Is It Finally Time For More Attic Insulation?

Many people today may not be aware of the fact that a significant increase in a homeowner’s monthly electric bill could be directly related to a lack of adequate attic insulation. As a matter of fact, The Department of Energy recommends that homeowners increase attic insulation as one of the best ways to decrease electrical energy consumption. This makes sense simply because an abundance of insulation helps to keep heat inside your home and it avoids waste.

Adequate Insulation

Simply stated, when there is sufficient attic insulation the end result is outstanding performance when it comes to preventing heat loss or transfer. When heat transfer is prevented, electric bills are lower. Even those who think they have adequate insulation may find that old insulation may not be working as it was intended. It is best to have a professional inspect your attic to determine whether or not the existing insulation is doing what it was intended to do.

Properly Installed In The Beginning

One thing that a professional technician will look at is whether or not the insulation was properly installed from the very beginning. A technician will also check for loose, broken or uneven sections of insulation as well as sections that have become settled over time. These are all conditions that can have a big impact on preventing the transfer of heat. In addition, there are circumstances where a contractor may not have used the right type of insulation with an approved R-value. Keep in mind that an R-value is the measurement of an installation’s ability to effectively prevent heat transfer.

Trusted Heating and Cooling Professional

The higher the R-value the better the insulation will be at stopping heat transfer. Regardless of what the reason is for insulation not performing the way that it should, it’s never too late to improve the insulation in your attic as a way to save money on energy. Those wishing to save up to 20% on electric bills can also do something as simple as seal insulation air leaks. Contact a trusted heating and cooling professional today to arrange an insulation inspection in order to save money over the long term. Contact Alpine Heating & Cooling today to learn more about Mount Vernon Washington heating and cooling services that get results.

angies_list_2017_super_service_awardOne of the best ways to save money in our world is to always be proactive and to think ahead. This is very much the case when talking about your residential home’s heating and cooling system. These state-of-the-art appliances have been made to operate at peak efficiency under even the most demanding conditions. However, that said it is vital to have any HVAC system routinely inspected by a professional who knows what to look for in terms of potential system failure.

Energy Efficient

Best of all, a small investment in having your home heating and cooling system checked each year will actually in most cases save you money as a homeowner. Expert technicians can spot or identify seeming unimportant issues within an HVAC system that can easily turn into a much more serious and more expensive problem over time. Keep in mind that systems that are designed to be energy efficient must be properly maintained as a way to gain access to the highest levels of efficiency that these systems are capable of delivering.

Annual Inspections

From lowering electrical expenses each month to extending the life your system, there are so many good reasons to schedule a simple and affordable yearly inspection. When routine inspections of this kind are combined with keeping a system clean and having ducts cleaned regularly, the end result is a better performing HVAC unit and even better health for those living in the house. A good way of getting even more benefit from annual inspections of this nature is to work with a trusted and respected name in the business. This provides for comfort in knowing that your system is always in good hands.

HVAC Professionals

With so much to offer it is clear to see why consistent annual HVAC inspections make smart sense today. Save money, save time and save the headaches of loosing control of the environment inside of your home by always planning for this essential and important inspection service. Consumers have many choices when if comes to HVAC professionals in Mt. Vernon WA. One company above all others always delivers on the promise of providing the best in customer service. Alpine Heating & Cooling is a trusted and respected name in reliable and affordable HVAC repair and inspections in Mt. Vernon Wa. Call today!

Useful Tips For Making Your Home More Energy Efficient

With energy costs steadily on the rise it is increasingly important for homeowners to make full use of all available options when it comes to increasing residential energy-efficient. Here are just a few useful ways of making your home more energy efficient in order to reduce your carbon footprint and to save you money. For example, insulation plays a key role in keeping a house at a comfortable temperature and so that the temperature does not fluctuate excessively. Keep in mind that wall insulation as well as attic insulation can be increased as necessary to improve insulating efficiency.

Isolate and Repair any Drafts That Exist

In addition, there are many modern ways of using recycled insulation to increase your home’s efficiency. Everything from shredded blue jeans to recycled paper and other similar materials can literally be blown into the attic or the walls of a home to improve efficiency. Equally important is to make sure that you identify, isolate and repair any drafts that exist within your home. When draft areas are detected they should be sealed using silicone caulking or some other type of foam sealant. Even pet doors can create a serious problem when it comes to allowing conditioned air to escape to the outdoors.

Allowing The Sun To Warm The Interior of Your Home

Another great way to improve energy efficiency in any home is to consider using passive solar heating. This can be as simple as allowing the sun to warm the interior of a home by opening all window coverings on the side where the sun is currently shining. Having regular and routine maintenance performed on a home’s heating system is another great way to better manage efficiency. Units that are properly maintained and routinely inspected perform better and ultimately will save you money.

Wood-Burning Fireplace Will Produce More Heat Than a Gas Fireplace

As an added note, making full use of a wood fireplace can also be a great way to lower energy costs. A wood-burning fireplace will generally produce more heat than a gas fireplace and can be used to burn (in many cases) free fuel sources. This can include everything from fallen trees to cut branches and even wood pellets. Getting creative in this regard will have a big impact on annual energy usage. Finally, reversing ceiling fans and lowering the temperature by a few degrees on the thermostat can have a substantial impact on overall energy usage during the winter months. Contact Alpine Heating & Cooling today to learn more about the best in Mount Vernon Washington heating and air conditioning maintenance and repair.

Roth 1050 controller

Roth 1050 Controller to Honeywell AQ25244B

Boiler Controllers

Boiler controllers can be very intimidating, especially if you do not deal with the same controller all the time. To make matters worse we had a burnt out Roth 1050 controller (Tekmar) that provided zero information on the installers custom settings. The Roth #1050 was manufactured by Tekmar, Tekmar was a leading manufacture and provider of boiler controllers. That was until the industry they provided controllers to caught up to their technology and started to produce their own controllers at a much more reasonable cost.

Roth 1050 Controller

Burnt Controller

After removing the circuit board from the housing you can see under the blue capacitor a burnt spot, now in some cases you can have these boards repaired, unfortunately this board was beyond repair. And the very sad part is these boards are becoming scarce and very expensive. Our solution was to move to a Honeywell AQ25244B controller with a AQ25744B expansion panel. Honeywell is less expensive and readily available.

Burnt Roth 1050 Controller

Honeywell AQ25244B controller

Not only would the Honeywell controller replace the the boilers Roth 1050 controller it would also replace the 2 Taco zone controllers that where on the system as well.

We installed the Honeywell AQ25244B controller in a more accessible area for the home owner as well as for the service technician. Because the new controller did the task of 3 components all the wiring had to come back to this location.

Honeywell AQ25244B Boiler Controller

Boiler System Back Up And Running

Once the new Honeywell controller is installed we still have a few hours left configuring the system and to make sure the system is working correctly.

 

Overall Boiler System

Climatrol to American Standard

One of our commercial management customers that we do business with had us replace an exiting Climatrol to American Standard 80% gas furnace.

American Standard 80% Furnace.

American Standard 80% Furnace.

Ok … no big deal, just another American Standard 80% gas furnace replacement story, but that’s not why I decided to blog this particular install. In this case the existing thermostat control wire had been severed during construction… and with virtually no way of running a new wire it left us stumped. That is when we decided to try the new Honeywell wireless thermostat.

Honeywell wirelss thermostat

Honeywell wirelss thermostat

As you can see above it looks like a typical programmable thermostat .. but in reality it runs off batteries and it is wireless.

Honeywell wireless module

Honeywell wireless module

The Honeywell wireless module gets installed back at the furnace .. and connect up to the thermostat wirelessly. This allows us to put the thermostat in any location within the space. I can think of at least a dozens times where thermostats have been installed in bad locations … this device will solve that problem.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Key Bank Business Of The Month

We Are Key Bank’s Business of the Month

Alpine Heating And Cooling was chosen as business of the month for April 2013 by Keybank of Burlington, WA. Alpine Heating And Cooling will have a unmanned display up inside of the entry way into Keybank. Stop by, take a look and fill out an entry form to win either a FREE Maintenance or a FREE Honeywell programmable FocusPro 6000 thermostat (not installed) your choice.

We will have an American Standard 95% Modulating Gas Furnace on display for you to look at.

Keybank Display

Keybank Display

Thanks,

Gary

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Erratic Furnace issues

There is nothing worse for a technician than to get dispatched to a no heat call and then upon arrival finding out the furnace is working correctly. He will run it through all its cycles several times and find absolutely nothing wrong with the furnace.

Furnace Control Board

Furnace Control Board

And of course if the technician leaves without finding the issue the customer will call back within days and complain the furnace is not working again. This is very frustrating for both the technician and the customer, especially if he shows up for the 2nd time to find the furnace is still working just fine. We have found under these circumstances that the furnace control board is more than likely the issue. The picture above shows what appears to be a perfectly good control board.

Furnace Control Board under.

Furnace Control Board under.

Its after you flip the board over and inspect it that you will see a hot spot on the board. Its hot spots like the one above that will cause intermittent issues with the furnace operation. Sometimes the furnace works great .. other times it short cycles and blows cold air. These issues will get gradually worse over time. Simply turning the board over can save a technician a lot of time.

The hard thing to overcome for a technician is being 100% confident that this is the issue with the furnace, after all it is a expensive repair. But in almost every case that we have changed the control board under these circumstances the erratic operation went away. And if you do not change the control board you may end up with a possible fire hazard as shown above.

Heating And Cooling Skagit County

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler, Ductless, Mini-Split or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

New Product EMME

I was recently introduced to a product that I think will be very useful to my customers, especially my customers that want to monitor not only their heat/cooling system but also every appliance in their home from anywhere … ANYWHERE. This product is very easy to use and for what it does fairly inexpensive. EMME is not just a fancy thermostat… you need to check out their web site.

emme

emme

I’m dieing to install this product in someones home or business, for a limited time I will install this product virtually at my cost just to see how it works and get feed back and I am willing to give a 30 day trial. If you do not like the product I will give your money back.

Give me a call if interested.

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.