Tag Archive for thermostat

Kate Miller | December 24, 2012
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Happy Holidays from 24 Hour Heating and Cooling News!

As the administrating author at 24 Hour Heating and Cooling News, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our readers a Happy Holidays and a Merry New Year! This is the time of year when we keep our loved ones close, but this holiday season, you don’t want the reason for keeping the family close to be that the furnace has broken down. Luckily, there are a few steps you can take to get the furnace going should it breakdown during this year’s celebrations.

Four Tips to Restart a Broken Down Furnace

  • Turn it “Off” and “On”- Whenever you have a problem with a computer or some other electronic, the first advice you will always hear is to “turn it off and turn it back on.” Many times this is enough to reset the device and get things working once more. The same goes for your furnace. Go down to the furnace and flip the switch or find the furnace breaker and do the same. Many times this is enough to give the furnace a chance to reset and restart. Read more
Category: Furnace, Heating, Helpful Tips, Maintenance, Repair | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | September 21, 2012
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Zoning the Home to Improve Comfort and Efficiency

Do you ever feel like you’re constantly adjusting the thermostat in your stock photo courtesy of digitalart at freedigitalphotos.nethouse because when one room is a comfortable temperature, another will be too warm or too cool? If you have this problem in your home, it can probably be traced to your house’s design and construction. If your home has more than one story, warm air will naturally rise into upstairs areas, making it perpetually cooler downstairs. If you have rooms with lots of large windows, they’re likely to receive more heat from the sun than rooms with smaller windows, just as rooms with windows that face sun ward will be hotter than rooms whose windows don’t have direct sun exposure. Your thermostat is only able to measure the temperature in the room in which it’s installed, but is tasked with controlling the HVAC system for the entire house, it’s inevitable that some rooms are going to get more cooling or more heating than they actually need. Read more

Category: Air Conditioning, Cooling, Furnace, Heating | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | July 16, 2012
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Wi-Fi Thermostats Mobilize HVAC Control

Controlling the heating and cooling systems in your home has always been pretty basic. All you had to know was that the up arrow would increase the temperature and the down arrow would decrease the temperature. These days there is so much more to thermostats than you may know.

The movement towards going green has sparked interest in cheap ways to make the HVAC system more energy efficient. Programmable thermostats were created with this goal in mind, but they weren’t very user friendly. In fact, many homeowners that invest the extra money in a programmable thermostat never actually program the unit to achieve those savings. The design of these old programmable thermostats was difficult to use and therefore people didn’t use them properly. Nowadays we have Wi-Fi and touchscreen and it seems like every major manufacturer is now putting out their version of a Wi-Fi enabled thermostat. Read more

Category: Air Conditioning, Go Green and Energy Efficiency, Heating, Money Saving | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | April 13, 2012
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Reinventing the Thermostat

Are you still using an ancient dial thermostat to control the temperature in your home? Do you have a programmable thermostat but simply cannot figure out how to adjust the settings? Do you want to save money on your energy bills without having to constantly adjust the thermostat? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are not alone, but unfortunately, most of the thermostat technology available on the market today will not make saving energy any easier. However, there is a new product on the market that may change the way we adjust the temperature in our homes, and it’s called the Nest thermostat.

What is the Nest?

The creators of the Nest have broken the traditional mold of the programmable thermostat and created a unit that can learn from the way you use it and intuitively adjust temperatures to maximize comfort and savings. Simply install the thermostat and adjust the temperature to your desired levels throughout the day for about a week. After three days the thermostat already begins to learn your schedule and your preferences, and will begin to automatically adjust the temperature for you. After that first week, you will rarely if ever have to mess with the thermostat. Read more

Category: Air Conditioning, Go Green and Energy Efficiency, Heating, Helpful Tips, Money Saving | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | March 5, 2012
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Thermostat Problems: Setting the Differential

Have you ever felt like the temperature the thermostat was reading wasn’t the actual temperature that it was in the home? Many homeowners will find that the temperature in their home fluctuates between uncomfortably hot to uncomfortably cold as the furnace or air conditioner cycles on and off. This could be caused by a number of problems, but for many, the issue can be traced back to the thermostat. Either the thermostat is placed in an area of the home that doesn’t represent the most accurate temperature for the home overall, or the differential is set inappropriately.

Thermostat in the Wrong Place

If the thermostat is exposed to some other factor that can affect the way it reads the temperature it could cause the thermostat to turn off the heating and cooling systems inaccurately. Direct sunlight, being installed on an exterior wall or being placed too close to a supply vent can all affect the way your thermostat controls the heating and cooling units. Check the position of your thermostat and if you feel it is being exposed to any factors that can add extra heat or cold to the thermostat, have the unit moved! Read more

Category: Air Conditioning, Furnace, Heating | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | December 28, 2011
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Don’t Turn Off the Furnace!

As you head out the door this holiday season to visit family and friends for an extended period of time, there is one crucial mistake that you must not make. Do not turn off the furnace. Many homeowners are looking for any way to save money, and you may assume that since no one will be home to need the comfort of the furnace, it won’t matter if it is shut down for a few days. However, you would be wrong! Leaving the furnace off during winter puts your home at serious risk for water damage, but it can be prevented!

How Your Pipes Will Freeze

When the furnace is turned off completely, the home has no protection against the elements. All you need is one extra chilly night to surround your home and suddenly you will have frozen pipes around the house. Within hours the temperature will begin to warm as the sun rises and those pipes will begin to thaw. The ice will have expanded the pipe and could have caused cracks that compromised the integrity of the pipe. As it thaws, water will begin to force its way through and the pressure may cause the pipe to burst! Read more

Category: Boiler, Furnace, Heating, Home Services, Insulation, Money Saving, Plumbing, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | December 26, 2011
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A Burn Free Winter: Water Heater Safety

Having small children in the home highlights the many hazards that stand in the way of their safety. We lock up cabinets that house dangerous chemicals and cover sockets, but have you taken the necessary steps to prevent your children from experiencing a scalding burn? As our children age, they begin to take showers on their own and turn on and off the water when washing their hands. One wrong turn and your child could set the water so hot that it literally burns their skin. What may be hot water to your skin can spell disaster for your child, but luckily there is a simple way to childproof the water in your home as well!

Set Back that Tank!

The problem lies in the settings on your hot water tank’s thermostat. Many homeowners have never even touched this device and probably have no idea that there are different temperatures that you could set your tank at. When the tank is set at or above 150 degrees, it takes about 2 seconds to experience a scalding burn. No one needs the tank set the high, and odds are if you are tank is set at this point, you are also overpaying on your monthly energy bills. Set the tank back to 120 degrees and you will be surprised at the lack of difference it makes in your morning showers. Read more

Category: Furnace, Heating, Hot Water Tank, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Kate Miller | November 21, 2011
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Keeping Your Home Safe and Comfortable All Winter

There are a few things that homeowners can do to help keep their furnace running properly for the upcoming winter season. There is nothing more inconvenient than having to schedule an emergency service in the middle of the holiday season. With all of the guests and party planning, who has time to be without heat? No one does, so it is best to take this time to get the furnace and the other protective appliances in your home working properly.

Change Batteries

One thing you can do is change the batteries in the thermostat twice a year. Once prior to the heating season and again prior to the cooling season this will help to ensure that your thermostat will read the proper temperature in your home and operate the equipment properly when needed. As long as you’re changing batteries, this would be a great time to go ahead and change the batteries in your smoke detectors and co detectors. Don’t wait for the annoying beeping to be set off by a dead battery to act, and change all of these batteries now. Read more

Category: Air Quality, Furnace, Heating, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Raymond S- HVAC Specialist | July 7, 2011
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Thermostats: Wired or Wireless

It’s rare but it happens. One day you’re HVAC system starts working intermittently, or it just quits working all together. Your blower motor might start running when the system is turned off or not come on one time and then work perfectly the next. These are symptoms of a bad thermostat or a short in the thermostat wiring.

Complicated and Costly

The reason I bring up this topic is because today I ran into this very problem. Diagnosing the problem when fairly quick, but the repair was a head scratcher. The reason this repair was so difficult was because the thermostat was located on the second floor and the furnace was in the basement. This meant I would have to run a new thermostat wire through ceilings and floors in order to get to the furnace. This would require cutting access holes and after a lengthy discussion with the homeowner about these facts, he decided to go with the easiest and cheapest option of installing a wireless thermostat. Read more

Category: Air Conditioning, Heating, Helpful Tips | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Raymond S- HVAC Specialist | May 2, 2011
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Do It Yourself Thermostat Installation

Looking for a “do-it-yourself” project that can save you money on your energy bills? Consider upgrading your thermostat to a digital programmable unit, and save even more by getting the job done on your own. This project does require a bit more skill that your average “do-it-yourselfer” may not have, so always keep a pro in mind in case you need some help. But, I have got a few tips that could simplify the process and save you hundreds of dollars in additional costs.

Read the Instructions

First and foremost read the instructions that come with the new thermostat. If the instructions seem too difficult for you to follow, you can write down each step in language that you can under stand. It would be like translating from tech terms to your language. It may sound silly, but it does help you to understand what you’re doing a little better. If the directions are beyond your comprehension or if you already feel overwhelmed or confused, stop and call a professional before going any further! The last thing you want to do is destroy your new thermostat before you ever get to take advantage of its many benefits. Read more

Category: Helpful Tips, Home Improvements, Remodeling, Safety | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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