Seasonal Tips
Seasonal Tips
These tips are especially valuable for homes and businesses in the greater St. Cloud area, including Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Waite Park, St. Joseph, St. Stephen, Rice, Foley, Avon, Cold Spring, and Richmond.
Summer
Read on to discover how you can help save energy and reduce costs during summer’s cooling season.
• Avoid using clothes dryers or cooking during the hottest part of the day. If you do need to cook, use pressure cookers, small electric pans, and microwave ovens whenever possible. Using these appliances can save energy by significantly reducing cooking time and producing less heat than traditional ovens.
• Remember to close window shades and blinds to block direct sunlight. Installing white window shades, drapes, or blinds can also help to reflect heat away from the house.
• Use a programmable thermostat to automatically adjust the temperature at night or when the home is unoccupied. Also, don’t set the thermostat at a cooler than normal setting because this will not cool the house any faster.
• Turn off the air conditioner when you are away from home for more than four hours.
• Maintenance of your home’s cooling system is important. A couple of things you can do include changing the furnace filter once a month and keeping the outside condenser unit free of leaves and debris. You should also have your air conditioner checked, cleaned and tuned every two years.
• Plant trees or shrubs around the air conditioning unit to provide shade.
• Use portable and ceiling fans to cool with circulation and ventilation and spread cooled air more effectively.
• Turn off kitchen, bath, and other ventilation fans when you are done using them because these fans can pull out cooled air.
• A couple of other things you can do during the summer months include minimizing hot water use because it produces heat and humidity, limit the use of a humidifier when your central air conditioning is on, and plant deciduous trees around your house to provide shade from the summer sun.
• Caulk, seal, and add weather stripping to all seams, cracks and openings to the outside to prevent warm air from leaking into your home.
• If you are able to, close unoccupied rooms that are isolated from the rest of the house and reduce cooled airflow to those rooms by adjusting the registers.
Fall
• Fall is a time to schedule a maintenance visit for your heating system. This will help you avoid an emergency when the temperatures really drop in the winter. Precise offers a scheduled fall and spring maintenance program, where we call you to let you know when it is time for a unit cleaning and check-up.
• When it comes to your air conditioning unit, don’t place a cover over the system during fall or winter. Air conditioners are designed to handle all weather conditions and covering the unit may cause condensation and result in damage.
• Remove fallen leaves and debris from around your air conditioning unit.
Winter
The following are some tips to maintain your heating system and improve energy efficiency during the cold winter months.
• Replace your furnace’s air filter before each heating season. A dirty filter will reduce airflow, making your system work harder to deliver air to the registers. You may even consider changing it every month.
• Cover the filter slot with a piece of wide tape to keep air from “sneaking” around the edges and not passing through the filter.
• Keep snow and debris away from your heat pump unit and outdoor venting for gas and oil heating systems.
• Install a humidifier to help control dry air and make you feel warmer.
• Use a programmable thermostat. Program it to cut back on use when you are sleeping or away.
• Don’t block or close registers. Keeping registers open and clear of blockages can make your home comfortable and help the air circulate throughout your house.
• If your furnace is more than 15 years old, consider ENERGY STAR® qualified equipment to help save on energy bills. New equipment has advanced technology to deliver a higher efficiency.
• Call a heating contractor to service your system. It is good to have a service technician look at your heating system to make sure that it is running properly to keep you warm without adding unnecessary costs. Also have your duct system checked.
Spring
• Spring is the best time for you to schedule a maintenance visit to improve the efficiency of your air conditioning system.
• Plant trees or shrubs around the air conditioning unit to provide shade.
• Design a plan and plant trees that will provide shade in the summer and wind breaks in the winter for your house.
• Schedule your check-up in spring helps you to avoid emergencies when the weather becomes hot and muggy in the summer. Precise offers a scheduled fall and spring maintenance program, where we call you to let you know when it is time for a unit cleaning and check-up.
Vacations
• Remember to set your thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter. Doing this will help you to save money while you are on vacation.
Unique Terminology
HVAC (Heating, ventilating & Air conditioning)
IAQ (Indoor air quality)
CFM (Cubic feet per minute)
Condensing unit (Outdoor portion of the air conditioning system)
Evaporator or A-Coil (Indoor part of an air conditioning system)
Line set (Piping between the indoor & outdoor unit)
Heat pumps (System that can provide both heating and cooling)
SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio)
EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio)
ERV (Energy recovery ventilator)
HRV (Heat Recovery ventilator)
Dual Fuel (Two source of heat)
Plenum Heater (Electric heater that goes into the duct work to provide heat)
NATE Certified (North American Technician Excellence) To be NATE certified, technicians need to pass tests in the different areas (Air conditioning, Heat Pumps, Gas furnaces, Boilers, Etc).
Refrigerant (Commonly called Freon)
