DuAll Heating & Cooling Blog : Archive for January, 2015

How an Air Cleaner Can Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Thursday, January 22nd, 2015

As you may or may not be aware, the air in your home is saturated with all manner of microscopic particles and organisms. Many of these organisms can have an effect on your health vastly disproportionate to their own small size, provoking illness and allergy attacks when you are exposed to them. Using an air cleaner can dramatically improve the air quality in your home. Let’s take a look at the various kinds of air cleaners that can improve your indoor air quality, and how they work.

Air Filters

An air filter is basically a woven fiber mesh stretched over a frame. It is designed to collect any particulates that come into contact with it, while allowing air to flow freely through it. There are many different grades and varieties of filter, with the strongest being the HEPA filters. A HEPA filter (High Efficiency Particulate Air) is woven so tightly that it can even capture incredibly small viruses and bacteria. Most homes do not have a need great enough to warrant a HEPA filter, but it’s good to know that the option is available. The downside of air filters is that they must be cleaned on a regular basis, or they stop being effective.

UV Germicidal Lights

A lot of the viruses and bacteria that float through the air in your home are sterilized or killed by too much exposure to ultraviolet light. This is why they tend to thrive inside homes, where there is more shelter from the sun. A UV germicidal light exploits this vulnerability by projecting ultraviolet light in the area around itself. Any germs that pass through the air cleaner are killed or sterilized, rendering them unable to affect any human exposed to them.

UV germicidal lights are a great choice for those who are especially vulnerable to illness. However, they don’t have any way to remove non-biological pollutants like dust and pollen from the air. For this reason, they should not be considered a complete solution to the problem as much as a good contributor to better air quality.

If you’d like to know more, call DuAll Heating & Cooling. We provide air cleaners throughout the Bolingbrook area.

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Can a Tankless Unit Replace a Conventional Water Heater?

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

Are you considering the replacement of your storage water heater in Romeoville, IL, for a tankless water heater, but have concerns about making the switch? You don’t have to be, but you do need to be aware of a couple of items before doing so. Switching to a tankless water heater can bring your home a number of benefits, but don’t rush the process. One of the best ways to ensure that your tank-to-tankless installation goes successfully is to work with a trained expert. The installation specialists at DuAll Heating & Cooling have years of experience with water heater installation, so give us a call today.

Tank to Tankless: What’s Involved

The first thing to note when switching from tank to tankless is how you’ve been fueling your current water heater: are you using electricity or gas? If you’ve been using electricity, you have to make sure that any changes in the power levels are addressed with your electrical box. For example, if your new tankless system requires more amperage, your electrical box will have to be updated to accommodate the heavier load. Gas tankless units require proper ventilation, so this must be part of the installation process.

Reasons to Consider a Tankless Water Heater

If you are still on the fence about switching to a tankless water heater, here are some factors to consider:

  • Take up less space – tankless water heaters are considerably smaller than storage tank water heaters, making them easy to place in a variety of locations.
  • Never run out of water – tankless heaters use a heat exchanger to heat water on demand, so you never have to worry about running out of hot water.
  • Energy efficient – because tankless water heaters work only when hot water is needed, they can be as much as 30% more energy efficient than tank water heaters.
  • Longer lifespan – tankless water heater can last as long as 20 years versus tank water heaters, which last an average of 8-12 years.

If you need water heater replacement in Romeoville, IL, you may want to consider a tankless heater. Have questions? Contact DuAll Heating & Cooling today.

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How to Prevent Commercial HVAC Repair

Thursday, January 8th, 2015

Of course, it’s never ideal to have to call a technician to your business for heating and air conditioning repair. Many commercial properties have commercial HVAC units that are located outdoors on the rooftop or heating systems that are in hidden areas of the building, so a technician should be able to avoid getting in the way of the daily operation of your business. But when the weather outside is too hot or too cold to bear with, a heating or AC breakdown can leave you without any customers or employees, costing you even more.

Take the following steps to help prevent the need for light commercial HVAC repair in Plainfield, and call DuAll Heating & Cooling to speak with a professional.

Take Any Complaints about Your Commercial Unit Seriously

You’re a busy person, and sometimes, when an employee, tenant, client, or customer complains about the temperature in the room, you may be tempted to take matters into your own hands. Often, when you hear that there is not enough heat in a room, the solution seems obvious—crank up the temperature. But if the temperature in the room doesn’t seem to be what’s displayed on the thermostat, you’re probably not doing your unit any favors by continuing to let it run.

Be sure to take any complaints about the performance of your commercial system seriously. One failing component can start a domino effect that leaves many of the other components unable to function as well. A seemingly minor heating issue can indicate major trouble inside of the unit or that a simple cleaning is in order. Catching the trouble now will be far less costly than noticing the issue after a breakdown.

Schedule Regular HVAC Maintenance

The best way to prevent repairs altogether is by scheduling light commercial HVAC maintenance every year or twice a year. During a maintenance visit, a technician will clean and adjust components of your unit that could be contributing to inefficiency. These adjustments can also help to prevent parts from breaking altogether, as can cleaning dirty parts.

Whether you want to begin a maintenance schedule for the new year or if you need light commercial HVAC repair in Plainfield, call DuAll Heating & Cooling today!

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How to Tell Your Commercial HVAC System Needs Repair

Monday, January 5th, 2015

If your commercial HVAC system breaks down completely, there’s no doubt you’ll hear about it. Complaints from customers, clients, employees, and/or tenants are almost guaranteed, particularly in the middle of summer, or during a cold winter’s night. But most likely, you’d rather avoid this situation and catch repair needs before a heating breakdown puts your business out of commission for a spell.

But how can you tell when it’s time to call for commercial HVAC repair?

At DuAll Heating & Cooling, we want to make sure that your commercial property isn’t left in the cold (or heat). Here are a few things you should check on to tell whether you need to schedule repairs.

  • Noises from the Ducts or the Unit: Chances are, you don’t hang around your commercial HVAC unit too often (since many of these are located on the roof of a building). But if you do happen to hear a strange noise (even a small one) from up above, from the boiler unit, or from inside of the ductwork, it could mean trouble with a fan, circulator pump, compressor, or any other vital heating/air conditioning component. This could lead to further trouble later on, which is why it’s important to call for repairs right away.
  • Reduced Heating or Cooling: To some business owners or managers, it may be a given to call for repairs when heating or cooling is suddenly reduced due to the nature of their business. But others suspect that the trouble will improve, or that they can wait a bit longer to call. However, the trouble can worsen as the parts become overworked attempting to get your building to the proper temperature.
  • High Utility Bills: High utilities may be a sign of parts that are working overtime to heat or cool the property, which means something within the unit is not quite right.

A final way to determine that your system is in need of repair is if your technician tells you so during a standard maintenance. At DuAll Heating & Cooling, we recommend you schedule maintenance twice a year with a commercial specialist to avoid sudden breakdowns. For maintenance or commercial HVAC repair in Plainfield, call our office today.

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The History of “Auld Lang Syne”

Thursday, January 1st, 2015

There are numerous different traditional songs associated with Christmas—but there is only one song that comes to mind immediately when people think of New Year’s Eve: “Auld Lang Syne.” It is hard to find a New Year’s Eve party where people won’t leap into singing “Should old acquaintance be forgot…” as the first stroke of midnight sounds. This tradition encompasses the globe, with almost every culture that celebrates New Year’s on January 1st breaking into song with the same set of lyrics.

Where did this song come from? And what do the words “auld lang syne” actually mean? The best place to ask these questions is Scotland. The Official Gateway to Scotland website calls the song “one of Scotland’s gifts to the world, recalling the love and kindness of days gone by, but in the communion of taking our neighbor’s hands, it also gives us a sense of belonging and fellowship to take us into the future.”

The melody of the piece originates from Lowland Scots folk song tradition. It was legendary Scottish Romantic poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) who created the words we know today, however. During the later years of his life, Burns dedicated much of his work to collecting Scottish folk tunes and giving them new life. The first mention Burns makes of “Auld Lang Syne” is in 1788, when he calls the song “a glorious fragment.” Burns wrote new lyrics to the old melody, and used the words “auld lang syne,” which is Scottish for “old long since,” and which can be translated into standard English as “long, long ago” or “days gone by.” The phrase was already known in earlier Scottish poems and folk songs, and appears to be the equivalent of “Once upon a time…” for Scots fairy tales.

Soon after Burns introduced the song to the public, it spread across Scotland as a New Year’s custom, and then to the rest of Great Britain. Scottish immigrants took the song with them as they moved across the globe, and by the middle of the 19th century it was a holiday tradition throughout the English-speaking world. By the close of the 20th century, it was a global phenomenon to ring in the New Year.

We imagine that you’ll end up singing or hearing “Auld Lang Syne” at some point this New Year’s (maybe you’ve already heard it while watching It’s a Wonderful Life).

All of us at DuAll Heating & Cooling would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy coming year in the tradition of the song.

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