Before you buy a house, get to know its HVAC

HVAC is not the sexiest part of a house, but it is an important to know if your furnace and AC are working well and installed correctly to keep your home comfortable for you.

If HVAC is not installed properly or not working correctly, it is going to cost you more to operate for the lifetime of the equipment. And when you are fed up with the HVAC system in your house, you will have to pay to replace it out of your pocket.

Here are a few things you should keep in mind about the HVAC before you buy a house:

1. Check to see if the HVAC is working.

Turn on the furnace and/or air conditioning and check to see if the hot/cold air is coming out. Soon you should feel a difference in the temperature in the house.

Walk into every room of the house. Each room should have the same level of comfort. There should be no temperature or comfort difference between the various areas of the home covered by the HVAC.

If this is not the case, then hire a qualified HVAC contractor to check the real issue with the HVAC system.

2. Visually inspect the HVAC unit(s).

Check the HVAC unit to see if it is clean. If there are black stains on the fiberglass, then that could be a sign of a problem (air leakage). Time to hire a heating and/or cooling contractor.

3. Utility bills

Ask the current homeowner for the utility bills. If they seem high for the house and the HVAC seems to be working, then it could be a sign that there might be a leak somewhere.

4. Check the thermostat.

Make sure that there is a programmable thermostat and know how to operate it. You should also have the manual for it. Or at least be able to find its manual online.

5. Get paperwork for a new home.

If the home is a new home, then remember to get all the paperwork that goes with the house, including installation manuals, warranties, etc. Contractor should also give you a year of warranty on labor for the unit. The parts warranties are generally from 5-10 years from the factory.

6. Hire an HVAC contractor.

If you suspect there might be a problem, hire a qualified HVAC contractor to do the checks. Since you are paying him, he will be working for your best interests.

If there is a problem, he can tell you how it should be fixed properly instead of the hired contractor from the buyer putting a band-aid on the problem. Such band-aids will not hold up beyond a few months. Then you will be left to fix all the issues.

7. Insurance

Be aware that HVAC insurance generally covers breakages and not regular maintenance.

RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and has served the Bay Area with integrity for over 20 years. If you have any questions about the HVAC of the house that you plan on buying, give us a call at (650) 575-3915. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs.

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.

Does your furnace shut off before the thermostat temperature is reached?

The Woodside house was fairly new — only about a year-and-a-half old. The homeowner was noticing that the furnace would shut off automatically before the thermostat temperature was reached. In addition, the homeowner heard gurgling noises from inside the furnace’s pipe.

Luckily, the Woodside homeowner called RC Mechanical. When Sal opened the sheetrock to investigate and cut into the furnace’s PVC flue pipe, water gushed out. This isn’t supposed to happen!

This was the problem: According to installation instructions for the furnace, the pipe should have sloped at the rate of .25” per foot back to the furnace. Instead, this home’s pipe sloped 1” per foot. This created a trap for the water to collect.

This is one of the many problems that can occur as a result of poor furnace installation. When the furnace is not installed correctly, water collects wherever it can. The furnace detects water collecting in the pipes and does a safety shut down, to avoid a dangerous buildup of pressure.

How can you tell if you have this problem with your furnace installation? If your furnace turns off prematurely before the thermostat temperature is reached, then it is time to call an expert HVAC contractor like RC Mechanical.

RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and has served the Bay Area with heating and A/C expertise for over 20 years. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their furnace and air conditioning needs. Call us today at (650) 575-3915.

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.