Going Hybrid With Your Heating and Air Conditioning System

Californians love their cars. They are either playing around with them in the garage or making frequent visits to the neighborhood gas station to make sure they're performing their best. Spark plugs, oil, as well as air filters tend to be changed if the manufacturer recommends it, and occasionally beforehand. We all know that tune-ups will help keep our trustworthy cars or trucks on the highway for a long period of time and the optimized gas mileage helps as well. It's not simply a matter of pride any longer. With today's economic climate and high price tags, it's also a matter of need. So long as the old automobile remains to be dependable, you won't need to be concerned about how you're intending to make a new car or truck payment within your currently strained monthly budget.

The identical principal relates to your home's HVAC system, but many folks don't remember it because they are not constantly reminded of it each day. Nevertheless, your system most likely runs non-stop, apart from a couple of weeks in Spring and Fall. Standard upkeep can help it function more efficiently and reduce your monthly cooling and heating costs. It can also help to prolong the lifespan of the system and put off costly replacement expenses.

Almost everyone is aware of the idea of hybrid cars nowadays, and along with the cost of gasoline, it's easy to understand how they've become so popular. If you've heard of the vehicles but aren't sure about the way they work, they use a mixture of gas and electric power to run the vehicle and, based on one's driving habits, they could massively decrease the amount of fuel used each month. The cars are also more environmentally friendly than regular gas or diesel-powered vehicles.

A similar concept is also available for your home's heating and air conditioning system, and may help with considerable energy and cost savings, particularly throughout the winter months. A hybrid system utilizes an electrical heat pump to warm your house over the winter. It is a similar energy-efficient style that's been utilized for several years. A heat pump is designed to pull warm air from the exterior to heat your house. This warmth is available on nearly all of the coldest days. However, the main concern with electric heat pumps is that they often are not very efficient in areas that will get exceptionally cold through the winter season because there simply isn't much warm air for them to pull in the exterior climate.

In those regions, homeowners usually make use of gas heat which warms the home quickly and efficiently, but could be also rather costly. An ideal solution is a hybrid fuel design and layout. It incorporates an electric-powered heat pump to supply cost-effective heat for the majority of the winter, but changes over to gas heat as soon as temperatures fall below where the heat pump is most effective.

Call an HVAC expert right now to learn about the options for a hybrid fuel heating and air conditioning system. Both your checking account and the environment will be thankful.

Easy Recipes - Pomegranate, the Fruit of Love

Surprisingly few people know that in Greece the pomegranate is considered the fruit of love. And although many may somewhat loosely associate the seedy red fruit with Mediterranean, it is actually quite a prolific tree, and its fruit is enjoyed in most mildly temperate climates around the world. One can't deny that is intriguing, ruddy red with lumpy, leathery skin on the outside and chock full of glistening, candy red juicy seeds on the inside. We avoid the seeds with most fruits; with pomegranates the seeds are the only to go for. Eating a pomegranate out of hand is tedious. The white papery flesh is astringent and bitter and must be avoided, while the hard kernels of the seeds can get stuck between one's teeth. No wonder it's regarded as the fruit of love!

If you're like me, you've seen pomegranate juice in a wide variety of locations, and immediately wanted to buy some and try it. Delicious, pomegranate taste without the seeds or hassle! But I confess that I've never tried this appealing elixir due to its prohibitive point (staying true with its reputation as the fruit of love!). I haven't seen pomegranate juice in anything but 100% form, but I for one would pass on a diluted variety. It just wouldn't be the same. I feel the same way about passion fruit juice: concentrate it and mix with a pound of white sugar if you want, but please don't dilute it with pineapple juice or other such nonsense.

So what can we do with pomegranate seeds in cooking? Truth be told, not a whole heck of a lot. But I can't resist buying pomegranates occasionally, being the curio that they are. And I confess serving a spinach-based salad for two textured with chopped walnuts, minced celery, and pomegranate seeds, dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. And as for what they say about it being the fruit of love, well I think it's true!

Before Buying A Portable Air Conditioner Consider This Odd Fact

If you have been wanting to cool yourself down this Summer and Fall, and are considering the advantages of a portable air conditioner, but are looking for ac buying advice and portable air conditioner reviews before you buy, then you have landed in the right spot. In this short article we will reveal a really odd fact that might shock you and might just save you hundreds of dollars that you could have wasted on buying a portable air conditioner, especially a small portable AC, or a cheap portable AC. So read attentively.

Portable air conditioners are popular

Portable air conditioners are becoming popular because of their relatively simple installation, no need to build ducts as with ducted air conditioning units, drill holes in the wall as in through-the wall air conditioning units, or take up significant portions of the window surface, such as needed with the window air conditioning units.

Portable AC units help students in their dormitory rooms, they help apartment dwellers who are limited in their ability to modify the infrastructure of their homes, and they help home owners with existing central AC systems in their homes. Indeed, even if you already have a central air conditioning functioning, you may still want to save additional money by selectively cooling air only in spaces that are occupied, such as living rooms during the day.

The odd fact - some portable air conditioning units come with a single hose!

You need to be aware that there will be a hose running from the unit toward the window to exhaust the hot air out through the window. And there lies the rub. The odd fact that few manufacturers of portable AC units will say loudly and openly, is that a single hose is simply not enough. You need the air intake hose and the air exhaust hose, both extending towards the window and circulating the outside air around. Why?

Why a single hose is not enough?

Imagine a single hose blasting the very hot air out the window. Well, yes, you will get some chilling effect on the other end of the portable AC unit. But ask yourself, since you are not running out of air in your room, where does the air which is replacing the hot air that is blasting out of the window coming from? Well, the answer is simple, it comes from the outside of the room. Be it through the cracks in the windows or doors, be it through the ducts, it comes from the outside of the room. And, considering that you are trying to cool your room, in all likelihood this air coming in is quite warm. So what is happening with a single hose portable AC is that the unit is constantly cooling down the new hot air coming from the outside. Very ineffective. Let's contrast this with a dual hose portable AC unit.

Why a dual hose portable air conditioner is the best

With a dual hose portable air conditioner, the air from the outside of the house, figuratively speaking, makes a full circle. It starts as a relatively hot air from the outside, goes through the intake hose to the portable air conditioner, takes on some heat there, and is eventually exhausted through the second hose to the outside air. Big difference compared to a single hose system: The air in the room is still the same, it did not have to be sucked in from the outside. Therefore, by closing the circuit of the outside air using the dual hose, we have to a large degree been able to cool the same air inside the room all the time. Therefore, that same air can be cooled down faster and to a lower temperature as if we had to constantly chill the new incoming room air.

You could compare having a single hose portable air conditioner to using a car air conditioner with the car windows rolled down, and you would have a perfect analogy. Or you could compare a dual hose portable air conditioner with a car air conditioner with the windows rolled up.

Energy Efficiency - How Your Air Conditioners Zones Can Help

Air Conditioning Zones: Attaining comfort and cost efficiency at home

Imagine this. You set the air conditioning to a comfortable temperature in your home office, situated in the upper level of your home, and settle down to concentrate on an important client pitch you are about to make the next day. Your wife is downstairs watching her favorite sit-com while the kids are romping playfully in their bedroom. Soon, you find your home office getting uncomfortably warm until you realize that someone in the house decided it is getting too cool for comfort and turned the switch to change the temperature. If this happens on a regular basis, it can be a cause for irritation not just for one person, but to the whole family. Soon, it's a situation akin to fighting over which TV channel to watch.

Basic physics tells us that warm air will rise and cool air stays down. So, while you regulate the air conditioning in the upper floor to keep the warm air cool, the rest of the family is feeling the cold air uncomfortable. How can this be resolved?

Zoned Comfort is the way to go

Having a single air conditioning system for the whole house is no longer a desired option and can eliminate situations like the one described above. While buying or building a home, it makes sense to ask about air conditioning zones or incorporate it into your building plan.

While planning the air conditioning zoning for your home, it makes sense to consider the following aspects to determine how many zones your home should have:

· The way in which the different rooms in the house are designed for use

· The number of levels the house has

· The amount of exposure of each room to the elements and local humidity in your area

· The life-style of the family

With zoning, you can have up to 3 or more zones, depending on the size of your home and its usage. What this essentially does is to divide your home into separately conditioned areas that need cooling or heating by the use of thermostats that work independently of each other.

Other points to consider:

· If your home has an atrium, solarium, fitted cellar or a room with huge expanses of windows it might require a separate zone.

· Guest bedrooms might need to be zoned differently

· If the lower level is most commonly used, then it makes sense to have a separate zone for the upper level to be powered on only during use, rather than have the whole house share a single air conditioning system.

The use of air conditioning zones is catching on really fast across America as more people realize the energy and cost efficiencies that it brings. Air conditioning rooms that don't need it for the most part is not an energy saving or cost-efficient way of managing conditioning of a home. Using air conditioning zoning is known to reduce energy bills by 20-25% over all.

Also check out what local utility and Fed rebates might be available for installation of air conditioning in your home.

Apart from keeping your bills down, it is a practical way of allowing your family to be in their comfort zones and keep the peace at home.

12000 BTU Air Conditioner Units

You can find 12000 BTU air conditioners in wall, window, portable, and split wall-mounted types. (A split air conditioning unit means the evaporator is inside, but the condenser unit is on the outside of the building.) A 12000 BTU air conditioner is a rather large air conditioner and it is perfect for cooling and dehumidifying rooms of approximately 600 square feet in size. A 12000 BTU a/c is sometimes called a "one ton" unit. But this has nothing to do with weight, this simply describes the power output.

In order to have sufficient electricity to run a 12000 BTU air conditioner, you'll need either 120- or 240-volt power. For air conditioners using less than 7.5 amps, you can just plug them into a standard outlet, although you'll need a dedicated circuit for units drawing on more power than that. 240-volt circuits are typically only needed for air conditioners with outputs greater than 12000 BTUs. (A BTU is a British Thermal Unit and this describes how much output a particular air conditioning unit has.)

Some typical features of such an a/c unit would be:

* Cools rooms 600 to 640 square feet in size
* Electronic controls for convenience and ease of programming
* Antimicrobial mesh filter
* Tilt-out filter access
* Eight-way air direction control

Of course, the purpose of any air conditioning unit is to both cool and dehumidify. Depending on where you live, one of these purposes may be more important to you than the other. For instance, if you live in the American Southwest it will be more important for you to cool a room than to dehumidify it. But if you live in southern Florida, you'll likely need to take full advantage of both features. Today's a/c units have some fine-tuning controls so that you don't waste energy and you can set a unit's capacity up to do what you most need done.

It's important to pay attention to the fact that a 12000 BTU a/c unit is designed to cool and dehumidify quite large rooms, because with their power draw you don't want to waste your money on the purchase and installation of such a large unit and then run up an electric bill that needn't be so high unless it is a necessity. Some homes, for example, have open rooms that make such a large unit ideal for use, but if your home has closed-off rooms you might not need a such a large model.

It's possible that you might need a mixture of more than one size of a/c unit, such as a 12000 BTU a/c unit and some other, smaller a/c unit. It all depends upon the layout of your home or office building. Figure out carefully how large your areas are where you need air conditioning and do your best to figure out how much "drift" there will be, if any, between different rooms and areas. Take all these considerations into account, and make a smart, economical choice when considering your a/c unit.

What is a Heating and Air Conditioning Lemon Guarantee?

As terrible as it may be, a lot of people are out there to make a quick buck. The last thing you want is to end up with a lemon product that you can't get your money back for. You may immediately think of buying a dud for a car, but situations go further than that. For example, you may want to keep your eye out for heating and air contractors installing worthless systems in your home. That is why it is important to make sure you are working with a contractor that offers a lemon guarantee with their installation. Let me explain...

A lemon guarantee with a HVAC company is a contract that agrees you won't be stuck with a dead product after the technician installs your unit. It means that if your unit should falter, you will be replaced with a new one free of charge.

This is an important quality to look for in your heating and air conditioning contractor. Something you should do as the consumer is to get your guarantee in writing. One should get at least a five year coverage that will take care of the major components of your unit should anything go wrong. The last thing you want is to be assured you have a lemon guarantee and then when something does go wrong you are stuck with nothing to prove it.

It is always important to cover you basis, even with your heating and air contractor. If you want to make sure you are getting the most out of your money and system, do not forget to take advantage of a company that offers a lemon guarantee. You won't regret it when it's mid summer and your system turns into a dud.

Carrier Air Conditioning Units - The True Air Conditioners Capable of Cooling As Well As of Heating

When we say "air conditioner" we generally think of appliances that cool the room. Properly speaking, the things we call air conditioners are really air coolers which cannot do much for conditioning the temperature in a freezing room. In fact, most of us would think it strange to put on an air conditioner in the middle of winter. Up until Carrier air conditioning units featured some products capable of both cooling and heating the room, such was indeed the case. Today, however, the true "air conditioners" have hit the market thanks to Carrier.

The company is famous not only in the USA but through their franchises all throughout the globe for powerful and quiet air cooling comfort. Over the years, their name has become associated with being the leader in incorporating innovative design and functionality in air conditioners. Among their latest innovations in home temperature control are Carrier air conditioning units (also called Carrier heat pumps) that have the equal ability of either cooling or heating up a room. It is also perfectly quiet as most carrier units are.

A visit to their website will furnish an interested client with all the information about products, about warranties and about troubleshooting the products. The customer support module also contains information about how buyers of Carriers units can avail of tax credits amounting to as much as $1,500 USD. Carrier also offers rebates of as much as $100 if someone trades in an old model Carrier air conditioning unit for a brand new one. For more clarifications and additional queries not found in the content of the website itself, people can avail of their highly interactive customer support module.

Additionally, their website features content about the latest technology incorporated into Carrier air conditioning units. For people who are not sure of what type of Carrier air conditioning units will be best for them, the website has a section for asking experts about this concern. They will provide you with suggestions about how to ideally condition the temperature of your home so that it is healthy and comfortable to stay in. But they won't stop with suggestions, they can actually recommend the best and cheapest way to achieve home improvement.

Because Carrier units are very energy efficient they can help their clients to make huge savings on their power expenses. These savings will be more evident, the more need there is to use Carrier air conditioning units. Because many of Carrier products carry on them the seal of the Energy Star, they are environment friendly. This goes to show that not only does Carrier technology make your home comfortable and clean, but it also preserves the environment from the adverse affects of pollution

So the next time you think about air conditioners, think about one that can equally make your home pleasant to stay in during hot summer days as well as during the biting cold of winter. This means Carrier air conditioning units.