Watch for Clearance around Your Heat Pump’s Compressor Unit

January 25th, 2016

The outside unit of your heat pump is known as the compressor unit. (In the case of standard air conditioning system, it’s often called a condenser. However, a heat pump switches the function of this unit between evaporator and condenser.) This cabinet is where the heat pump absorbs heat while it’s in heating mode and exhausts it in cooling mode.

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Addressing Some Special Customer Questions

January 18th, 2016

On our blog, we approach each post as a way to answer specific concerns that customers may have, or to provide additional information on a particular topic. However, there are some questions we receive that won’t take up a whole blog post, and we’d like to go over a few of them here. Always feel free to ask your technicians any questions that you may have; they’ll be glad to provide you with honest answers every time.

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Why Install Air Purifiers and Filters for the Winter

January 11th, 2016

The season that’s most closely associated with allergies and asthma problems is the spring, when the pollen count often soars. But this isn’t the only time of the year when you need to watch out for unhealthy pollutants getting inside your house. In the winter—even a mild Florida winter—indoor air quality problem often spike, which can be especially troublesome for asthma and allergy sufferers.

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How Best to Use Your Thermostat during the Winter

January 4th, 2016

There’s a downside to needing to use a home heating system for only a short stretch of the year: people often aren’t sure exactly how to set the thermostat to maximize energy savings and comfort. Many homeowners in Florida often push their thermostats up too high, which wastes power without providing the right temperatures. We’d like to help you find the ideal settings on your thermostat for this winter. It’s not difficult at all, and the difference on your bills can be substantial.

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Consider an Energy Recovery Ventilator Installation

December 28th, 2015

Florida homes usually have very effective levels of insulation on them to help keep out the heat during our frequently boiling summers. This insulation is useful as well during the mild winters. But insulation also has an unfortunate side-effect, which is that it prevents the easy exchange of indoor and outdoor air that helps to keep the air inside a home fresh. You can open up windows and doors, but no matter the time of year, this will usually result in energy waste: heat escaping during cold weather, heat entering during warm weather.

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How Developing Technology Increases the Efficiency of Gas Furnaces

December 21st, 2015

Natural gas furnaces have been around for a long time, and they’ve spent many decades at the top of the list of the most common types of heating systems in the U.S. There’s a reason for this continuing dominance: advances in technology have allowed gas furnaces to stay competitive as energy-efficient systems. Installing a gas furnace is still one of the best ways to provide warmth for a household while keeping utility bills under control.

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Why Go from Gas Heating to a Heat Pump (Plus a $400 Incentive!)

December 14th, 2015

If you’ve ever thought about making the switch from using a gas-powered heating system like a furnace to instead using a versatile heat pump, the time to act is now! Currently, Gulf Power is offering a $400 incentive for customers who convert from a gas system to a heat pump. The conversion must be completed before December 31, 2015. You can call our installation technicians for more details about how to qualify for this offer—as well as to talk about the all-important installation arrangements.

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A Reminder Regarding R-22 and Replacing Your Air Conditioner or Heat Pump

December 7th, 2015

Right now, the only thing that starts with “R2” that you’re probably thinking about is R2-D2. We don’t blame you, since we’re excited about the new Star Wars film as well… and it’s opening in only 11 days from now! (Not that we’re counting down or anything.)

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How Geothermal Systems Operate in the Winter

November 30th, 2015

In the classic novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, author Jules Verne sent his three heroes down more than a hundred miles below the Earth’s crust—on foot!—to make fantastic underground discoveries. One of these discoveries was that the temperature did not increase substantially as they went deeper, even though much of the evidence of the day (1860s) indicated a hot core of the planet.

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Yes, Your Geothermal System Needs Fall Maintenance!

November 16th, 2015

Last week on our blog, we addressed why fall maintenance is such a vital task for your home heating system, even in a place with as mild winters as we experience in Florida.

But if you use a geothermal heat pump to provide warmth to your home during the winter, you might think that a fall inspection and tune-up isn’t necessary every year. Let us assure you that it is: most of your geothermal system is buried under the ground of your property, putting it out of your sight, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe from wear and tear and other kinds of damage.

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