Despite its high cost, we carry insurance and bonding to protect our company and you, the home owner. Washington State Labor and Industries has a web site that allows you to check out a contractor to make sure that he is properly licensed.

That address is https://fortress.wa.gov/lni/bbip/Search.aspx.

For the last several years we have changed to all steel piping with fibered mastic to seal all joints. Duct tape is not used anymore since it just falls off in time. We then wrap the ducting with 3 “foil back insulation sealed at all foil back joints with metal tape. This seems to keep the rodents at bay.

We believe the health issue rodents present is the most important consideration. One should consider the risk of disease from rodents gaining entry, defecating and sometime dying in unprotected duct systems. I can’t tell you how many times we have removed rodents from flex duct systems in crawl spaces. We take this great heath risk very seriously.

We are very proud of the way we install ducted systems and expect the system to last the lifetime of the building.

Thus we suggest that ducting be the priority.

We propose to take out the flexible pipe and replace with rigid steel piping. We will also make any duct design changes necessary for proper air flow.

All old insulation will be taken out and disposed of.  Then all joints will be sealed with a fibered mastic and all ducting to be wrapped with 3 inch foil back insulation.

Upgrading to steel piping can result in up to 50% savings in your heat bill. Give us a call to talk about your options!

Clean filters will help your A/C work more efficiently; dirty filters will break your A/C. When it’s 95″ outside your A/C will not keep the inside as cool as you would like - it will feel “warmer”.

Air conditioning will not work with windows and doors open. The air conditioner is not designed to cool your space down to 66′. (Minimum set point at federal buildings is 74″. Most commercial buildings should be set at 74′ to 76′.)

In commercial buildings, if you leave the air conditioner on overnight (at a very low temperature setting), it will freeze up and not cool at all.

By turning the thermostat way down, the A/C system will be over-worked and possibly will freeze up and not cool at all.

Maybe I can make my point by looking at an appliance that we use daily, the refrigerator, as an example. Ask yourself - would you open the refrigerator to help cool off the food? No, that would be crazy, right? It is just as crazy to open windows and doors to cool off an air conditioned building. lf you want the windows and doors open then turn off the A/C.

Some days, it may be preferred to have doors and windows open, over operating the A/C. lt’s your choice. Please print this and post it by the thermostat so others can refer to this.

Best wishes,
Dan

Note: lf your A/C is frozen up, please turn the system OFF. This will allow the unit to defrost {melt ice that’s formed in the system.) lt will take several hours to defrost a frozen air conditioner. After waiting several hours, turn it back on at the thermostat. lt will work after defrost is complete.

When you’re in the market for complex equipment, such as furnaces, heat pumps, gas fireplaces, on-demand water heaters, or any other appliance that requires complex repairs, does it matter who you buy from?

Here are some questions to consider, to determine who you should buy from:

• Will the seller fix what they have sold you?
• Do they have a service staff or do they outsource?
• What is their availability?
• When will they fix it?
• How long of a wait is expected when a service call comes in?
• Will you be required to bring in the appliance to the store to be fixed?

If you buy a product that can’t be fixed you have wasted your money!

When our service technicians knock on your door, many costs have been incurred just to get him there, ready to do the job. Here are some of them:

As you can see there are wide variety of expenses that factor into our hourly rate. However. all of these expenses are incurred to make sure that we only have the highest quality service technicians doing the highest quality of work.

First of all a clean filter and clean indoor and outdoor unit is the most efficient heat pump. And like a car in that it needs yearly maintenance. In other words if you take care of the heat pump it will take care of you. Big setbacks in night time temperature will actually cost you money because the backup system will need to come on to help the heat pump raise the temperature in the house.

If the heats pump (outdoor unit) is running 24/7 on very cold days that’s good. The more it runs the more money it saves you. When it is cold outside the heat pump will run most of the time. This is by design. If you like a cold house at night we suggest that you close off the registers in your bedroom and close the doors and let the rest of the house remain warm.

You get $2.00 to $3.50 of heat for every dollar you spend on electricity to run the heat pump. You get $1.00 to 1.00 for the electric backup system. (Also called emergency heat)

The air handler has a back up heater that comes on when the heat pump has trouble bringing the house up to temperature or when heating up a cold house.

When it gets below 38 degrees outside the backup heat may need to come on to help heat the house. The heat pump has a defrost cycle that reverses the flow of refrigerant so that hot gas goes through the outdoor unit and defrosts the ice buildup. If you see a steam cloud, don’t to be alarmed.

Heat pumps work great at maintaining the temperature in your house but take a long time to heat up a cold house. We suggest that you maintain the temperature at one setting day and night. It’s the most efficient way to work a heat pump. If you want a night set back we suggest not more than a 5 degree setback.

The register temperature will seem low but will heat the house at whatever reasonable temperature needed.

When hot air is let into a room the air conditioning unit must work harder to cool the rooms increasing temperature. When a door is opened at an air conditioned building the cool air flows out since it is heavier than warm air. Imagine it as a pool of water lying on the floor, with the door open it just flows out of the building.

Some may say, “Well, I just want a little fresh air in my office.” That’s a valid point that air conditioning manufacturers have thought of and ingeniously provided.  There are fresh air inlets in the HVAC equipment to introduce fresh, filtered air into our rooms and buildings. So go ahead and breathe easy!

One more way to look at this concept is to visualize a refrigerator.  To keep everything cool the door must be shut, not open.  When the refrigerator door is left open, energy and ultimately your money is wasted.

It is the same with air conditioning in our homes and offices.  When doors and windows are left open your air conditioner is less efficient. My tip to stay cool and save money this summer is this: keep your door and windows closed!

We have a small electric boiler that will give you a choice of what fuel you want to use. At this time electric is much less expensive than oil or propane.

I have sent you a brochure on this exciting new product and will look forward to getting together with you to see if this will help you take some of the pain out of your heating bills