Questions to ask your HVAC contractor

Before you hire a heating or air conditioning contractor, you need to know how they are going to do the work. Even if you don’t know anything about HVAC, you should be able to get a good idea of their work ethos with these questions.

1. How are you going to size my HVAC equipment?

Getting the right-sized equipment for your house and your needs is very important for efficiency and energy use. Why get a bigger and more expensive size HVAC equipment, when a smaller and less expensive one will do?

When it comes to an HVAC equipment, bigger is not better. If it is bigger, it will turn on and off frequently. This will significantly lower the life of the equipment.

One of ways to do the sizing of a furnace or air conditioner is by Manual J which is the protocol that is used to determine how much heating/cooling a home needs to stay cool and dry in the summer and warm in the winter.

2. How do you keep up-to-date on the current regulations?

The Department of Energy creates and revises its energy efficiency standards and other regulations. It is important for the HVAC contractor to stay on top of these regulations so your equipment and the installation meet those regulations. In extreme cases, it may be harder to sell your home unless the installations are up to code and it could run you thousands of dollars to bring a bad installation to code.

3. Who is going to do the work?

If the contractor is going to do the work, then he is going to do the best work he can. If he is going to hire other people to do the work, then the quality of the work will depend on the expertise of those workers.

4. If you are going to hire others to do the work, how are they paid? Hourly or by the job?

If the hired workers are paid by the job, they will try to finish the job ASAP to get to the next job. This could result in the job being rushed and the quality of the work could suffer.

5. What kinds of materials will you be using for the duct work? Will you be doing any custom fabrication for the furnace?

Many contractors use wire flex pipe. The advantage is that they are made of plastic and fairly inexpensive. Unfortunately these pipes are generally not installed correctly. Also, rodents could chew on these pipes!

Remember that you have an already existing furnace, then the HVAC contractor should do custom fabrication to ensure proper air flow without any leaks.

6. Are you going to look at the whole house for inefficiencies, determine the size of the equipment needed, installation, etc. or are you just going to sell me the equipment?

Does the contractor want to sell you a metal box aka furnace? If your house wasn’t getting heated or cooled properly because of a leaky duct, replacing the equipment isn’t going to solve the problem. So it is important for the contractor to evaluate the system you have in place instead of simply installing new equipment.

7. How are you going to determine that the system is running to its full capacity?

Your HVAC contractor should have a process in place where they show you how well the system is working.

8. Are you going to get the permit?

Any time you replace your furnace, the state requires you to get a permit. And it is the contractor’s responsibility to get the permit. The contractor is responsible to know the rules. A permit ensures the minimum requirement for the work is met.

9. Will you teach me how to do basic maintenance on the equipment?

Whether it is changing the filters or looking for issues, the contractor should give you instructions on how best to take care of your heating or air conditioning installation.

10. Are you and/or your company licensed and insured to work in my state/city?

Yes, there are companies and individuals out there who are not licensed to do any heater or air conditioner installations, but routinely do it. This puts you, your home and your family at risk for possible gas leaks, fires or pushing contaminated air into the house. Always ask to see your HVAC contractor’s license and liability and check their validity on your state government website.

RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and has provided expert furnace and air conditioning repair and installation to the Bay Area with integrity for over 20 years. Call us today at (650) 575-3915. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs.

Duct work

The basics of an HVAC system

There are 3 main factors that go into determining if your furnace will work at its peak efficiency. They are:

1. The furnace itself
2. The duct work
3. The installation

If any of these has a problem, you will know that your furnace/air conditioner is not working to its full capacity. This blog post will deal with the least sexy part of this sytem: the duct work.

The job of duct work is to distribute hot/cold air all through the house equitably. When the duct work is installed properly, the furnace or AC keeps all rooms in the house at a comfortable temperature.

An improperly installed duct system would render your home uncomfortable even if the furnace or the air conditioner is sized correctly for your home and functioning properly.

This is analogous to buying a Mercedes-Benz S-class with tires and inner tubes from the 1970s. Sure, the automobile is high end, but without good tires, you are not going to get the pleasure or the comfort of driving such a exclusive vehicle.

Improperly designed or installed duct work lowers the efficiency of the equipment. If there is a leak in the duct work, your energy bills will be higher even though you may have bought an energy-efficient furnace/AC. The same is true if the duct work is not insulated.

Is your furnace is working to its full capacity?

When you buy a furnace, the equipment comes with the specifications that tells you the temperature rise of the equipment. To see if your furnace is working to its full capacity, turn up the thermostat to 5 degrees over the ambient temperature. This should turn the furnace on.

After about 15 minutes, check the temperature in the register closest to the furnace. You can use a meat thermometer for this. Then check the temperature in the return air.

The temperature difference between the two should be within the range specified in the factory specifications for temperature rise.

If it is not within this range, check the furnace filter. If it is dirty, replace it. Next, make sure that the supply and return registers are not closed or obstructed in any way.

If both these are ok, then it is time to call your HVAC specialist.

RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and provided expert furnace and air conditioning repair and installation to the Bay Area with integrity for over 20 years. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs.Call us today at (650) 575-3915.

Prep your AC for the summer

Check if your AC works before the summer season hits

Since the weather is still fairly cool, you may not think that it is time to worry about AC just yet. This is precisely the time you should!

It is important to make sure that your AC is working well before the summer’s hot days are upon us.

As a homeowner, prepare your AC for the summer months by first testing it yourself. If you are lucky, your equipment may have weathered the winter just fine.

Follow the 4 steps below to check if your AC is ready for the summer.

1. Physical inspection

This involves physically looking at the AC equipment and clearing the dust, leaves and other debris around it. Clear out cobwebs and dirt from around it. You may also use your hose to give the equipment to clean the exterior of the AC. Check for any missing panels.

Change your air conditioner’s filter at the beginning of the season.

2. Turn system on

Before you turn the AC on, visually ensure that the electrical wiring is not damaged.

Turn the AC on. If it starts, hooray! If not, check to see if the equipment is plugged in!! The air conditioner’s plug could have gotten accidentally dislodged from the outlet.

Make sure all the the circuit breakers and fuses are in place and turned on.

Also, set the thermostat to ‘cool’ and make sure that the thermostat is working properly.

3. Check the ducts

Air conditioning ducts carry the cool air from the AC to all the rooms. Ducts are hidden from view. The way to check the ducts is to find out if the air is coming out of all the registers in the house. Initially the air may not be cool and that is ok. At this point, we are just checking to see if the air is coming out of all the registers in the house. If it is, then the ducts are working well.

If the air doesn’t come out the register with the same force as in the other registers, then we may have an issue with the ducts. Call your AC contractor.

4. Check the temperature

The last step is make sure that the AC is actually pushing cool air. You can use a regular meat thermometer for this.

After 30 minutes of running the AC, the temperature of the air being pushed at each of the registers should be 55 degrees. If it is not, then your AC may be low on freon or there may be some other issue with the AC.

Summer days will be here soon enough. Make sure you are ready for them with a well-maintained and efficient air conditioning system.

RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and has served the Bay Area with heating and air conditioning expertise for over 20 years. Call us at (650) 575-3915 if you need any help getting your AC ready for the summer. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs.

Filters & Allergies

Would you like to make sure that your home is a safe haven from allergies?

Often people buy filters for their heating and air conditioning installations but then are disappointed when their allergy symptoms don’t improve. In fact, having an air filter is just one of many things that need to be done to make your home safe from allergens.

When you call us to request changing your air filter, we first ask about the sensitivities you have. Are you allergic to mold, dust, pollen? We can’t control the outside, but we can certainly make sure that the air you breathe inside your house is keeping you comfortable.

Then we test the house for a variety of issues. We measure the rate of air changes per hour. The standard is 3-5. If it is 5 or more, then that means that there is air leakage into the home. The air is most likely coming in from either the attic or the crawl space.

Depending on how many symptoms you want to tackle, we can recommend the best air filter for your needs. Filters have merv ratings. The higher the number, the better the filter. Merv ratings go from 1 to 16.

We recommend an IQAir Perfect 16 filter for homeowners who want their air to be as clean as possible. These filters have a merv rating of 16. When we install this filter, we just don’t tell you how this filter is operating; we show you. We take air quality readings before and after we put the filters in.

When you use a cheaper air filter with a merv rating of 2 and under, you are helping protect the furnace but not doing very much to protect your health.

Have any questions about filters? RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and has served the Bay Area with heating and air conditioning expertise for over 20 years. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs. Give us a call at (650) 575-3915 and let us help you.

Is a closed bedroom door a health hazard?

Do you sleep with the doors closed? Does your furnace run at night?

Today’s furnace fans are strong and efficient in pushing large volumes of air through the duct and into your bedroom. When so much air is pushed into a bedroom with its doors closed, the pressure in the room builds. Air trapped in such a pressurized room doesn’t stay put and will try to escape.

When that air escapes, new air will be drawn to replace it. This air will be pulled from the path of least resistance. Cracks in the furnace’s ducts, furnace flue, chimney, all make it easy for new air to be pulled in to replace the lost air.

Since this new air is not heated, it results in cooling of the room thereby increasing your utility bills. If this air is pulled from the chimney flue, then you are effectively moving air from the outside into your home. This can increase humidity and bring allergens & pollutants into your living space. Increased humidity could create a conducive environment for molds. All this would make for an uncomfortable home.

If there are cracks in your duct or leaks in your recessed light fixtures, air could be pulled from those areas as well. This means that the new air might be pulled from the attic where there is insulation. Insulation contains fiberglass. In this case, your furnace could be pumping minute particles of fiberglass into your bedroom. This can be hard on infants, small children and older people. Over time this could result in respiratory issues.

The first cigarette doesn’t kill you, but the cumulative effects of smoking over a period of time will seriously injure your health. Similarly, sleeping in a room with something other than clean air being pumped into it will compromise your respiratory system over time.
A simple solution is to not sleep with the rooms closed. Sleep with door or windows open. If safety or weather reasons stop you from keeping your windows open, then keep your bedroom door ajar. For a more expensive solution, put a return air in each room.

How can you tell if your furnace has this problem?

The first thing that people living in the home with a heating issue notice is the smell. You may not be able to say what it is, but you will know that the smell is different and you may not like it.

There can be other tell-tale signs of a furnace issue. Do you notice dust after the cleaning person has done his/her job? Is there uneven heating in your home? You may feel that something has changed in your home resulting in a change in the environment, but you may not be able to pinpoint the issue.

To get ahead of any such heating issues, do an inspection every 5 years of your furnace and duct work. During these inspections, we also take care of any issues with rodents, water damage, leakage, etc. If you have recently done any modifications to your home that involved heating, insulation or related items, let us ensure that everything is still working correctly.

RC Mechanical is based in Redwood City, CA. Call us today at (650) 575-3915 for a whole house inspection. We have been providing heating and air conditioning expertise to the Bay Area for over 20 years. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs.