Posts Tagged ‘Heating Installation’

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North Potomac, MD Heating Guide: Types of Heating Systems Available

Monday, February 25th, 2013

If you’re considering installing a heating system in your new North Potomac, MD home, or thinking of upgrading to a new type of heating, it’s important to know what your options are. Whatever system you choose, you’ll need to consult with a heating professional in order to make sure that your new heater matches the size of your home, and that it meets your energy-efficiency requirements. Let Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating help you make the right decision. Our team of experienced heating technicians can make sure that your home will stay comfortable all year long.

Depending on the size, location, and needs of your home, several options are available to homeowners in the North Potomac, MD area, from geothermal to ductless mini splits. Here are just a few:

  • Boiler- The boiler heats water and distributes either hot water throughout your home by means of baseboard copper piping or radiators. It can be fueled by gas or electricity. It can also heat the water in your home, making it one of the most versatile conventional heating systems. As an alternative to a forced-air system, the boiler does not use extensive ductwork to circulate air throughout your home, and remains an economical and energy efficient heater.
  • Furnace- This is probably the most common type of heating system. The furnace burns fuel to create hot air, which is then distributed through a system of ducts into the various spaces of your home. New furnaces boast outstanding energy efficiency ratings, much higher than their forebears. Gas furnaces run especially clean.
  • Geothermal. As its name suggests, geothermal systems harness the latent temperature of the earth to heat your home. The temperature of the ground below the frost line stays at a median of about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the geothermal heating system extracts the heat of the median temperature by means of a heat transfer fluid, and a heat pump then uses that heat to warm air which is circulated throughout your home. It is a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution.

Remember that consulting with a heating professional should be the first step. Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating will ensure that your heater is professional installed and serviced. Call us today at 301-670-003 for heating solutions in North Potomac, MD and the surrounding areas!

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How Do Ductless Mini Split Systems Work? A Bethesda, MD Heating Question

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Ductless mini split systems are a great option for homeowners comfortable and efficient heating for their home. While some homeowners have already started to take advantage of them, some people may not know how they provide heating. At Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating, we offer complete ductless mini split system repairs and maintenance in Bethesda, MD. We wanted to clarify exactly how these amazing systems provide heating for your home.

Traditional Heating Systems

Furnaces and boilers are two of the most common heating systems in the country. They offer comfortable heat for homeowners and are also fairly cheap to repair. However, they produce heat by burning fuel. Burning fuel in your home can be dangerous: not only is there risk of fire but there is also the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Ductless Mini Split Systems

Unlike other traditional heating systems, ductless mini split systems don’t burn fuel to create heat. Instead, they just move heat from one place to another. Ductless mini split systems have individual units mounted on the wall in each room. These units circulate the air in the rooms and heat or cool it. It does this by pulling air into the unit and passing it over a series of evaporator coils that are filled with refrigerant.

The “split” part of their name comes from them being connected to an outdoor condensing unit. This condensing unit is responsible for collecting the heat that will go into your home. In heating mode, heat from the outside air is absorbed by a series of coils in the outside unit. The newly heated refrigerant circles back into your home where the evaporator coils in the room units allow the heat to be distributed into your home.

If you’re interested learning more about ductless mini split systems in Bethesda, MD, call Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating. We provide complete ductless mini split installation and repairs throughout the Bethesda, MD area.

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What to Consider Before Scheduling a Heater Installation

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Having a good heating system here in Gaithersburg is absolutely critical during the winters. We all love to go outside and play in the snow, but eventually we all want to go back inside to a warm home. When you decide to get a new heating system installed, there are a lot of things to consider before you move forward. At Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating, we’ve been helping our customers in the Gaithersburg area with their heating installations for many years. We thought it would be helpful if we put together some of the most important things to consider before having your new system installed.

Size of the System

No matter what kind of heating system you’re getting installed, picking the right sized unit is crucial to the success of your system. We get calls for service all the time to homes where the furnace too big for the home. Here are some of the problems that can result from a heating system being the wrong size for the house.

  • Short cycling – This happens when your heating system turns on, quickly heats up your home and then shuts off. A short time later when your house has cooled down, the system turns back on and then off again. Not only does this greatly reduce the efficiency of your system, it also causes more wear and tear on it.
  • Uneven heating – When you have a heating system that is too big or too small, it can cause certain parts of your home to be too warm while other parts of the house are still cold.
  • Reduced efficiency – While short cycling can cause reduced efficiency, the size of the ducts in your home also play a part in reducing the efficiency. If your home’s ducts don’t match the size of the system, your heater will have to work harder to push the air through them.

Efficiency Rating

This can be a confusing part of the process for many homeowners. There are a lot of different efficiency ratings and it can be hard to figure out what they mean. Here are a couple of the most common ones:

  • Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) – The AFUE rating measures how much of the fuel consumed is converted into useable heat. Many old furnaces have an AFUE rating of 60% which means that they waste about 40% of the fuel. New furnaces can have an AFUE rating of up to 95% and higher.
  • Heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) – This is typically used to measure the efficiency of heat pumps in heating mode. It measures the total heat output over a heating season divided by how much energy it used.

If you need professional heating installation services in Gaithersburg, contact Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating. We have experience working with all types and brands of heating systems. A good installation is one of the best ways to make sure that your heating system works well for many years to come. Call us today!

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Getting a New Heating System in Gaithersburg: Why You Need the Ultimate Savings Agreement

Monday, September 24th, 2012

If you have just purchased a new heating system or are in the process of doing so, one of the first things you should consider is a maintenance plan that will keep your system in good condition each year for many to come. Specifically, if you live in the Gaithersburg area, we recommend you consider the Ultimate Savings Agreement for your home’s new heating system. Provided by Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating, the Ultimate Savings Agreement is an extended warranty for labor, parts and service for your new heating system.

What the Ultimate Savings Agreement is Important

Tucker’s is the only company in the region to offer a 15 year parts and labor warranty and we offer lifetime unit replacement for heat exchangers and compressors with our Ultimate Service Agreement. Why is this important? Because the manufacturers only warranty their products for 10 years, which is not nearly long enough. You don’t want to be replacing your heating system again in just 10 years. A warranty for a full 15 years will ensure the 12-15 year life cycle of most heat pumps and furnaces is protected.

Repair Services Warrantied As Well

The Ultimate Service Agreement goes beyond just parts and labor on your heating system. We also offer a full 5 year warranty on the work we do. If we visit your home and perform a service repair, we will back it up for as long as 5 years and ensure that if the same component breaks again in the future, we will fix it for you.

Replacing your heating system is a stressful, expensive process and we know you don’t want to go through it any more often than is absolutely necessary. To obtain the peace of mind that you will be able to enjoy your new heating system at least 15 years, contact us today at 301-670-0034 and ask about our Ultimate Service Agreement maintenance plan.

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Olney Heating Installation Question: What Is a Load Calculation and Why Is It Important?

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

An integral part of designing and installing a heating, ventilation and cooling system in our Olney home is the load calculation. Calculating the load of a room, home, or building essentially consists of determining how much heat is lost and gained within that area. A proper load calculation is critical to installing an appropriate HVAC system, as well as ensuring maximum efficiency or diagnosing problem areas of an existing system.

The Load Calculation Process

When conducting a load calculation for your home or office, a professional will consider several factors that can affect heat loss and gain. First among these is the construction of the building. This includes not only cubic footage, but also the type of material making up the walls, ceiling and floor, as well as any duct work. A professional performing a load calculation will examine the entire building envelope, including whether the walls are wood or masonry, if there are cathedral ceilings, what type of insulation is installed, and so on.

Secondly, load calculation takes into account doors and windows, as these can affect heat gain and loss. The number of doors and windows, as well as the size, shape and material of each one is included in the load calculation. This includes skylights and sliding glass doors, as well as the type of material shading any windows. A professional will look at pane thickness, number of panes in each window, if there are storm windows installed, any drafts in door installations, and even what kind of drapes are on the windows in order to accurately calculate load.

Additional Factors

There are other factors an Olney professional must take into account, including appliances and occupants. Heavy appliances tend to give off heat, as does having a lot of people in a space, so these must be considered in order for an HVAC system to properly regulate temperature and airflow. Last but not least, of course, is the matter of desired temperature change. By how much do you want to raise and lower the temperature of your home or office?

Calculating load prior to installing a new HVAC system is a vital part of the process. It is also a good idea to perform a calculation with current systems, as it may reveal already existing inefficiencies or deficiencies. An inefficient HVAC system not only results in unsatisfactory heating and cooling, but also unnecessary cost due to wasted energy. As you can see load calculation is an elaborate and complex process, but it is necessary for a properly functioning HVAC system.

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Garrett Park Heating Installation Question: What Makes a Furnace High Efficiency?

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

You’ve probably heard about the new lines of high efficiency furnaces being released by popular home heating companies in Garrett Park, but what exactly is different about these high efficiency devices from your current furnace? Let’s take a closer look at what a high efficiency furnace offers and why it can save you money.

Added Features

A high efficiency furnace uses familiar technology in a new way to reduce the amount of energy lost when combustion takes place. This means:

  • Sealed Combustion – Instead of open combustion which allows heat to escape during and after the combustion process, a high efficiency furnace uses a sealed chamber with carefully measured and fed airflow to burn fuel and produce heat. Exhaust heat can then be recaptured and used to heat air transferred to your air vents.
  • Two Stage Gas Valves – With a two stage gas valve, your furnace can respond to the temperature outside. There isn’t just one “on” switch. The furnace will regulate gas flow based on how much energy is needed to produce heat for your home. So, if there is a sudden burst of cold outside, the furnace will respond accordingly, but for most days when heating needs are low, it will use only the minimum amount of needed gas.
  • Programmable – High efficiency furnaces are now programmable, meaning you can set specific time limits for operation, change thermostat settings digitally and inspect the device through an electronic read out. The level of control given to you by a programmable high efficiency furnace can greatly reduce gas or electricity consumption.

Cost Benefit

The real reason many people are interested in high efficiency furnaces is that they are so much less expensive to operate. Instead of costing hundreds of dollars to run through the winter, they operate the bare minimum needed to heat your Garrett Park home. Using up to 95% of the fuel they consume to produce heat and regulating gas to cut how much is consumed during milder days, these furnaces are built to save you money.

If you have an old furnace that chews through energy like nobody’s business, now might be the time to consider the benefits of a brand new, high efficiency model.

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Spencerville Heating Installation Question: What Is an Electric Furnace?

Friday, January 27th, 2012

There are many types of furnaces in Spencerville that use a variety of energy sources to operate. Gas furnaces use natural or propane gas, boilers and radiators use water, heated by electricity. And then there are electric furnaces, which may have an advantage over other energy sources based on energy costs.

Simply put, electric furnaces function through the use of electricity. They do not require the use of any type of fuel – but function through wires and chords. An electric furnace uses heating coils, sometimes referred to as “resistance calrods” to create heat directly in the air flow. Inside the furnace cabinet are controls, a blower, and the circuit breakers for the heating elements. Some furnaces have the breakers accessible from the outside of the cabinet.

Other add-on accessories may include an electronic air cleaner, air filter, humidifier, high performance media filter, and air conditioning evaporator coil.

The heating process begins with the home’s thermostat. A drop in temperature is sensed by the thermostat, which alerts the electric furnace. The coil then warms up, thanks to the electric current that passes through it. The heated coil in turn heats the temperature of the air around it, which is then blown into the house through a blower. The pressure that is exerted by the blower on the heated air, warms it further. The blower is able to overcome the resistance of the duct work and replace unheated, colder air with the heated air. In most homes there are various return air ducts that are used to bring in the colder air to the furnace. This cold air travels through the furnace, through an air filter, the blower, and finally through the heat exchanger. After this it will then be pushed back into the house as warm air.

To maintain a supply of fresh air in the house, some furnaces also suck air from the atmosphere outside. After the air in the house reaches a particular temperature, the thermostat automatically shuts off the electric furnace.

An electric furnace may be less costly to run, depending on the price of electricity versus other sources like natural gas, propane gas, or oil. Gas and oil are fossil fuels and burning them leaves a “carbon footprint” – the release of carbon compounds and gases into the atmosphere. An electric furnace does not burn fuel and thus does not leave a carbon footprint. This electric warming process results in fewer particulates and contaminants in the air, too.

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Mount Airy Heating Installation Tip: Why AFUE Ratings Matter

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

When you are in the market for a new furnace for your Mount Airy home, there are several reasons you should pay attention to the annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) rating. All newer model furnaces get an AFUE percentage, which measures how much fuel a particular model converts into heat. Furnaces with higher AFUE ratings are more efficient, but the size and type of furnace will also factor into how much you’ll save on energy costs.

Understanding the AFUE Ratio

The minimum AFUE rating for new furnaces is 78%. This means that seventy-eight percent of the fuel is turned into heat, and the remaining percentage is lost either through poor insulation, air leaks, or the ventilation system in the home. Because there’s no heat loss through a chimney flue, some all-electric furnaces can have an AFUE rating as high as 98%. However, if the cost of electricity used to meet your normal heating needs is higher than the efficiency savings, you may want to consider other options. Talk to a qualified HVAC contractor for advice about the most cost-efficient heater for your home.

Furnace Efficiency Features

Furnaces manufactured 15-20 years ago have significantly lower AFUE ratings (between 55%-70% for most older models) because they are typically single-stage, or single-speed systems. Single-stage furnaces are less efficient because they are designed to cycle on at full capacity and shut off when the desired temperature is met.  Newer, two-speed models have a second setting that runs consistently at a lower speed, which saves energy by burning less fuel. Multispeed furnaces that have variable-speed blowers are the most efficient because they operate at various levels and automatically adjust to the thermostat to maintain a constant temperature.

If you look at the AFUE ratings for multispeed and variable-speed furnaces, the ratios should be above 80%. Keep in mind that this only determines the efficiency levels for the furnace itself. You’ll need to factor in whether or not your home has proper insulation and other upgrades, such as double-paned windows and doors.

Call Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating to speak with one of our qualified HVAC technicians about a furnace upgrade for your Mount Airy home.

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What is a Downflow vs. an Upflow Furnace? A Question from Derwood

Monday, November 7th, 2011

When you go looking to buy a furnace, you may well be surprised by how many different elements go into making a good purchasing decision. There are simply so many different kinds of furnaces available now and they each are more appropriate for certain situations. That means that finding the one that’s right for you is less about finding the one best unit than it is about finding the one that is the best match for your particular circumstances.

This applies to the type of fuel the furnace uses, its energy efficiency, and whether it’s an upflow furnace or a downflow furnace. Energy efficiency and fuel types are probably things that you’re more or less familiar with. But what are we talking about when we classify a furnace as an upflow or downflow model?

Well, it’s pretty much what it sounds like. These terms refer to the direction the air flows as it is taken in and heated by the furnace. So in an upflow furnace, the cool air is taken in at the bottom, warmed, and then expelled at the top. A downflow furnace, on the other hand, takes in cool air at the top and expels heated air at the bottom.

While this is all very exciting, it may still not be obvious what impact this will have on your decision about what type of furnace to buy. The main thing you’ll have to think about when you’re deciding between an upflow and a downflow furnace is where the furnace will be placed in your house.

An upflow furnace is generally installed in the basement so that the heated air is directed towards the parts of the house you want cooled and so that the furnace can be appropriately vented outside of the house. On the other hand, a downflow furnace would be installed in your attic for the same reasons.

So where you want to have the furnace installed is probably the biggest thing to take into account as you’re comparing these two types of equipment. Of course, whether you pick an upflow or a downflow furnace, you’ll still have to select the appropriate AFUE, size and fuel source to best meet your needs. But making the choice between upflow and downflow can at least make it easier to narrow down your options. To make the right decision for your home, contact your heating contractor.

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Testimonial – Customer from Kensington

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Do you need a new furnace? Call Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating today, we will work hard to get you the right heating system for your home and provide the best service possible. We think we do a pretty good job; here is what a customer from Kensington wrote to us about his furnace installation:

When we were told by our current HVAC technician that we needed a new furnace, we decided to get estimates from several companies before we embarked on this costly project. Not only was Tucker’s estimate several thousand dollars lower than the two other companies we contacted, they were also very timely in getting their estimate to us and were very open to the many questions that we had about the process. In addition, knowing that the cold fall weather was becoming uncomfortable for a house without a working heater, Tucker’s fit us in right away on a Friday and then had a crew come back on Saturday to finish the job. The workmen were professional and very fast. They cleaned up the space beautifully after completing the work and were very helpful in explaining our new system to us.

We now have Tucker’s as our service contractor as well and have been very pleased with their regular service calls. We have recommended Tucker’s to several of our friends who have all had similar experiences with them. We are happy to have found such a reliable and reasonable HVAC company!

- Customer in Kensington

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