Touchstone Heating & Air Inc Blog | Air Conditioning and Heating Tips

3 Benefits of Installing Air Purifiers

August 5th, 2014

Good indoor air quality is a big part of your indoor comfort, but it’s also important for health. One of the best ways to improve your indoor air quality is to add a whole-home air purifier to your air conditioning system. While room air purifiers can help with some indoor air quality issues, the best way to truly improve indoor air quality is to upgrade to a whole-home air purifier. There are a couple of choices when it comes to choosing an air purifier in Lake Butler, which is why it’s important to work with professionals like the ones at Touchstone Heating and Air, Inc. to choose the air purifier that’s best for you.

3 Benefits of Installing an Air Purifier

Better health – if you are concerned about biological pollutants such as bacteria and/or viruses, an air purifier will destroy these kinds of particles.

Odor removal – do smells from activities like cooking tend to linger far longer than they should? An air purifier can help remove offensive odors from your indoor air.

Prevention of biological growth – mold, mildew, fungi and algae all thrive in cool, dark and moist environments, making your air conditioner a great place for them to thrive. Using UV germicidal lighting can stop this kind of growth from developing and proliferating.

Types of Air Purifiers

There are 3 common types of air purifiers on the market:

Electronic precipitators
Ion generators
UV germicidal lights

Electronic precipitators clean the air by sucking air into an ion field, charging the particles, and then attracting the charged particles to oppositely-charged plates that should be cleaned every 3 months. An ion generator is similar to an electronic precipitator in that it charges particles in an ion field, but it does not capture the particles; rather, the charged particles attach to surfaces throughout the home, such as counters and walls. UV germicidal lights are different from the electronic filters. UV germicidal lights use UV-C light to destroy the DNA of biological pollutants (like mold, mildew, bacteria, viruses, etc.) to prevent them from reproducing and surviving. UV lights do not have the ability to attract particles, so they are usually placed in specific areas such as over the evaporator coils or in ductwork.

If it’s time to improve the indoor air quality with an air purifier in Lake Butler, call on installation experts you can trust: Touchstone Heating and Air, Inc.

How Do Technicians Install Zone Air Conditioning?

July 29th, 2014

Zone-controlled air conditioning gives you a level of control over your cooling that you just can’t get with a single thermostat. This is because the dampers of the system are installed into your ductwork, where they can fully control the flow of air. So how does your Touchstone Heating and Air, Inc. technician install your zone air conditioning in Gainesville? We’ll describe the process below.

Main Components

There are several key components to a zone control system:

Motorized dampers – the motorized dampers are the parts that directly affect your air stream as they open and close according to the temperature.

Thermostats – each damper is connected to a thermostat that is wired into the main control panel for your system. These thermostats provide information to the main panel and tell the damper when to open and close.

Central control panel – the thermostat of each damper is wired into a central control panel, giving you complete control over each zone from a convenient single source.

Planning Your Zones

One of the benefits of zone air conditioning is that you get to create the zones. Zones can be separate rooms, a grouping of rooms, a wing of your home, or a floor of your home – whatever you need them to be. Most homeowners establish 2, 3 or 4 zones, focusing first on the rooms used most. Grouping your zones by the most utilized rooms helps you with energy efficiency.

Installation

A zone-control system can be installed into existing ductwork or as part of the installation of a new air conditioning system. The technician will start by installing the motorized dampers, then they will attach each damper’s thermostat. Once the ductwork is sealed, the thermostats will be connected to the main control panel and your air conditioning system; he/she may also install a thermostat into separate rooms, depending on the zone plan.

Always Use a Professional

The installation of a zone control system can be somewhat complex, which is why it’s important to use a professional rather than trying to install one yourself.

Think it’s time for zone air conditioning in your Gainesville home? Call Touchstone Heating and Air, Inc., and schedule an appointment with one of our installation experts today.

Signs That You Need Duct Replacement

July 21st, 2014

It’s the super-highway in your home you don’t see. It delivers cool air in summer and warm air in winter, and keeps you comfortable year-round. It is your ductwork, and like other parts of your air conditioning system, you may need duct replacement in Jacksonville at some point.

There are certain signs of faulty ductwork, and while some problems can be repaired, sometimes replacement is required. Touchstone Heating and Air, Inc. has helped customers in Jacksonville with their ductwork for over 15 years, including repair and installation. Here are some signs that can indicate it’s time to replace your ductwork:

Age – if your ductwork is 30+ years old, it’s time to see how effective it is. Old ductwork is more prone to holes, cracks and disconnections, and also may be poorly placed and lacking proper insulation. Intermittent cracks, holes and tears can probably be repaired by your technician, but if there are a great deal of them throughout your system, it may be better to replace the ductwork in its entirety.

Hot and cold spots – there are a few reasons why hot and cold spots can develop in a household, but if other things have been ruled out, it is time to look at how your ducts are performing.

Excess humidity – is the humidity level higher in your home? Excess moisture can enter your ductwork through cracks, holes and disconnections and become part of your airstream.

Mold – we all know that stale smell of mold – are you detecting it coming through your vents? Mold can be cleaned from metal ductwork, but can stay on plastic ductwork, even with a thorough professional cleaning. As such, it may need to be replaced.

Loud banging noises – sometimes loud banging noises from your ductwork are the expanding and contracting of the metal, but if you are hearing loud banging noises consistently, it can indicate collapsed ductwork.

Hire an Expert

Ductwork is an integral part of your air conditioning system and any repair or replacement work shouldn’t be handled by just anyone.

If your ductwork in Jacksonville needs replacing or just a general inspection, call the indoor air quality specialists you can trust: Touchstone Heating and Air, Inc.

Key Aspects of Duct Sealing

July 14th, 2014

Your ductwork is an integral part of your air conditioning system. When there are cracks, broken seals, or detached sections in your ductwork, you can lose a lot of the air passing through the ducts. Duct cleaning can eliminate obstructions from dust and dirt, but to truly get your ductwork into the best shape possible, you may want to consider duct sealing in Lake City.

Potential Signs of Leaky Ductwork

The following can indicate that there are existing problems with your ductwork:

Higher than normal energy bills without big changes with the in-or outdoor temperature
Rooms that are difficult to cool
Stuffy rooms that are uncomfortable
Visible kinks in ductwork

The Benefits of Duct Sealing

There are multiple benefits to sealing your ductwork:

Saves Energy

Sealing ducts increases your energy efficiency tremendously by reducing and/or eliminating air loss in your ductwork. This, in turn, reduces your energy bill, which can help you save money.

Improves Indoor Air Quality

Leaky ductwork can allow multiple types of particles into your HVAC system, including allergens, dust and dirt. By sealing the ductwork, you can effectively reduce the amount of particles entering your system.

Better Comfort

Leaky air ducts can contribute to the creation of hot and cold spots throughout a home. Reinstating a healthy, consistent flow of air to your home can help eliminate uneven cooling.

Improved Safety

Gas appliances, such as dryers, water heaters and furnaces can release combustion gases through their vent work that can get drawn into your ductwork from a problem known as backdrafting. Sealing your ductwork can greatly reduce the risk of backdrafting in your air conditioner’s system.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Sealing faulty ducts helps your system become more energy efficient; when you use less energy, you reduce your carbon footprint.

Duct Sealing Is Not a DIY Project – Call a Professional

Duct sealing involves a lot: a full inspection of your entire ductwork system, testing of the supply and return vents, checking for backdrafting, and of course, the sealing and repair work. It’s a lot of skilled work, and it is better left to someone with the training to do it.

If you think your air conditioning system in Lake City could benefit from duct sealing, call Touchstone Heating and Air, Inc., today and schedule an appointment.

What’s Involved in Duct Replacement?

July 7th, 2014

The ventilation system in your home needs to maintain an airtight seal along its length, from each individual vent to the air conditioner and heater. Leaky ducts need repairs the seal them, or else the air pressure in your ventilation will start to drop, leading to decreased comfort and an overworked HVAC system.

Sometimes, duct sealing and basic repairs are not enough… you need to have the damaged and aging ducts replaced. If the ducts received improper installation in the first place and are causing you to lose energy, you should also have them replaced with skilled, professional work. If your ductwork has reached the point where repairs will no longer do the job, call Touchstone Heating and Air Inc. in Lake Butler, FL for duct replacement to take handle the work.

What to expect during duct replacement

When technicians come to your house for duct replacement, they will perform a number of tests to determine the extent of the damage to the ventilation system so they can pinpoint which duct section require replacement. They will also gauge your HVAC system to determine which kinds of ducts will work best for replacement.

Selecting the ductwork material is an important part of replacing the ducts. There are three standard materials for ductwork in homes: sheet metal, flexible plastic, and ductboard. The installers will balance out space needs, insulation ability, and cost to make sure that you have the right replacement material.

The replacement job will proceed with removing the existing ducts and setting in the new material, often using a newly constructed wooden frame for support. The installers will seal the new duct to the older sections using mastic sealant or metallic tape. During the process, they will make sure that the new ducts run straight and without any kinks or sags that could cause inefficient performance.

Once the new duct(s) are in place, the technicians will run the HVAC system and perform tests along the new stretch to make sure there are no leaks or heat loss/gain from poor connections. Professional technicians won’t leave your home until they are certain that the new ventilation additions are helping, not hurting, your home’s efficiency.

Although you can locate DIY guides on-line for how to handle duct repairs and replacements, this job is too important for you to allow amateur work to jeopardize it.

Call the skilled team at Touchstone Heating and Air Inc. for duct replacement in Gainesville, FL. We will do the job fast and right the first time.

The Famous Painting of the Declaration of Independence Isn’t What You Think It Is

July 4th, 2014

If you grew up in the United States, you probably first saw John Trumbull’s painting of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence in an elementary schoolbook. This oil-on-canvas 12’ x 18’ painting hangs in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It is one of the most famous symbols of freedom in the country and almost every citizen can conjure it from memory.

Except… the painting isn’t of the singing of the Declaration of Independence. The actual title of the work is Declaration of Independence, and although it does portray an important moment in the history of the document that announced the Thirteen Colonies’ decision to break away from British rule, the event in the painting occurred on June 28, 1776, not July 4, 1776.

John Trumbull, a Connecticut native who fought in the Revolutionary War and whose father was the state governor, was commissioned to create the painting in 1817. He did painstaking research on the figures in the picture and also visited Independence Hall to see the actual chamber where the Second Continental Congress met. Trumbull only included 42 of the original 56 signers, because he could not find adequate likenesses for 14 or them, and added a few figures who were not present (most of whom declined to sign the actual document). In fact, the men depicted in the painting had never been present in the same room at one time.

So if the painting does not portray the singing of the Declaration of Independence, what is happening in the image? The Trumbull’s scene depicts the presentation of the draft of the declaration to the Continental Congress for editing and approval. The five-man drafting committee (John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert R. Livingston, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin) is handing over their finished work, which congress would then edit carefully over the next few days before voting on it and signing it on the day that we now celebrate as the start of the United States of America.

One last, odd, fact: two of the five-man drafting committee, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died on the July 4—although many years later.

Our family at Touchstone Heating & Air hopes that your Fourth of July (or Twenty-Eighth of June if you decided to start celebrating early) is a memorable and happy one.

How Geothermal Cooling Systems Work

June 27th, 2014

Geothermal home comfort systems are growing more popular every year thanks to their highly efficient, reliable performance and nearly unmatched longevity. A well-installed geothermal system can last for more the 50 years, and no matter the outdoor temperature, they return a steady level of heating or cooling that uses far less power than standard air-source heat pumps.

Some homeowners, however, are not even aware that geothermal systems can provide both heating and cooling, the way that standard heat pumps can. Because geothermal power is associated with heat (“thermal” is right in the name), people often don’t consider that they can offer comfort through cooling every bit as effective as their comfort through heat.

We’ll offer you a short explanation for how a geothermal system cools down a home during summer.

For more information about geothermal cooling in Jacksonville, FL, call Touchstone Heating and Air Inc., where we’ve kept homes in North Central Florida comfortable since 1998.

The basics of geothermal cooling

Geothermal home comfort systems are heat pumps: they move heat from one location and place it in another through the circulation of refrigerant. An indoor coil serves as either the evaporator (removing heat from the interior air) or condenser (releasing heat to the interior air), while a series of ground loops buried at least 6 feet deep in the earth handle the other half of the heat exchange process. Unlike air-source heat pumps, geothermal systems use water rather than Freon as the refrigerant they circulate.

When a geothermal heat pump is in heating mode, the ground loops move heat from the ground and release it inside. Because the temperature of the earth at that depth remains steady around 55°F regardless of the surface conditions, the heat pump has a reliable source of heat. But it can reverse this process and use the earth as a place to deposit heat as well, making use of the same steady temperature. When the system switches to cooling mode, heat is taken from a home and placed into the earth. Thanks to the reliably cool underground temperature, a heat pump will never have trouble cooling down a house on a hot summer day.

Find out if geothermal is right for you

If there’s one drawback to geothermal heat pumps, it’s that they will not work for every property: a home needs sufficient space for the loops and the right kind of soil. However, you may be surprised to find out that most homes will permit geothermal heat pumps.

Call our heating and cooling specialists at Touchstone Heating and Air Inc. today and schedule an appointment to find out if geothermal cooling in Jacksonville, FL is a great year round comfort solution for your household.

3 Reasons to Schedule Generator Installation

June 20th, 2014

Hurricane season has arrived, and while Florida civic authorities go above and beyond to keep us all safe, it pays to have back-up ready at a moment’s notice. A generator for your home is a big step in the right direction, and when it comes to generator installation, Gainesville has services that can perform the job properly. Before they do so, however, you need to make the decision to install a generator in your home. Here are 3 reasons to do so, which you should carefully consider when making this decision.

Reliable power. Obviously, a generator exists to provide you with power in an emergency. As long as you keep it fueled and maintained, it will be there when you need it” providing power for light, heat, refrigeration and contact with the outside world. That’s important in every home, but especially important for those who have special needs, such as medical equipment and other devices that absolutely need power.
Safety. A generator that keeps your refrigerators and other key appliances going means that you won’t have to venture outside in search of necessities during an emergency. It keeps food cold, bathing water hot, and household lights running: meaning that you can stay safely indoors until the crisis has passed.
Versatility and resale value. If you have a portable generator, you can take it with you when you move, ensuring that you have reliable power no matter where you call home. If your generator isn’t portable, it will add resale value to your home: possibly enough to offset the cost of installation depending on the specifics. Either way, you’re not looking at a dead-end cost with a generator. You’re looking at an investment in your property that can give back for months and years to come.

For more reasons to schedule generator installation, Gainesville residents can call upon the experts at Touchstone Heating and Air Inc.

We have years of experience handling generator installation, and we can take you through all the steps before we begin. Your satisfaction is our primary concern, so don’t hesitate to contact us today.

Is It Too Late for Air Conditioning Maintenance

June 13th, 2014

Air conditioning maintenance is a sort of tune-up session, designed to spot potential problems before they get out of hand and perform a lot of little things that help improve efficiency in your system. Most experts recommend having a maintenance session performed at least once a year, ideally in the spring before summer starts. But summer is here and with our heat and humidity rising, a maintenance session may force you to shut down your air conditioning system at a point when it’s needed almost every day. Is it too late for air conditioning maintenance in Jacksonville FL? Should you schedule a session now or wait until the fall when you don’t need your system as often?

In point of fact, it’s never too late – or too early – to schedule a session. While you should ideally get to it earlier in the spring, we all know how life has a way of prioritizing work and family issues. Just because the summer is here, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from immediate maintenance service. How? In two distinct ways:

1) Lowering monthly bills. Maintenance sessions clean direct and dust off of the interior components, as well as recharging refrigerant and replacing used filters. All of that helps the air conditioner function more efficiently, and use less energy to cool your home. The longer you wait, the more you’ll feel the pinch on those monthly bills. A maintenance session will help cut into those bills, and scheduling in June means seeing the savings as early as July. With lots of summer left to go, the savings could help pay for the cost of the session itself.

2) Preventing bigger repairs. More importantly, a maintenance session can help you stop big repairs before they get started, ensuring that you can rest a little easier during the remainder of the summer.

Give us a call today to make an appointment and lets us help you save money and energy this summer!

The experts at Touchstone Heating and Air Inc. know that it’s never too late for air conditioning maintenance in Jacksonville, and we have the skills you ned to ensure that the job is done right.

What Is Involved in Heat Pump Maintenance?

June 6th, 2014

Heat pumps may sometimes seem like miraculous machines: using the power of an air conditioner to shift heat from one place to another to provide for both heating and cooling, whatever you need for whatever time of the year. But heat pumps are still just electro-mechanical machines, and they will wear down over time and begin to work less efficiently. Although no heat pump will last forever, you can prolong the service life of the one that keeps your family comfortable through a regimen of annual maintenance from professionals like the team at Touchstone Heating and Air Inc.

We’ll look at what actually goes into an annual maintenance visit for a heat pump in Gainesville, FL. This is the level of service you can expect when you sign up for our Energy Saving Agreement.

Here’s what happens during heat pump maintenance:

Thermostat calibration. No matter what sort of heater or air conditioner you have in your home, a thermostat controls it, so a key part of maintenance is to see that the thermostat is sensing indoor temperatures accurately.
Cleaning the coils. Both the indoor and outdoor coil of the heat pump need to be detached and cleaned so they can carry out heat absorption and heat release effectively.
Clean the drip pan. Heat pumps have drip pans under their coils to catch water moisture from condensation. Cleaning the pan makes sure there are no drain obstructions that might lead to overfill and water damage.
Electric wiring checks. Faults with wiring in the electric system are among the most common reasons for repairs in a heat pump, so the technicians will take special care to see that all the wires are connected and none are frayed or near to breaking.
Refrigerant level check. The charge of the refrigerant should be at the factory-set level; if it isn’t, the technician will recharge it.
Inspect and change the filter. This reassures that the system is receiving a steady flow of air from the return vents.
Monitor the reversing valve. Should this valve fail, the heat pump will become stuck in one mode.
Check and oil the fans. The technician will make sure the two fans can move freely and the blades are tight and undamaged.
Examine the run capacitors. Key parts of the electrical system, the capacitors may need replacement if they are aged.
Ductwork inspection. The technician will make a visual check on the ventilation system to watch for breaks or gaps.

There are even more steps, but this will give you an idea of how thorough the inspections are: the technician will catch whatever might be wrong, and fine-tune every element of the heat pump.

With the Energy Saving Agreement at Touchstone Heating and Air Inc., you’ll receive the above work, plus a 15% discount on repair services and priority scheduling. Call us today to start taking great care of your heat pump in Gainesville, FL.