Tuckers Air Conditioning, Heating & Plumbing Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Boyds’

Suburban Maryland Spring Home Show

Friday, March 2nd, 2012

Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating will be exhibiting at this year’s Suburban Maryland Spring Home Show. The show runs March 9th, 10th, and 11th at the Discovery Sports Center at Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown (Boyds). The Home Show is an excellent resource for anyone looking to update, remodel, or build their dream home. Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating will be in booth number 121. Stop by and learn about our new 15 year Warranty Program. Our booth will have all of the latest Amana equipment on display and running, Home Show specials, and information for all of your heating and cooling needs.

Suburban Maryland Spring Home Show
March 9, 10, 11 2012

Discovery Sports Center at Maryland SoccerPlex
18031 Central Park Circle
Germantown (Boyds), MD 20841

Friday, Match 9, 11am-8pm
Saturday, March 10, 10am-8pm
Sunday, March 11, 10am-6pm

Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating, LLC was founded in 1995 dedicated to residential air conditioning and heating problem solving. Tuckers Air Conditioning and Heating proudly serves Montgomery County, Maryland and vicinity.

The mission of Tuckers Air Conditioning & Heating is to provide high quality, efficient and professional services in an innovative manner that exceeds the expectations of our customers and surpasses all others in the HVAC industry. Our mission is exemplified by our motto: “Customer Service is your Right and Our Commitment”

Continue Reading

Tags: , ,
Posted in Community Involvement | Comments Off on Suburban Maryland Spring Home Show

Heating System Ventilation 101: Basic Guidelines from

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Maintaining Proper Ventilation for Combustion Systems

Anytime you maintain, retrofit, or replace a gas heating system in your Poolesville home you also need to be concerned with air quality. Combustion air is needed by all oil and gas heating systems to support the combustion process. This air is provided in some homes by unintentional air leaks, or by air ducts that connect to the outdoors. The combustion process creates several byproducts that are potentially hazardous to human health and can cause deterioration in your home. You can protect yourself from these hazards, as well as maintain energy efficiency, by ensuring that your chimney system functions properly and that your gas heating system is properly ventilated. In some cases, installing a sealed-combustion furnace or boiler can also help.

Chimneys

Properly functioning chimney systems will carry combustion byproducts out of the home. Therefore, chimney problems put you at risk of having these byproducts, such as carbon monoxide, spill into your home.

Most older gas furnaces and boilers have naturally drafting chimneys. The combustion gases exit the home through the chimney using only their buoyancy combined with the chimney’s height. Naturally drafting chimneys often have problems exhausting the combustion gases because of chimney blockage, wind or pressures inside the home that overcome the buoyancy of the gases.

Atmospheric, open-combustion furnaces and boilers, as well as fan-assisted furnaces and boilers, should be vented into masonry chimneys, metal double-wall chimneys, or another type of manufactured chimney. Masonry chimneys should have a fireclay, masonry liner or a retrofitted metal flue liner.

Many older chimneys have deteriorated liners or no liners at all and must be relined during furnace or boiler replacement. A chimney should be relined when any of the following changes are made to the combustion heating system:

When you replace an older furnace or boiler with a newer one that has an AFUE of 80% or more. These mid-efficiency appliances have a greater risk of depositing acidic condensation droplets in chimneys, and the chimneys must be prepared to handle this corrosive threat. The new chimney liner should be sized to accommodate both the new heating appliance and the combustion water heater by the installer.

When you replace an older furnace or boiler with a new 90+ AFUE appliance or a heat pump. In this case, the heating appliance will no longer vent into the old chimney, and the combustion water heater will now vent through an oversized chimney. This oversized chimney can lead to condensation and inadequate draft. The new chimney liner should be sized for the water heater alone, or the water heater in some cases can be vented directly through the wall.

Other Ventilation Concerns

Some fan-assisted, non-condensing furnaces and boilers, installed between 1987 and 1993, may be vented horizontally through high-temperature plastic vent pipe (not PVC pipe, which is safely used in condensing furnaces). This type of venting has been recalled and should be replaced by stainless steel vent pipe. If horizontal venting was used, an additional draft-inducing fan may be needed near the vent outlet to create adequate draft. Floor furnaces may have special venting problems because their vent connector exits the furnace close to the floor and may travel 10 to 30 feet before reaching a chimney. Check to see if this type of venting or the floor furnace itself needs replacement. If you smell gases, you have a venting problem that could affect your health. Contact your local utility or Poolesville heating contractor to have this venting problem repaired immediately.

Chimneys can be expensive to repair, and may help justify installing new heating equipment that won’t use the existing chimney.

Continue Reading

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Heating System Ventilation 101: Basic Guidelines from

Essential Components of a Home Comfort System

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Indoor comfort is defined by several factors: temperature, humidity, and air quality. If any one of the three is out of the “normal” range it can affect the quality of life in your Spencerville home.

The ultimate goal of any heating & cooling contractor is to ensure that customers are comfortable – meaning that all three factors are addressed when servicing, replacing, or installing new equipment in a home. This equipment includes furnaces and air conditioners but also extends to humidifiers, electronic filters, ultraviolet (UV) lighting, infrared heating, etc.

Obviously, the essential component for most U.S. households is a furnace. Air conditioners may not be essential for all parts of the U.S., namely the northern states, but are still considered an integral part of any home comfort system.

Let’s look at the furnace first. There are several choices but most can be found in two different classifications: single-stage or variable speed two-stage. Your choice depends on the indoor square footage, your own comfort needs, and possibly the cost of energy units (gas or electric for example). Forced air is a common method of moving heated air to all parts of the home via an air handling unit and through a duct system. But gaining in popularity is radiant heat (electric), which does not utilize a duct system.

Air conditioners also come in a variety of sizes, including window/room air conditioners or central air conditioning, which is likely a “split” system including an outdoor unit and indoor coil. The size of the air conditioner is determined by square footage, which is part of a load calculation performed by qualified heating & cooling contractors while planning the equipment replacement or new installation. An oversized air conditioner may produce high humidity levels and an undersized unit may not provide enough cooling to all areas of the home. High humidity levels contribute to higher indoor temperatures in the summer, and can also lead to respiratory problems.

If someone in your home has allergies or is sensitive to certain pollutants in the air, it may be important to include extra filtration in your heating & cooling system, such as electronic filtration and UV lighting mounted in the buildings duct system, to kill germs and contaminants.

And speaking of an essential component, duct systems are keys to maximizing efficiency and comfort. Properly sized, insulated, and sealed, the duct system is a key to comfortable, healthy indoor air – and energy efficiency. It is also important to keep your duct system clean, too.

As always, it is best to consult with a Spencerville licensed heating and cooling contractor who can offer the best solutions for your home comfort system.

Continue Reading

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Essential Components of a Home Comfort System

My Boyds Home’s Heat Pump is Blowing Cold Air – What Should I Do?

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

One of the most impressive things about a heat pump is that it can both cool and heat your Boyds home. But, if something goes wrong and your heat pump is suddenly trying to cool your home in the middle of the winter, you have a problem. Here are some possible causes of the issue and what you can do about them.

Defective Reversing Valve

The reversing valve is responsible for changing the flow of refrigerant between seasons so your heat pump can both heat and cool your home. So, if it breaks, you can imagine what happens next – you won’t switch into heating mode and your heat pump will try to air condition your home.

Defective reversing valves are hard to diagnose because the symptoms are largely the same as those of a defective compressor or condenser valve. However, because of how they are installed and where they are located, you will need an HVAC contractor to inspect this problem no matter what.

Low on Refrigerant

Your heat pump should never run low on refrigerant because it shouldn’t leak, but if it does and the refrigerant gets low or if your device is simply very old, this may be a problem. Low refrigerant means that the device cannot transfer enough heat between the outdoor air and the inside air and the air that gets blown through your ducts by the air handler isn’t heated as much as is necessary to warm your house.

The problem is relatively easy to fix, though you should also have your repairman check for leaks and a possible cause of the refrigerant being low in the first place.

Not Running at All

The final problem is one you should be able to notice quite easily. If the heat pump isn’t working at all but the air handler and blower are working fine, then the device will simply blow cold air from outside or possibly even just recycled cold air from inside. In either case, the heat pump isn’t running to heat the air and therefore, you’re getting whatever temperature it is outside.

This can be caused by a number of problems so it’s important to call for a professional to inspect it immediately.

Continue Reading

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on My Boyds Home’s Heat Pump is Blowing Cold Air – What Should I Do?

Savings Found with Fan Coil Units: Some Pointers From Hillandale

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

There are a lot of options on the market for your Hillandale home comfort system, but not all of them are created equally. So, if you’re starting to research air conditioners, make sure you include every possible option in your search – you never know which one will turn out to work best for you.

One excellent cooling device is a fan coil unit. These are simple mechanisms, basically consisting of a fan and a cooling or heating coil. They can be installed in any type of building, from large commercial to residential, and are great for cooling all of those hard-to-reach places that traditional air conditioning systems just can’t reach.

Where the Savings Comes From

In addition to being extremely convenient, fan coil units are quite cost-effective as well. To begin with, their simple design makes them relatively inexpensive to purchase and install. In fact, they require very little labor when compared to just about any other type of cooling device, and that saves you a ton of money up front.

This is especially true if your home or building doesn’t have ductwork installed already. In fact, the largest chunk of the installation cost for a central air conditioning system is the installation of the necessary air ducts. But because they don’t require air ducts to provide you with temperature conditioned air, fan coil units carry with them a much lower installation cost.

But the savings don’t stop there. Fan coil units are also extremely energy efficient to run. That means they’ll keep your monthly energy bills to a minimum as they provide hours of constant cooling even during the hottest parts of the year.

Fan coil units also save you money on your cooling costs because you can control each unit independently of the others. Unlike a central air conditioner that will cool your entire home to a particular temperature, you can use a fan coil unit to cool only the areas of your home that are in use at the moment. That means that you’re not wasting energy to cool empty space, and that can add up to a significant savings over time.

Continue Reading

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Savings Found with Fan Coil Units: Some Pointers From Hillandale

Who Invented Air Conditioning?

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

For hundreds of years, people have been trying to figure out how to stay cool in the heat of the summer. But it wasn’t until 1902 that the first modern air conditioner was put into service in Brooklyn, NY. Since then, many adjustments and improvements have been made to make air conditioning available and convenient for people to use in their homes and cars. But through it all, the basic principles used in that first air conditioner have remained constant.

The Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company

The heat and humidity in New York in the summer isn’t something to be taken lightly, but it posed particular problems for the owner of the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company. The conditions inside his facility were such that the paper used was warping and the dimensions fluctuating, causing the printing to constantly come out misaligned.

To try and solve this problem, he hired the Buffalo Forge Company, which itself had just hired Willis Haviland Carrier, a recent recipient of a Master’s Degree in Engineering from Cornell University. Carrier approached this problem by trying to find a way to cool air by passing it over cold coils in the same way air was heated in those days by passing it over hot coils.

As it turned out, this process worked to reduce both the temperature and the humidity in the area and Carrier’s first air conditioner began running at Sackett-Wilhelms in July of 1902.

The Next Steps

As the potential for this new technology became more and more apparent, demand for Carrier’s device grew in all sectors of the economy. Employers were delighted by the way air conditioners increased the productivity of their workers during the hottest months of the year, and in order to keep up with demand, Carrier eventually founded the Carrier Air Conditioning Company which still exists today.

The coolants used in the earliest air conditioners were generally either highly flammable or toxic, and often both. In order to make air conditioning safer and easier to use, a safer coolant needed to be introduced, which was what drove Thomas Midgley, Jr. to develop Freon in 1928. Freon was initially made up of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), but as the disastrous environmental impacts of those chemicals became apparent, usage shifted first to hydrogenated chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and then to the hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) that are predominantly used today.

Continue Reading

Tags: , ,
Posted in Services | Comments Off on Who Invented Air Conditioning?