Month: January 2022

How to Calculate the Right Unit Size for Your Home

Posted on January 20, 2022 by - Blog, Caring for your AC, Cooling, Indoor Air Quality

 

When it comes to the size of your home’s HVAC unit, most homeowners have been told that bigger is better, but surprisingly, that is not always true. An air conditioning unit that is too large can lead to moisture issues inside your home. The larger system won’t run a long enough cycle to pull the humidity out of the air. The larger unit will also use more energy than is necessarily needed for your home. However, a unit that is too small won’t cool or heat your home to an even proper level, leading to discomfort and elevated energy bills when your system struggles to cool your home properly.

How do you find the right size ac unit for your home? To help answer that question, our team of skilled experts at Air Design have taken the time to create a checklist for you.

Measure the area

The very first step in finding the correctly sized unit is to measure the area you want cooled, whether you are just looking to air condition certain rooms of your residence, or the entire thing. Measure the length and width of each room, hallway, or space in your home. You can also often look at your mortgage or deed paperwork which will have your homes square footage listed. When taking these measurements, there is no need to include closets or an attic.

 

Determine square footage

Unable find your mortgage documents? Don’t worry, we can walk you through calculating it yourself. You will want to do this equation for each room. (Length times Width = SQFT) Then add each room together to get the total square footage of your household.

 

Calculate cooling power

The measure of how fast an air conditioning unit is able to cool the air is measured in BTUs per hour. In a warm climate like Pensacola, you will want roughly 30-35 BTUs per hour for every square foot of your homes space.

 

Have a professional come out to assist

When in doubt, you can also give us a call at 202-COOL. We will do all the measuring for you and fit your home with the perfect size unit. Our professionals are very friendly and will walk you through exactly what you need and offer fair pricing, upfront for your new unit. We don’t try to oversell, and we do quality work the first time.

Ways to Avoid Frozen Pipes

Posted on January 3, 2022 by - Plumbing

avoiding frozen pipes

 

Ways to Avoid Frozen Pipes

Most people move to the gulf coast, to take advantage of some of the best weather in the country. Our winters are almost non-existent, at least in comparison to the more northern states. However, we do dip into freezing temperatures occasionally. While these temperatures don’t usually last long, they can lead to frozen or cracked pipes. These can quickly turn into a emergency for you and your household. The average Floridian is usually prepared with hurricane go bags packed, tubes of sunscreen hidden away in every vehicle, and may even know the best way to deal with an alligator in the family pool. But because temperatures below 32 degrees rarely happen here, southern homeowners don’t usually worry about plumbing issues caused by winter weather. Our northern neighbors are more acquainted with these problems and have a yearly checklist they follow to mitigate the chances of a disaster.

In this article we will go over a few things you can do yourself to protect your home from frozen pipes during the colder nights this winter:

 

Get a Visual.

Has the padding around your sprinkler system worn thin? Have rodents eaten away at the insulation coating your pipes? Any pipes sticking out of the ground without insulation? Simply looking at the exposed parts of your homes plumbing system can reveal a lot about the condition of it.

 

Open Up.

Plumbing lines usually enter your house through an outside wall, usually a wall in the kitchen or a washroom. When cabinet doors are closed under the sink it can stay colder in the cabinet than in the rest of your home. Opening up the doors and allowing the warm air from your home to circulate into those spaces can help keep the pipes from freezing.

 

Get Covered.

For your outdoor pipes that don’t have any insulation make sure you insulate them with something. Even taping a towel around them can help prevent freezing. For outside spickets, you can buy winter covers from almost any hardware store.

 

Drip, Drip, Drip.

We’ve all heard the saying “moving water wont freeze” and while technically correct there is a bit more that goes into it. Turn on one or two faucets in the home so there is a small steady stream flowing.  This allows a flow of water through the pipes, that prevents ice from forming.

 

Too late they froze, what now?

You should turn off the water supply. Some homeowners have access to valves that will allow you to turn off the flow of water to specific sources. If you don’t have these valves, or don’t know where to access them, use your main shut-off valve and stop all water from flowing.

 

Call Air Design to the rescue! We are available 24/7 to come help with your frozen pipes should you need us call 202-COOL.