hesitate to contact the professionals at Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical. With nearly 40 years of experience serving the Charlotte metro area, our associates have the knowledge needed to provide expert advice about your HVAC concerns.