Category: Ventilation

Neat and Tidy Ways to Keep Your Indoor Air Dust-Free

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

When you close up your home against seasonal cold or heat, you also reduce the amount of ventilation and fresh air getting to your living spaces. In this restricted environment, the amount of dust in your indoor air could increase. You could see more dust on your shelves and furniture, and may experience dust-related aggravation of allergies, asthma or other respiratory conditions.

Keeping your indoor air dust-free requires some extra attention and effort, but the results can be fresher air in your home and a more comfortable living area. Here are some tips for reducing the amount of dust inside your home.

  • Remove clutter – Shelves full of souvenirs, figurines, or other small items attract dust and make it difficult to clean them and the shelves they’re on. Pack some of these items away and keep shelves accessible for easy dusting. Display special items inside a closed glass case or shelf.
  • Clean electronics – Televisions, computers, DVD players, stereos and other home electronics readily attract dust, so clean them often, front and back.
  • Wipe down appliances – Refrigerators, clothes dryers and other appliances quickly accumulate dust behind and on top of them, and on their back panels. Wipe these areas clear of dust regularly. Keeping these items dust-free will increase their useful life.
  • Clean, dust and vacuum bedrooms – Dust is produced in part by our dead skin cells, and by tiny particles and fibers from our clothing, blankets and bed linens. Dust and vacuum your bedroom at least as often as you do your living room.
  • Clean soft furniture – Carpets, curtains and upholstered sofas and chairs accumulate a lot of dust. Clean and vacuum these items regularly.
  • Use a system – When cleaning and dusting, be methodical and use a system that covers every area in the room. For example, dust from one side of the room to the other, then vacuum in the same sequence.

For 40 years, Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical has been providing professional HVAC services to customers in Charlotte and surrounding areas. Contact us today for more information on reducing dust, increasing your home’s ventilation and improving indoor air quality.

Dealing With a Tagged Furnace: How to Make Smart Decisions When You’re Seeing Red

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

When your local HVAC professional inspects your furnace during a maintenance call, he is obligated to respond to any safety issues he finds. For this reason, an unexpected result of preventive maintenance might be a red-tagged furnace. If your furnace is red-tagged, it means that an HVAC or utility company inspector has found a critical safety problem, most often a cracked heat exchanger, and that the furnace must be shut down and not used until the problem is resolved.

If this happens to you, it’s only normal that you’d be angry and frustrated enough to see red. However, it’s important to remember that decisions to red-tag a furnace are not made randomly, especially during the winter. If your furnace has been red-tagged, the unit is dangerous to operate and should be taken seriously as a genuine threat to the lives of everyone in your home.

A cracked heat exchanger can let dangerous carbon monoxide gas leak into your living areas. Usually this substance is safely expelled through the furnace’s ventilation system, but a crack or hole in the heat exchanger lets it leak into your home before it can be vented. Humans cannot detect carbon monoxide, and in the right concentration, it can kill.

In most cases, heat exchangers must be completely replaced. This can be expensive, with new heat exchangers often costing hundreds or thousands of dollars. The cost of replacing a heat exchanger may be more than that of replacing the entire furnace unit.

Consider replacing the exchanger if your furnace is under 10 years old, if the exchanger is covered under warranty, or if the repair costs less than 25 percent of total system replacement. Otherwise, a new furnace may be your best and safest option.

For 40 years, Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical has been providing professional services to customers in Charlotte and surrounding areas. Contact us today for more information on how to handle a red-tagged furnace, and for expert advice on whether it’s better to replace a cracked heat exchanger or the entire system.

Ventilating Fans: You Need Them in Your Living Space, and Could Use One in Your Garage

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

Proper ventilation in your home is critical for two reasons: It provides a way for fresh air to enter your home and a way for old, stale air to exit. Using ventilating fans is part of a good indoor air quality plan to ensure healthy air.

If your home is sealed and well insulated, you’re likely saving energy and money, but it’s also likely that the air in your home needs a way to cycle out, and ventilating fans can help to ensure that your home has a means to do that. Without ventilation fans, dust, dirt, and other pollutants remain locked in your home’s circulation pattern, continually moving around your home, day in and day out.

Ventilating fans, generally installed in bathrooms and kitchens, are basically exhaust fans and used as part of a ventilation strategy to remove factors that contribute to poor indoor air quality, such as moisture and pollutants. In order to be effective, the fans should:

  • Exhaust outside: If the fan exhausts into your attic, it can cause moisture issues and damage.
  • Emit low noise levels: If the fan is loud, you’ll be less likely to use it. Fan noise is rated by “sones,” and you should look for a fan with noise emissions below 1.5 sones.

It’s also helpful to install ventilating fans in your garage, as studies have shown that carbon monoxide released by your vehicle, and other chemical components or gas-powered equipment stored in your garage, will enter your living spaces. A ventilating fan will help to exhaust pollutants out of the garage space, before they have a chance to seep into your home.

Ventilating fans are an effective means to ensure fresh air in your home, and along with a whole-house ventilation system and natural ventilation, combine to produce a comprehensive, effective ventilation strategy for your home.

Ventilating fans can help to advance your home’s indoor air quality. To devise a ventilation strategy for your home, or to have ventilating fans installed, contact Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical today! We’ve been serving the Greater Charlotte Area as a local family-owned company since 1972.

A Comprehensive Plan to Clean Up Your Indoor Air

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

Maintaining your home’s indoor air quality is critical for good health and contributes to your family’s overall comfort. Most people don’t consider their indoor air quality until something happens to remind them they need to be actively maintaining a healthy environment. Maintaining clean, healthy air in your home isn’t difficult or expensive. It simply requires knowing what to look for and what to do. By implementing a few of the steps listed here, you and your family can breathe easier.

Here are ten of the most commonly recommended ways to improve your home’s indoor air quality:

  1. If you have a water heater or furnace that is fueled by fossil fuels, make sure they are power vented or combustion is sealed outside your living space.
  2. Kitchens, bathrooms and laundry rooms should always be vented directly outdoors using an energy-efficient fan.
  3. HVAC systems and ductwork should never be placed in the garage. Since your garage is susceptible to accumulating air contaminants, try to reduce the amount of contaminated air by installing weather stripping around the door.
  4. Enjoy fireplaces and wood stoves responsibly by properly venting them and keeping the doors affixed tightly.
  5. Installing air filters directly on to your home’s HVAC system will reduce the amount of dirt in the air. Change your home’s filters every one to three months for maximum effectiveness.
  6. Clothes dryers and central vacuum units should always be vented outdoors.
  7. Solvents and cleaners should always be stored outside of your living space.
  8. Reduce the amount of indoor combustion sources that cannot be vented, like decorative candles or indoor barbecues. If you smoke, smoke outside or by an open window.
  9. Encourage outdoor airflow in your home with a home ventilation system or fans in the windows.
  10. If you plan on using a solvent or cleanser, make sure to use it only in a well-ventilated space.

Contact us at Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical for more information on how you can improve your home’s indoor air quality.

Now That It’s Fall, Your Whole-House Humidifier Needs Attention

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

With the heating months approaching, inspect and clean your whole-house humidifier to get peak-performance from it this winter. It’s beneficial to your comfort, your health, and helps achieve full energy-efficiency in your home.

Scale and mineral deposits can quickly accumulate on the interior of the humidifier, which promotes the growth of mold, mildew and bacteria. These deposits can lead to clogged water panels and valves, causing a reduction in efficiency which increases energy costs, reduces comfort, and exacerbates health issues like asthma, allergies, dry skin and nose, and itchy eyes.

With this in mind, it is important to replace water panels regularly in order to promote proper humidity control. Luckily, most systems provide easy access to this panel by way of a removable cover. Seasonal changes require little more than removing this cover, discarding the clogged, contaminated pad, and making the necessary replacement. To ensure you have positioned the pad correctly, look for a marking indicating the direction in which the pad should be inserted (most have a paint marking to differentiate the top from the bottom).

Of course, it’s a good idea to clean away existing moisture, lime and scale in the area before replacing the pad. You can also ensure that the drain pan and hose are free of obstructions and/or contaminants (bleach is a good option here). You’ll also want to inspect and clean the orifice to ensure that buildup is not impeding proper water flow.

Keep in mind that whole-house humidifiers differ slightly in layout from model to model. If you are unclear about any of these procedures or parts, please refer to the manufacturer’s guide of your system or seek the assistance of a trained professional. Also make a mental note to give your system another cleaning after the heating season is over. Cleaning your whole-house humidifier at least twice a year is good preventive maintenance.

Once you have performed this simple maintenance, your system should do well to provide you with humidified air. If you continue to experience issues, seek professional assistance.

For more energy-saving and cool-weather preparation tips, call the professionals at Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical.

Take These 10 Steps to Breathe Easier in Your Home

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

Your indoor air quality has a big impact on the health and comfort of your family. If you follow these 10 steps now, you can make sure that your family breathes easy for months to come.

  1. Be sure that your heating equipment is properly vented so that combustion fumes, debris and toxins are vented outdoors, instead of leaking into your home.
  2. Vent any complementary heating sources you may be utilizing this winter, such as fireplaces or wood stoves.
  3. If you have fans in your kitchen or bathrooms that don’t directly vent outdoors, pollutants may be recirculated through your house rather than piped outdoors. Upgrade to fans that will remove these pollutants from your indoor air.
  4. Be sure to change your air filters monthly. As dust and pollen is captured by the filters they start restricting the airflow and make you fan motors use more electricity and not move enough air to maintain the correct temperature.
  5. Remove anything that creates unvented combustion indoors, such as candles or cigarettes. If you can’t completely eliminate these items, reduce their use as much as possible.
  6. If you are using volatile compounds indoors, such as paint, be sure to ventilate the area by opening windows.
  7. Store any volatile compounds like paint thinner or pesticides away from your home. That way, there is no risk that the harmful chemicals will be circulated indoors.
  8. If your air handler, furnace or ductwork are outside of your home envelope be sure there are no openings or air leaks that can introduce outside pollutants and unconditioned air into your home.
  9. Incorporate UV lights into your air system. They work alongside your air filters as a germicidal tool. They target dangerous microorganisms like viruses, bacteria and fungi that can have deleterious effects on your health.
  10. Vent your dryer and central vacuum system outside of your house.

If you have any questions or need help implementing these strategies for boosting indoor air quality, contact Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical.  We have proudly served the Charlotte Metro Area since 1972.

Worried About Summer Allergy Season? Here’s How to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Posted on | by Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical

If you’re worried about your allergies bothering you this allergy season, you can find respite in your home. With these tips, you can easily bolster your indoor air quality so that you can breathe easy in your house.

Upgrade Your Air Filters
The efficiency of air filters is designated by their MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value). This allows you to compare the benefits of different filters more easily. Higher quality filters, such as those rating a 16 MERV, are installed by an HVAC professional into your ductwork rather than placed at your return ducts. These capture a high percentage of particles of any size.

Install A UV Lamp
The light they produce has a low level of radiation that is harmless to people but will immediately alter the DNA of dangerous microorganisms like bacteria, fungi and viruses, which prevents them from being able to reproduce. Though UV lamps can’t stop the circulation of things like pollen or dust, when they are used in conjunction with high-efficiency air filters they are able to deliver the highest quality air possible.

Allow For More Ventilation
Ventilation in areas like your attic can help you keep the humidity down by creating natural airflow. This is helpful because it eliminates your attic as a place likely to foster mold growth. Replace the soffit covers in your attic with ridged vents to create such an air flow while still keeping out the elements.

Prevent Mold Growth
Eliminate other areas or problems that would allow mold to grow. A leak in your roof can allow puddles to form and stagnate so any leaks should be repaired immediately. Leaky pipes can do the same and should be quickly addressed.

For more tips on how you can improve your indoor air quality and escape allergy problems, contact Acosta Heating, Cooling & Electrical today.  We have proudly served residents of the Charlotte Metro Area since 1972.