Smart Thermostat Facts

I was amazed to learn that there are different types of symbiotic relationships.

There is “mutualism” where both participants in the relationship benefit.

The most common example is bees and flowers as the bees barter their pollen carrying capabilities for the flower’s nectar. Another common one is the bacteria in our digestive systems. They keep our tummies balanced in exchange for living in a bacteria-friendly environment. The other types of symbiosis seem somewhat unfair. “Commensalism” is a one-sided symbiotic relationship. “Parasitism” is where one species depends on a host. Relationships in which organisms compete for resources are called “competitive”. The worst experience in a symbiotic relationship is to be on the wrong side of one called “predation and herbivory”, where one becomes food for the other. Human relationships can be symbiotic as well. The world’s “oldest profession” can be looked at as mutually beneficial unless an angry spouse or law enforcement intervenes, then it no longer benefits anyone. My last girlfriend and I were certainly in a parasitic symbiosis as she left me broke and almost destitute. After that, I had to enter a commensal symbiotic relationship with my sister and her husband as my “host” in their spare bedroom. Symbiosis gets more complex when machines are involved, especially a home’s HVAC system. It has a bit of mutualism to it. My HVAC benefits when I keep it cleaned and maintained by a qualified HVAC technician and I benefit by having year-round comfort. There is no competitiveness between my HVAC and myself, but I will admit that it’s a bit one-sided or commensal. The only time I feel like I am again on the wrong side of a parasitic relationship is when I fail to change the filters regularly and my utility company bill begins to rise.

energy saving tips

Some folks of my age have nostalgic feelings about the 1950s.

• It was all about Rock & Roll, huge gas-guzzling cars running on cheap gas, and the emergence of color TV.

Unfortunately, many people are not so fond of the era with the signing of the Civil Rights Act still some years away. The 1850s must have felt similar, especially in the southern states where huge “antebellum” mansions overlooking plantations dotted the landscape. The “peculiar institution” of slavery was still in effect and it took a bloody civil war to end it legally, leaving many scars that reverberate to this day. Aside from the social issues, I can’t help but admire those estate houses, but I wondered about how those mansions were cooled during hot southern summers. Winter was not a problem as fireplaces kept the place warm and cozy at least for the people allowed to dwell in them. My research led me to several ways they kept cool. First, the ceilings were high so warmer air rose above the people below. Some smart builders figured out how to align the house to take advantage of the sun in the cold weather and to block it with strategically placed shade trees when it turned hot. Overhanging porches to block the sun, shutters that were opened at night, and thick insulating walls were all ways that kept the house cool in the days before HVAC and electric fans. Cupolas for upper stories were also popular. There is a chance that I will survive until the 2050s where everyone will enjoy advanced HVAC, with eco-friendly refrigerants, powered by alternate and sustainable energy sources. If my 2050 house has a porch, I’ll be happy to have an 1850s style mint julep and reminisce about the 1950s assuming I still remember anything.

 

Back to the 50s

Childhood would have been much different if not for the toys that we played with and shared with friends.

I don’t mean toys like a ball or a Barbie Doll, but rather functional toys that you could make something out of, or even learn from.

I especially liked toys that were chemical based like Play-Doh. The flour, salt, and water conglomeration was great stuff. It was first sold as a wall-paper cleaner to remove soot produced by coal-fired furnaces. As a kid’s toy, you could make it into anything your imagination conceived. Silly Putty, another fun substance, allowed you to lift images from the Sunday newspaper comics and stretch them into funny shapes. I noticed that my sister’s large dollhouse lacked authenticity because it did not have a toy central HVAC unit. None of the stores or mail-order catalogs had such a toy so I decided I would have to make a miniature HVAC system out of what was available. My furnace was an Easy-Bake-Oven powered by a light bulb. My toy “bubble gun” had a fan that I could use to blow air over ice cubes placed in a small toy sandbox bucket. It worked like a charm as the dollhouse warmed from the Easy-Bake Oven and got a blast of cool air when I turned on the fan toward the ice bucket. I even created ductwork with paper towel tubes covered by aluminum foil and patched it all together with Play-Doh. I then put some dead cockroaches in it to duplicate what our real HVAC ducts looked like at home. When my Mom saw that she immediately called our qualified HVAC technician to clean our home’s HVAC system. Soon after, she bought me some LEGO’s while she dismantled my toy HVAC system.

Commercial air conditioning

When the Ministry of Housing and Development first expressed concern about the living conditions of residents, we thought it was just another corny message. However, lately they have been sending out gazetted messages and alerts directed to landlords and developers to improve the living conditions of any rental property within the county. When property owners realized this was getting serious, they started alerting residents of upcoming renovations and maintenance plans. On my block, the biggest problem is cooling. Time and again we have had replacement and repair of cooling products all year round, handled by either a local contractor or a new contractor depending on which air conditioning provider did the installation. Because some building owners mix or interchange commercial AC and residential HVAC, there’s an urgent need to standardize the cooling tech and stabilize the utility bills that come along with proper supply of a/c service. When the announcement was made, prices of all building materials and hardware materials shot up, not forgetting fittings and quality ac service equipment like furnace filter for sale and digital thermostat.With every indoor comfort business looking to cash in on the rush, we had to figure out how to meet the upgrade standards set by the housing ministry so that all residents could get reliable HVAC technology. As the caretaker of the building, my employer tasked me with ensuring that none slips under the cracks. The inspection was due in three months’ time and we were six weeks into the renovation process. Some houses needed more work than others but we were right on schedule. I was confident we couldn’t face a fine or closure notice because we were meeting compliance standards.

Website information

I’ve been on the fence about hiring an HVAC professional to service my HVAC system for several months now.

When I moved into this house, the thought of having my HVAC system serviced was in the back of my mind.

I didn’t know anything about the HVAC equipment or when the last time it had been serviced by the previous owners. It seemed wise to have it looked at by a certified HVAC professional, but I didn’t know if it would be worth the money. I’d never seen my parent’s hire an HVAC professional before, and I was fairly certain that my dad serviced the HVAC equipment himself. I didn’t know the first thing about HVAC systems, but I considered learning. When I looked online, I read how to replace the air filter, which seemed manageable. However, the more I researched things about cleaning the condenser unit and washing the ductwork, I decided that taking care of my HVAC system seemed too big a responsibility for me. There was too much at stake! As I continued my search for the best HVAC contractor, I found a website for a company that listed all the benefits to having your HVAC system serviced biannually. The list included things like better heat and air efficiency, lower cost on repairs, and increasing the longevity of your HVAC equipment. I thought the list was really well put together, so I think I’ll end up hiring an HVAC professional from this HVAC contractor in the next few weeks.

Whole home air purification

My mother in law surprised me with a spa day for the two of us last weekend. I hadn’t been to the spa in over a year, so I was super excited that she chose me to go with her. I couldn’t wait to lay down, put my feet up, and relax for a full 90 minutes. We booked our appointments for a Saturday morning, because it was the best time for both of us. Saturday mornings were popular, because a lot of other ladies were there when we arrived. After I changed into my robe, my massage therapist came and got me. She told me that the rooms were all booked upstairs, so my appointment would be held downstairs in a spare spa room. The room was just like all the rooms upstairs, so I didn’t mind. However, 10 minutes into the massage, I could feel goosebumps forming on my skin. Because the room was downstairs, the temperature was lower. The massage therapist could sense my chill, so she put a heat pap under my neck and then turned on a portable heater. The portable heater took less than 5 minutes to warm up the small room. I was expecting it to take much longer, but I was pleasantly surprised. The massage therapist kept the portable heater running during the appointment, so the room was really warm and cozy. At one point, I was so warm and relaxed that I fell asleep. Even though the massage was great, I loved the warmth of the heater, so I bought one for my bedroom later that day. I was hopeful that the extra warmth would help me sleep better.

air quality

When I went to visit a good friend, I was introduced to something different.

When I arrived at his home, he showed me his guest bedroom and I quickly dropped my belongings.

We chatted in the living room for a bit before heading out for a night at the bars. I didn’t think much about the heat or air while we were sitting in his living room, so I obviously didn’t think much about it when we returned home later that evening. In the middle of the night, I woke up sweating and my room felt like a furnace. It felt like the air wasn’t working or the heat was turned up really high. I couldn’t find the thermostat anywhere on the walls, so I tried to ignore the heat and fall back asleep. Eventually, the heat was unbearable and I had to wake up my friend to inquire about the temperature. My friend felt really bad about the heat in my room, because he forgot to tell me about the ductless mini split system in my room. It was mounted at the top of the wall and there was a remote control that turned it on in the dresser. Once he turned on the ductless mini split system, the air started flowing through the vents. He lowered the temperature and apologized for not explaining earlier. Once the ductless mini split system was blasting cool air into my room, I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep. It would’ve been nice to know about it earlier!

a/c repair

As my husband and I were searching for a new home, there was one house that our realtor showed us that we fell in love with.

It had an open concept, big windows, and a spacious master bedroom. The only downfall to the house was the wood stove in the basement! I wouldn’t have minded the woodstove for extra heat during the winter, but it was unfortunately the only source of heat for the entire house. Neither my husband or I knew much about wood stoves, but we did know that they took a lot of work. The only way to run a wood stove was with fire, which meant we’d need a lot of wood logs to keep it running. If we didn’t use wood, we’d need to use charcoal, which would get expensive. We loved the rest of the house though, so we contacted a local HVAC professional and asked some questions about maintaining a wood stove. He told us that using a wood stove had a strong learning curve, but once we got the hang of it, keeping the fire running would come naturally. We’d have to learn how to properly cut the fire wood, how to start the fire, and how to keep the fire burning throughout the night. We’d also have to learn how to properly clean the wood stove. The HVAC professional told us that while it would take a lot more work than central heat, the wood stove produced a lot more heat. It wouldn’t take long for the warmth of the fire to be spread throughout the house. We loved the idea of more heat, but we ultimately weren’t willing to put as much work into it.

Local contractor

Our air purifier keeps us healthy in a unique way.

Most air purifiers do a typical air purification system where it uses an air filter to pick up dust particles from the air.

Typical air purifiers are basically just air filters, and I never understood the purpose of getting an air purifier when you could just get an air filter for your central air conditioner or your gas, oil, or electric furnace. I searched for a long time at several different heating and cooling businesses and at many different HVAC warehouses searching for the perfect air purifier, but I wasn’t getting very far. One day, while walking past my town’s little heating and cooling business, I looked in the window and saw an advertisement for the new UV light air purifier, and the HEPA air purifier. I ran into the store and asked the HVAC technician that worked there to show me the new UV light air purifier and the HEPA air purifiers. I looked them over and was excited by how cool these new air purifiers looked. I asked the HVAC technician to explain how they worked and how well they would purify the air in my house. I was tired of seeing air purifiers that were the same thing as an air filter but more expensive. The HVAC technician showed me how the UV light air purifier worked and I got really excited to hear how it actually cleans the air! Finally! An air purifier that could kill germs and viruses! I purchased two UV light air purifiers and walked out of that small heating and cooling business very happy.

Propane boiler

There is nothing like a good HVAC unit on a bad day.

I was having a horrible day last week.

My tire was flat, I was late to work, and my cat died. When I finally got to the heating and cooling business where I work, I found out that I had an extra long list of customers to visit that day, and many air conditioners and furnaces to fix. While I was in the shop fixing an old central air conditioner, sweat dripped from my nose and chin because it was so hot in my HVAC shop. Later that day, when I went to fix a furnace for a customer, I got cussed at and told I was the worst HVAC technician ever. Talk about a long day! I tried my best to be a good HVAC technician, and to be friendly to all my customers while helping them find out what was wrong with their furnaces and air conditioners. When I finally finished work at the heating and cooling business, I got in my car to drive back to my house. I started my car and turned on the air conditioner because it was so hot outside, but the air conditioner on my car wasn’t working! I was so tired of working on air conditioners and furnaces that I didn’t even bother looking at my car’s air conditioner, instead I just rolled down the windows and drove home. When I took my first step into my home, I was met with a gush of cool air and the comforting sound of my central air conditioner running. I was so thankful for a central air conditioner that worked!

New HVAC technology