Residential Heating and Air Conditioning Blog: Archive for the ‘Indoor Air Quality’ Category

How Your Ducts Can Steal Your Money This Winter

Monday, October 23rd, 2023
stacks-of-paper-money

A home has to do a lot of work during a Minnesota winter to keep the family inside it warm and comfortable. It has to trap as much heat as it can with insulation, preventing heat from escaping through any gaps around doors and windows, and produce enough heat from its HVAC system to replace the heat that gets gradually lost to the outside. If the house isn’t doing its job, it will not only mean discomfort, it will result in much higher heating costs.

But you may not know that there are other costly “heat thieves” in your home aside from bad insulation, air leaks, and a faulty heater. The ductwork that runs through the walls, ceilings, and attic of your house can drive up your energy bills without you realizing what’s happening. Damaged ducts leaking air from holes and gapping are a huge source of residential energy waste each year—and we’d like to help you notice it and stop this “theft.” We have the ductwork services in Plymouth, MN to do the job!

Continue Reading

7 Ways Dirty Air Ducts Cause Issues

Monday, September 18th, 2023
woman-coughing-in-bed

We recommend that our clients arrange for duct cleaning in Minneapolis, MN every 3-5 years. This is how long it takes for a significant amount of dust and other debris to collect along the walls of the ducts inside the ventilation system. You’ll definitely need professionals like us to handle this job—you can’t do it by pushing a broom or a vacuum hose into your vents!

You might think that dirty ducts don’t sound that bad. After all, you can’t see them, so what’s the harm? Actually, there’s plenty of harm, and we’ve listed seven of these problems below. We hope this encourages you to schedule duct cleaning if your home is overdue for it.

Continue Reading

Preventing Mold and Mildew in Your HVAC System

Monday, September 11th, 2023
mold-on-wall

Nobody wants mold and mildew in their house. They create unpleasant odors, cause damage to building materials, and send out toxic spores that lower indoor air quality. The worst place for mold and mildew to start to develop is inside your HVAC system. Mold and mildew in the HVAC system will spread a noxious odor around your home (“dirty sock syndrome”), impair the operation of the AC and heater, and make it easy for toxic spores to spread.

If you want to ensure your HVAC system remains mold and mildew-free, keeping up with professional AC maintenance in Plymouth, MN is a crucial important step. Below we’ll list the proactive ways to have a mold- and mildew-free HVAC system. 

Continue Reading

4 Common Ductwork Issues

Monday, August 28th, 2023

We’ve served the Twin Cities for more than 25 years, so we’ve seen plenty of problems with the ductwork in homes. Providing duct services in Eden Prairie, MN is an important part of our job of helping homes stay comfortable and energy efficient because of how seriously bad ducts affect how an HVAC system operates.

However, the major problem with ductwork issues is that few homeowners know about them until the issues escalate. In this post, we’ll offer you some important education about the most common types of ductwork problems. These might be affecting your home at this very moment. 

If you have any concerns or questions about your ducts, don’t hesitate to contact our team. We can diagnose the ductwork (such as measuring how it maintains pressure) to locate any troubles and then have them fixed right.

Continue Reading

Humidity and Your AC system

Monday, August 21st, 2023
humidity-written-on-window

When you live in the “Land of Ten Thousand Lakes,” you’ll have plenty of humidity to deal with during the summer! We expect to get humid conditions here in the Twin Cities every summer season. Most people try to deal with humidity in their home by cranking up the air conditioner. But is this really the best method?

We know quite a bit about cooling homes and balancing humidity in the Twin Cities, and we want to pass on some of this important knowledge to you today. This post will look into the effects of humidity on your comfort, your home, and most of all, your AC. We’ll also look into whether your AC is enough on its own to counter the problems that come with humid weather. 

Continue Reading

How Do I Know If I Need an Air Purifier?

Monday, July 24th, 2023
spring-picutre-of-honeybee-and-flower

You aren’t alone if you have concerns about the quality of the air in your home. If you’re reading this, it’s because you’re interested in having air purifier service in Minneapolis, MN to get rid of unwanted contaminants. 

But do you really need an air purifier? Will an air purifier deliver the results you want? Today, we’re going to examine signs that you’ll benefit from having a whole-house air purifier as well as what those benefits are.

Continue Reading

Let’s Beat the Summer Humidity This Year!

Monday, May 1st, 2023
humidity-on-window

Minnesota is the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. Actually, the number is 11,842, depending on what you include as a “lake.” That can certainly make for beautiful scenery, but it has an unpleasant side effect during the summer: humidity. Also mosquitos, but we’re not talking about mosquitos in this post.

When the summer weather arrives, and it will be here soon, humidity can turn a warm day into an unbearable one. The reason is that humidity acts like a blanket around you: it traps heat in your body by slowing down how much heat you can release by perspiration. Humidity doesn’t make the temperature hotter, but it will make it feel hotter—sometimes by 10°.

Would you like to get control of the humidity in your house this year? We can help with some tips as well as with our services. 

Continue Reading

How Humid Should My Home Be?

Monday, January 23rd, 2023
woman-itching-scratching-shoulder

Depending on where you live, you may think of humidity in a very negative way. Often, we think of humidity only because it is making it hard to keep cool. However, we want to let you know that a total lack of humidity can be just as uncomfortable.

Here’s something that you need to understand when it comes to your indoor air quality in Eden Prairie: Humidity is all about balance. Too much and your house feels like a sauna; too little and suddenly the very air you breathe feels … scratchy.

Dealing with either extreme is unpleasant. We can help you learn what the ideal humidity level in your home should be and provide you with the systems that will help you get it there.

Continue Reading

Air Purifiers vs. Air Filtration: Which Is Best?

Monday, December 5th, 2022
woman-leaning-back-comfortably-on-couch

Homeowners often don’t realize this, but their indoor air quality can actually be worse than the quality of the air outdoors. At least, this is the case without the right indoor air quality systems and services in place. There are a number of systems that could help, but the main two are either an air filtration system or air purifier, each of which have varying abilities. 

Whether you ultimately decide on a whole-home air filtration system or an air purifier in Minneapolis, MN, we want to give you nothing short of the best. We know how to give you the cleanest and healthiest air possible for the lowest possible cost. We’ve got your back. With us, you’ll always “Feel the Difference.”

Continue Reading

Don’t Let These Winter Air Quality Issues Spook You!

Monday, October 31st, 2022
woman-in-parka-sipping-from-mug

It is not wintertime quite yet–in fact, temperatures have only just begun to chill out. But soon enough you’ll need to start running your heater on a regular basis. Hopefully, you have already scheduled HVAC maintenance for your furnace or heat pump to make sure it is ready to work on a daily and hourly basis. This will certainly help your indoor air quality, but it won’t resolve poor indoor air quality all on its own.

You see, indoor air quality (IAQ) is about so much more than how cool or warm your home is. It’s also about humidity, and how clean the air is within your living space. Modern construction means our homes are sealed up nicely against the elements. This is great news for HVAC efficiency and your lowered utility bills, but it’s not such great news for your overall IAQ. Read on to learn more about these two common winter indoor air quality problems, and how to fix them so they don’t have to spook you!

Continue Reading