I always find this time of year to be really difficult when heating and cooling my house.

• The temperature is so inconsistent that it’s hard to keep my house at a comfortable and consistent temperature.

I love the cooler weather during the end of the summer because it’s a nice change after intense heat and humidity, however, it makes things challenging on my HVAC system. During the early mornings, I have to turn my furnace on because my house is freezing. A few hours after waking up though, I have to turn my furnace off because the temperature is perfect outside and I’m able to cool my home naturally. During this time, I typically open some windows to let the fresh air circulate inside. By lunchtime, I have to shut all the windows and turn on the air conditioner because it’s too hot. My air conditioner will run for a few hours and then I’m back to turning on my furnace because the temperature begins to drop around dinnertime. It’s a constant cycle that lasts for almost a month. I don’t think the inconsistent temperature helps with my energy consumption either because I’m always needing to power something on or off. My air conditioner and furnace need to completely reboot after they’ve been turned off for several hours and that requires a lot of energy. I find myself longing for a consistent temperature so that I can leave my furnace or air conditioner on so my house isn’t a different temperature every time.

hvac unit

I was really excited to throw a housewarming party a few weeks after I finished settling into my new house.

I had a lot of friends and family members who were itching to see my new place and instead of hosting everyone separately, I wanted to do one big party.

This would save me so much time. On the day of the party, I noticed that my house was feeling really warm. After pushing a few buttons on my thermostat, I realized that the AC wasn’t working. I wasn’t hearing it turn on when I lowered the temperature and nothing was coming out of the air vents. My stress levels went through the roof because I knew that I’d have to host a bunch of people in my house in a matter of hours. Instead of setting everything up, I called the HVAC company and begged them to send an HVAC professional to my house. I was desperate for someone to come fix my AC system! They couldn’t commit to coming to my house that day, but they said that they would ask the HVAC professionals to stop by if they had a spare moment. I was defeated because I really didn’t think anyone was going to come. I was beginning to call off the party when I saw the HVAC company truck pull into my driveway. I almost hugged the HVAC professional when he came inside because I was so thankful! I was even more thankful when he managed to fix the AC system and had it up and running before he left forty minutes later.

 

air conditioning company

I don’t get that same reaction when I’m at my own house

One of the reasons I pay for a monthly gym membership is because it’s located in an area with air conditioning. I’m a cardio girl, so I stick to mostly running, biking, and the elliptical. When people realize this about me, they question why I pay for a monthly gym membership when I could technically do those activities outside or in my own home. I always give them the same response by mentioning the air conditioning. I hate basing my exercise off of the weather because it’s always inconsistent and unreliable. If there is a heat wave, I don’t want to run outside. If it’s raining, I don’t want to bike outside. My exercise is much more consistent when I have a gym membership with equipment indoors. Sometimes, people will ask me whether or not I’ve considered purchasing my own treadmill or bike, but I have and it doesn’t work for me either. Although I’m in my own house with temperature control, I can’t separate home from exercise and I found that I rarely worked out when I knew I could be doing other things. I need the physical act of leaving my house and putting myself at a gym where there’s nothing else to do. As soon as I walk into the gym and feel the cool air, my body knows that it’s time to workout. I don’t get that same reaction when I’m at my own house. THis is why I continue to pay for a gym membership despite only doing cardio.

indoor air cleaning system

Nothing is worse than not having air conditioning on a hot day. I would know this because last week, my air conditioner stopped working and I was stuck at home without the cool air. I think I would have been fine with my air conditioning if I was at work most of the day, but unfortunately, I work from home. I noticed the lack of cool air almost immediately and I called the local HVAC company as fast as I could. They only had emergency appointments left and I wasn’t willing to pay for that, so I had to wait two days before an HVAC professional could get to my house. In the meantime, I set up my workstation at a coffee shop for those two days and I worked from there. I didn’t have a lot of space, but I did have a ton of coffee and cool air. During the evenings, I was able to stay with a friend because I couldn’t sleep without air conditioning. You never truly know who your friends are until you need them and their air conditioning. Although I was eternally grateful for the coffee shop and my friend’s house with air conditioning, I was anxious to get back to my own home. There’s nothing like home and being comfortable in your own space. The HVAC professional was able to get to my house over the next two days and fix my air conditioner on the spot, which I was eternally grateful for. I wanted nothing more than to return to my normal workplace and home.

hvac repairman

Everybody knows that teachers don’t get paid much.

• This topic is always coming up in the news and politics, so it’s no surprise when you hear a teacher talk about how underfunded the school is and her own pockets.

As a teacher myself, I can attest to this and I’m guilty of complaining about my pay to everyone who will listen. What teachers don’t talk about though, are the discounts and benefits they receive for simply choosing a career in teaching. I receive a discount at most stores and some benefits from random companies like the HVAC company in my area. The HVAC company I use has a ten percent discount on all services for teachers, military, and first responders. It took me two years to realize that there was a discount for me. Once I realized it though, I never forgot! I utilize this discount every time I call the HVAC company because HVAC maintenance can be expensive each year. Without the ten percent discount, I think I’d neglect my furnace and air conditioner because it would be hard to pay for. Biannual HVAC maintenance plus random repairs is pricey. Ten percent isn’t a huge saving, but it adds up when you have two HVAC tune ups per year. As a teacher, I’m thankful for companies who honor and respect the work I do by offering a discount. If the government can’t pay me more money for educating the future, at least some companies can cut back their costs where they can.

 

air conditioning technician

We’ve recently switched from a one inch thick air filter to a four inch thick air filter.

We were buying the one inch air filters because they were cheaper and it seemed to be stopping the dust and debri.

However, the HVAC technician who services our HVAC system told us that it wasn’t doing the job well. There was a lot of dust and dirt escaping. He recommended switching to at least a two inch air filter, but we decided to jump to a four inch instead. We didn’t trust that a one inch difference was going to make a big enough impact, so the four inch seemed like a good idea. The four inch air filters are expensive, but they can be purchased in packs of two or on a subscription plan for a cheaper rate. We have a lot of allergies in our household and someone with severe asthma, so the air quality is worth investing in. We do whatever our HVAC technician suggests because it usually makes us feel better. The air quality needs to be perfect and these four inch thick air filters felt like the next step for us. The brand we purchased said that it was known for removing microscopic particles from the air along with bacteria and other airborne illnesses. This was exactly what we needed and we’re happy with our decision. We’re thankful for the HVAC technician who works on our HVAC system because he always has our best interest at heart.

 

propane boiler

I had no idea what size our HVAC system required

I thought all air filters were the same. I thought an air filter was only an air filter and that there was nothing special about them. They were simply there to remove dirt and dust from our HVAC system and it didn’t seem like a complex item to make. All of the air filters I’d ever used were made of the same netting material and had the same cardboard around the edges. Of course the brands were different, but they all seemed identical in every other way. Of course, my husband was always the one to purchase the air filters and keep a supply at our house. All I had to do was go to the garage and unwrap the air filter from the plastic wrap before installing it. I never needed to go to the hardware store to purchase one and I was only judging air filters by what my husband picked out. When he left for a business trip though, I was forced to find an air filter myself. I went to the store and found the air filter aisle and was stunned by how many options there were to choose from. I looked for a similar brand that we’d used in the past, but upon finding one that looked familiar, I realized there were different sizes. I had no idea what size our HVAC system required. I had to call my husband and ask him about the sizing before I returned home. I thought picking an air filter would take 10 minutes but it took almost an hour!

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During my last HVAC tune up, I made a comment about how ugly and dingy my air vents were. My house was several decades old and the air vents revealed that. They were a brown color with rust forming on some spots. No matter how often I took the covers off and hard I scrubbed them, the air vent covers were always ugly. The HVAC professional who was servicing my HVAC system laughed and told me that I needed to have them replaced if I didn’t like them. I thought this was a job that he could do, but he told me where I could find them myself. Apparently, the local hardware store carried air vent covers in different sizes. Not only this, but they had a variety of options to choose from! The hardware store had white covers, brown covers, and even metallic covers! As if that wasn’t enough, they had different patterns too. I had never seen an air vent cover that wasn’t simple lines before, so the fancy patterns intrigued me. I stood in the air vent aisle at the store for ages trying to find the best option for my home. I ended up picking a nickel air vent cover that had a fancy design on it. I loved the idea of having unique air vent covers and I thought it would elevate my space. These were more expensive than the simple ones, but I had lived with my ugly air vent covers for far too long. I was ready for a fun upgrade!

air conditioning

Not having control over the thermostat makes the temperature of the room feel so much worse. At work, there is a single thermostat that controls the space that I work in with ten other people. Don’t get me wrong, the space is amazing and it’s comfortable for all of us to be working together under one roof. There are also a ton of other things that are available to us throughout the day that make where I work fantastic. For example, there’s an unlimited coffee bar with a barista 24/7 that’s there to keep everyone caffeinated and productive. The only thing I don’t like about my office space is the thermostat settings. There are two people in the entire building who are able to change the temperature and they rarely do. In fact, I think the only time they touch the thermostat settings are in the spring and the fall when they have to make the manual switch between the air conditioner and furnace. I don’t think I’d care about the temperature setting as much if I could actually change it myself, but there’s something so annoying about not having any control at all. The temperature setting is something that everyone in the office is always complaining about and I’ve come to realize that it’s because there’s nothing else to complain about. If we could change the temperature, I think most of us would end up changing it to the same or a similar temperature anyway. It’s the same concept of wanting what you can’t have.

 

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