DB Heating & Cooling, Inc. Blog : Archive for January, 2015

Why Commercial Building Controls Require a Specialist

Thursday, January 29th, 2015

When any part of your commercial property’s HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system is not operating properly, it may be because of an error in the commercial control system. Commercial control systems are either electric, electronic, or pneumatic, but any type serves the same function: to control every component of the HVAC system associated with the air handler automatically. Commercial control systems are set up to monitor a number of processes and settings, such as the temperature of the supply and return air, the temperature indoors and outdoors, the humidity in the building, and the air pressure through the vents.

These control systems can help an expert to adjust the supply fan in the ducts, the valves of a hot- or chilled-water system, dampers, or electric heating strips. When one of these doesn’t seem to be working as needed, you may consider attempting to access the controls and make adjustments yourself. However, it’s important that you only allow a professional deal with these systems. This means making sure that your technician is a commercial specialist with experience installing and adjusting large commercial building controls.

There are several reasons that an expert is the best person for the job. For one, commercial building controls can be complicated to understand, and an exclusively residential technician is not familiar with many of the settings and setpoints managed in the control panel. In fact, there may be hundreds of different settings for any single control panel. It’s also best to have a technician who has some preliminary knowledge of the fault codes that may come up upon troubleshooting the system, and who has access to a fault code guidebook, although the malfunctioning part may require a lot of background knowledge to diagnose as well.

Trained technicians take care in replacing sensors, controllers, and safety switches, as they know that the replacement piece can suffer damage from improper handling. They also know the different precautions to take when working with electronic vs. pneumatic systems, for example, and what safety procedures to taking when working with electrical equipment.

The technicians at DB Heating & Cooling are specialists trained in handling commercial HVAC systems including commercial building controls in Bergen County. Call us today. 

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Commercial Services | Comments Off on Why Commercial Building Controls Require a Specialist

How a Humidifier May Benefit You

Thursday, January 22nd, 2015

We are at the coldest part of the year in Fair Lawn, and you have probably been using your heating system with regularity for some time. Heat can be hard on you and your home, especially if you use a forced air system. One way to add needed moisture back into your home in Fair Lawn during the winter is with a whole-home humidifier.

Why Use a Whole-Home Humidifier?

We all know that too much humidity makes for discomfort, promotes mold and mildew growth and makes everything sticky. Too little humidity also brings its fair share of problems. One such problem is that wood products need humidity; without it, wood becomes too dry and brittle and as a result, can splinter, shrink and break easily. This includes wood trim, wood furniture, wood floors and even walls. A second problem is maintaining heat in the air. Humidity holds heat, which is why excess humidity feels so uncomfortable. When there is too little moisture in the air, it can feel colder inside your home than it is simply because there’s not enough moisture in the air to maintain the heat level. A third set of problems that can develop from a lack of moisture in your home relates to personal health issues. When there isn’t enough moisture in the air, your mucous membranes, including your eyes, nose and throat, can become dry and irritated; this can hamper your ability to stave off infection during the winter months. Your skin can also dry, becoming itchy and uncomfortable. Lastly, viruses and bacteria pass more easily in a dry atmosphere, making it easier to become ill.

How Does a Whole-Home Humidifier Work?

A whole-home humidifier becomes a part of your heating system so it adds moisture seamlessly. You can set the humidity level on your thermostat or on a separate humidistat and the humidifier will do the rest.

If you are starting to see the effects of low humidity in your home, it may be time to consider the installation of a humidifier.

Call the experts at DB Heating & Cooling today and schedule an appointment with one of our indoor air quality specialists.

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Indoor Air Quality | Comments Off on How a Humidifier May Benefit You

Can a Furnace Be Used for Ductless Heating?

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

Ductless heating and cooling has become very popular over recent years, which isn’t surprising as these systems have a number of benefits you can’t get with other types of HVAC systems. However, they do have their limitations, and one limitation is that a ductless system cannot provide heating via a furnace. But don’t be so quick to toss that furnace out! Why? Because an LG ductless mini-split system can act as a back-up heating system for your Bergen County, NJ home.

How Ductless Heating Works

Ductless systems provide heat by utilizing heat pump technology. What this means is that a ductless heating system has a component known as a reversing valve that allows the system to switch between heating and cooling capability. The system is set-up the same as a ductless air conditioning system: an outdoor unit containing the compressor and condenser connects directly to indoor blowers (up to 4) via a conduit placed in an exterior wall. The blowers contain the other necessary parts for heating and cooling, including a fan, coils and a small air filter. Everything needed to heat and cool your home is contained in these components, which is why it isn’t necessary to have ductwork.

Benefits of a Ductless Heating System

There are multiple benefits to be gained from a ductless heating system:

  • Great energy efficiency – heat pumps do not use fossil fuels and on average use about 25% of the electricity of a whole-home air conditioning system to operate, making them very energy efficient.
  • Customized heating – the indoor blowers operate individually, allowing you to customize your home’s heating, very similar to the way a zone control system does.
  • Long lifespan – the average lifespan for a heat pump is 20-25 years; comparatively, a combustion heating system has an average lifespan of 15-20.
  • Very versatile – not only can a ductless system work with an air-source heat pump, it can also work with a geothermal ground-source or water-source heat pump.

If a ductless heating system seems like a good fit for your home, you may want to consider the installation of an LG ductless mini-split system.

The experts at DB Heating & Cooling can help you determine if an LG ductless system is right for your living space, so call us today!

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Heat Pumps, Heating | Comments Off on Can a Furnace Be Used for Ductless Heating?

How Do Ducts Become Damaged?

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Most ductwork is hidden behind walls, attics and crawlspaces, so it can be hard to know when problems have developed. It can also lead you to wonder: how did this happen? Isn’t the ductwork protected by being inside the house? The answer to this is: not always. And while ductwork has a relatively long lifespan – an average of 30 years – this doesn’t mean it stands soundly for 30 years without any problems. So how can ductwork become damaged? Let’s take a look:

Rust/Corrosion

Most ductwork is metal, and when metal meets any kind of moisture, it can oxidize the metal, creating rust. Excess moisture can come from leaks, humidity and even rain; the problem is that once the corrosion starts, it can be very hard to stop unless it is caught quickly enough. Rust and corrosion can lead to cracks and holes, which can cause your energy bills to soar, among other problems.

Infestations

No one likes to think about critters or insects taking up residence in their ductwork, but it does happen, and fairly frequently. Mice, squirrels and raccoons love to hunker down during winter inside areas like ductwork because it’s warm and protected; insects can be worse because they’ll stay year-round. Not only are these infestations unhealthy for you, they are unhealthy for your ductwork as animals and insects create nests, which can damage the inside of your ductwork.

Collapse

Sections of ductwork can collapse, particularly if there is extensive corrosion that has destroyed the seals. Collapsed ductwork can become bent or dented, and may have to be fully replaced, depending on the level of damage it has sustained.

Damaged ductwork is faulty ductwork, and faulty ductwork isn’t good for you, your home or your heating system. If you are seeing the signs of damaged ductwork, including excess dust, dirt and moisture, strange smells and/or high energy bills, don’t wait to repair your ductwork in Oradell.

Call DB Heating & Cooling today and schedule an appointment with one of our experts.

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Energy Savings, Indoor Air Quality | Comments Off on How Do Ducts Become Damaged?

What Makes Commercial HVAC Service So Different from Residential?

Friday, January 2nd, 2015

Licensed contractors will always warn against choosing amateur for heating and air conditioning repair, maintenance, and installation, especially when it comes to commercial HVAC services. Commercial technicians are trained specifically to handle large commercial systems. Now, you may already know that a commercial heating and AC system is generally bigger than a residential unit. But besides that, what makes these systems so different? Why wouldn’t a residential technician be able to handle a commercial unit as well?

The fact is that commercial units aren’t just a little bit bigger in size; they’re much larger and far more complex. Commercial heating and air conditioning systems are designed to heat or cool spaces that have multiple stories or expansive floor plans. This means that many commercial units have a zone control system so that all of the clients, employees, and/or residents in the building can control their areas independently of the others. And while residential homes can have a zone control system installed as well, it’s certainly not as involved as a commercial HVAC system.

The control system alone needed for installing a commercial unit is quite intricate. This contains the gateway from the thermostat to the air conditioning and heating unit and all of the safety devices, zone control ports, and other electrical components involved therein. When a technician comes to service your unit, it should be simple enough to determine which switches manage which components quickly so that the necessary repairs can then be completed, but this is not an easy task for an amateur.

Someone who was never trained on complex commercial units will most likely take a longer time to perform repairs and handle maintenance as they must spend much of the visit searching for the different parts and controls and locating problem areas. And installation is quite a chore for the untrained eye since these systems are not only large and complicated, but they also are designed in a different way than the average residential unit. Residential systems may have an indoor and an outdoor unit, but a commercial system may be packaged, with all of the components, including the air handler, located outside, generally on the roof.

DB Heating & Cooling can take care of any of your professional heating and cooling needs with quality commercial HVAC services in Oradell.

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Energy Savings | Comments Off on What Makes Commercial HVAC Service So Different from Residential?

12 Grapes for 12 Months: An Unusual New Year’s Tradition

Thursday, January 1st, 2015

Across the world, many cultures have specific traditions to celebrate the transition from the old year to the new. In the U.S. and Canada, we associate New Year’s with the ball in Times Square, kissing at the stroke of midnight, resolutions, and singing “Old Lang Syne.” But for many Spanish-speaking countries, one of the key traditions has to do with eating grapes as fast as possible.

The “twelve grapes” tradition comes from Spain, where it is called las doce uvas de la suerte (“The Twelve Lucky Grapes”). To ensure good luck for the next year, people eat one green grape for each of the upcoming twelve months. However, you cannot just eat the grapes during the first day of the new year any time you feel like it. You must eat the twelve grapes starting at the first stroke of midnight on Nochevieja (“Old Night,” New Year’s Eve) as one year changes to another. And you have to keep eating: with each toll of midnight, you must eat another grape, giving you about twelve seconds to consume all of them. If you can finish all dozen grapes—you can’t still be chewing on them!—before the last bell toll fades, you will have a luck-filled new year.

Where did this tradition come from? No one is certain, although it appears to be more than a century old. One story about the Twelve Lucky Grapes is that a large crop of grapes in 1909 in Alicante, Spain led to the growers seeking out a creative way to eliminate their surplus. But recent research through old newspapers shows that perhaps the tradition goes back almost thirty years earlier to the 1880s, where eating grapes was meant to mock the upper classes who were imitating the French tradition of dining on grapes and drinking champagne on New Year’s Eve.

It can be difficult to consume grapes this fast, and the lucky grapes of New Year’s Eve have seeds in them, making the job even trickier. (Seedless grapes are not common in Spain the way they are over here.) For people to manage eating all the grapes before the last stroke of midnight requires swallowing the seeds as well and only taking a single bite of each grape.

Oh, there is one more twist to the tradition: you have to be wearing red undergarments, and they have to be given to you as a gift. The origins of this part of the tradition are even more mysterious, and it’s anybody’s guess why this started.

Whether you go for the grape challenge or find another way to ring in New Year’s, all of us at DB Heating & Cooling hope you have a great start to the year and a fruitful 2015.

Continue Reading

Tags:
Posted in Holiday | Comments Off on 12 Grapes for 12 Months: An Unusual New Year’s Tradition