Very efficient air conditioning

It’s weird now that all the girls are so much older.

• There was a time when I would walk in the door to all of my daughters rushing to greet me.

I wouldn’t even have a few seconds inside the central air conditioning before the girls just swarmed me. And a better feeling would be hard to come up with. That was such a wonderful feeling and very much the opposite of what’s happening inside the central air conditioning of our home these days. Now, I’m sort of the odd man out as I’m the only guy in the place. My wife and I have three girls that are one right after the other. She and I both agreed that if we were going to have more than one child, it needed to be one after the other. So now, they are in middle school and just starting highschool for my oldest. When I walk inside that quality heating and air of my home these days, I’m in the way. Not only that buy all of my girls, my wife included, have a very different internal thermostat from me. We live in a region where we don’t need all that much help from the heat pump in the Winter. And I love it because that’s my favorite temperature spectrum of our year. But there are at least six months where I really need some cooling from the heat pump. Yet, I get overruled because it’s too much cooling. Well now that I upgraded the residential HVAC to include zone controlled HVAC, I have a thermostat of my own in both the master bedroom and the end of the house where my home office is.

Smart HVAC

It had been a really long time since my husband had bothered to ask me up to the cabin for a long weekend.

I guess that comes from the series of many previous invitations declined. I just never have liked that cabin. And for a while, it was a source of tension inside the central air conditioning of our home. Actually the lack of residential HVAC, along with many other drawbacks, was a big reason I didn’t like to go up to the cabin. This sort of broke my man’s heart because that place and space has been so incredibly important to him all his life. I think that property has been in his family now for like 4 or 5 generations. His dad would show up at school and check him out early as a surprise. They’d spend long weekends up at that cabin while his mom enjoyed so peace and quiet inside her central air conditioning. As I understand it she too preferred staying put where there was heating and cooling equipment. Well, I guess that isn’t completely fair to say because there is a wood stove that provides heating in the Winter. So when my husband asked, I studied him for a minute and there was a bit of a gleam in his eye. I agreed to go and we set the date. I was sort of hoping that he was faking me out and taking me to a cool spa or something. But as soon as we got on the road, I knew the direction I was heading and I was a bit bummed. Yet when we walked into the cabin, I couldn’t believe that it was the same place at all. The whole place had been renovated and there was even ductless heat pumps.

 

boiler installation

When you rent, it feels as though you’re simply powerless.

And I’m just sick of feeling powerless.

It’s been going on a dozen years since I graduated from college and started my career inside the zone controlled HVAC in our offices. I moved here for the job and the first apartment I had was really nice. But it was owned by the company I work for and I only got to live in it for about 3 weeks until I found a place. And I’ve been living here ever since. The fact is that I make a pretty good living compared to most people my age. I’m not getting rich but I’m certainly climbing the ladder as it were. Yet being a homeowner still feels so far out of reach. I don’t have anyone helping me when it comes to a downpayment. And the prices of homes just keep getting further out of reach. I don’t want to move to a better apartment because I’m trying to save money for a house. Yet, I hate the prospect of facing another Summer with such old and out of date residential HVAC equipment. I live in a region where the heat pump doesn’t get much demand during the Winter. But man, the Summer is a scorcher and my HVAC equipment just is no longer up to the task. I’ve called the rental office 7 times in the last calendar year because there was no air conditioning. And each time, I get the handyman coming over and putting more band-aids on the problem. They simply will not upgrade the heating and cooling equipment. I’m already dreading the fact that the heat and humidity are about to get serious in only a matter of like 5 weeks.
air cleaner

I could see it in the man’s eyes, it was just one more thing and he had a plateful already.

• But my husband isn’t the sort to complain or whine.

He simply tries to regroup and give full effort the next day no matter what’s on the schedule. Yet, I happened to be standing next to him in early March when the HVAC technician came to speak with us. The HVAC professional was actually there to do the air conditioning tune up that we have done early each Spring. By the end of February around here, you can already see the pollen covering the cars each morning. So we get the air conditioning tune up done early to beat the rush. But this time, the HVAC technician told us that the heat pump was at the end of its run. It was time to replace it and it would be wise to do that prior to Summer. The finances weren’t a problem as we started a savings account like four years ago for new heating and cooling equipment. We’re actually lucky to have been able to save for that long. But I could see in my husband’s eyes that this was the last thing he needed right now. There was a lot going on with his business and it required a lot of travel. Still, he said that he’d be in contact with the HVAC contractor soon. We had actually already done a lot of the due diligence already and new what we wanted in our new residential HVAC. So when he left a few days later, I called the HVAC contractor and got the ball rolling. I actually got the whole thing decided and paid for without him having to worry about it. He was pleasantly surprised indeed.

 

heating technology

The ductless heat pump is a wonder.

The difference is obvious but the results of working out at home have been more than I expected. I guess that weak commercial HVAC in that gym was affecting my effort as well as my comfort. For the last 4 years, I’ve had a membership to the only gym in town. Well, it’s the only gym that I can afford. There are a couple of other gyms. One is a country club situation that is way out of my league. And the other one is a bit of a muscle head situation that didn’t feel at all comfortable to me. So I had to put up with the worst when it came to heating and cooling. I can’t believe that place still has members. But they are dropping like flies apparently. A friend of mine said she’d not going back either because she can’t face another Summer inside that gym without any decent air conditioning. She also told me that the place is like a ghost town now. And all over the fact that the commercial HVAC equipment needs an upgrade. That seems pretty basic and essential stuff to me. But I just wasn’t waiting around. Instead, I had a ductless heat pump installed inside the garage and moved my car out so I could have a nice home gym. The ductless heat pump is a wonder. It’s so small and yet it pumps out just the best air conditioning I could ever ask for. And though we don’t get much of a Winter, I was happy to welcome so great heating from the ductless heat pump as well. But the biggest change is how much better shape that I’m in. It’s because I don’t miss workout due to poor commercial HVAC.

 

HVAC company

Man, I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to when it come to heating and cooling equipment.

But before I spend thousands of dollars on HVAC equipment, I want to know what I’m buying.

This is my first time having to replace the residential HVAC in our home. When we bought the place, the whole property had been completely renovated. That included the central air conditioning of the house. We live in a region where the heat pump is great for all of our heating and cooling needs. The heat pump we just replaced went 25 years. It wasn’t the best tier of HVAC equipment but all that HVAC maintenance really paid off. We went all that time and that heat pump never caused even a minute of trouble. Whenever we needed it, that old heat pump sparked right to life to provide quality heating and air. So when the HVAC technician told us it was time we needed to replace that heat pump, I started doing my due diligence. The HVAC contractor was a tremendous help in that regard. I was able to learn a lot from him and our conversations sent me off to do more research on my own. I learned all about SEER rating and the very latest in the HVAC technology side of things. I also learned that correct sizing of the HVAC unit is so critical. Too big and it doesn’t cycle on and off properly. Too small and it’s running too much to meet demand. So making sure that an HVAC unit fits the air volume of the space is super important. And we have one that is now perfectly suited to the space and our needs.

furnace

The pandemic really did sort of force me to look at all aspects of my life.

• That’s what will happen when I’m forced to stay inside the air conditioning of my house for the better part of a year and a half.

The office I work in now was closed for a long time when the pandemic was raging. And having a completely remote workforce has changed the company even today. So it was a good reflection for them too. I know that I really started to consider what the true priorities of my life really were. And I was surprised that I started making some changes almost immediately. The biggest issue that I was forced to recognize was perhaps my health. I wasn’t exactly unhealthy but I also was far from maximizing my health as well. So I started out by exercising more. There’s a pickle ball court just down the road from my house. I would get out of the central air conditioning of my house and walk down to the courts to play for an hour or so almost every day. This was fun and it really helped me get fit. This was sort of the tipping point and I started to look into other things I could improve. This led me to learn all about the connection between good indoor air quality and good health. I really wanted to get an air purifier but when I started looking to buy, I realized that this was a bit out of my immediate reach. So I started improving my indoor air quality by replacing our air filter. Instead of the paper air filter I had used forever, I put in a HEPA filter. It’s made a great difference and it’s a great first step toward great indoor air quality.

AC filter

It’s one thing to ask us to continue working without even a cost of living raise this year.

But to try and force us through another Summer of terrible air conditioning is just one too many asks for me and my colleagues to bear.

The majority of us who work for this office have been here a long time. And we understand that our company, as a whole, is trying to cut costs and be more competitive. This was the reasoning behind no raises this year. That’s tough to take given how sharply the cost of living has spiraled upward. But this time last year, we were absolutely promised new commercial HVAC in the office if we could just get through one more Summer. Well again, that’s a big ask. The commercial HVAC equipment in this building, which is wholly owned by the company, is old, out of date and no longer able to meet cooling demand. For sure, the cooling demand in this region can be steep. But that’s the breaks and we all deal with a rise in cooling costs during the Summer inside our own central air conditioning at home. We obliged last year and it was a brutal Summer in that building. And we all have to wear professional attire so it’s not like we were able to be comfortable. We were so thankful when it started cooling off a bit in October but were also looking for that new HVAC equipment to get installed. And now, they want us to wait again. Looks like that might be a step too far. We all gathered off site to take a vote and we unanimously decided to call in sick until the commercial HVAC situation is addressed and addressed with a commercial HVAC upgrade.

 

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It’s sort of hard for me to sit back and get a full perspective of just all the things that have happened in this life. The fact that I’m replacing the residential HVAC in our weekend home seems pretty normal I suppose. On the surface, there are plenty of people who live in the city that have a weekend place. It’s just really hard for me to believe that I’m one of them. The fact is that I grew up in the city inside a rent controlled apartment building with my mom and my sister. We were poor. Thankfully, we had that apartment so we always had a home. There was a great big boiler in the basement that produced radiant heating all Winter. So we were never cold either. But life was tough and we didn’t have much at all. Yet somehow, I got myself through college and then followed a passion. Just last year, I sold my company but stayed on the board. So I only have to go into my office with the zone controlled HVAC every now and again. My wife and I are taking it a bit easier and spending more time at our new property. It’s a gorgeous little chalet that sits up on a hill overlooking the coolest little town and the lake. We have turned out attention to basically gutting the place as it’s really dated inside. Instead of replacing the central air conditioning, we decided to go with a ductless multi split system instead. This way, there is less chaos as the ductwork would have had to be replaced. And the ductless heat pumps are really quite impressive.

 

Indoor air cleaning system

I have to say that I’m not always right on top of the latest trends.

• And even when I see something I like, I don’t necessarily think about owning it.

I guess I’m sort of a forever window shopper. For one thing, I like to save my money and invest my money. I don’t spend all that time inside the commercial HVAC of that office just for fun. Sure, it’s great to go to a job I like but it’s still very much a job. So keeping up with all the trends just sounds like a money pit to me. I’m also more of a minimalist as well. I’m more about spending money on really high quality stuff and taking care of it. That goes for the central air conditioning in my home as well. About 7 years ago, the old heat pump died. This was HVAC equipment that we inherited when we bought our home. So once that old heat pump was deemed in need of being replaced, we got with the HVAC contractor. We went with the best of the best when it comes to HVAC equipment. And the results are the best quality heating and cooling I’ve ever enjoyed. We also had a smart thermostat installed back then too. It was still sort of new then but it’s saved us a ton of money on HVAC expense. Just recently as I was sitting inside the zone controlled HVAC of my office, it occurred to be just how great this sort of HVAC would be at home. The HVAC professionals were able to make that happen. I now have zone controlled HVAC at home and I have to say that it really is the cherry on top.

climate control