DuAll Heating & Cooling Blog : Archive for April, 2018

Don’t open the door to strangers. If you get an unexpected knock at the door, check to see who it is before opening it. Elderly people especially are old school and want to be hospitable. Best defense, act as if someone is in the home with you: say, I’ve got the door,” and speak through the door. Tell friends to call you before they plan to visit.

Secure your front door with a deadbolt. Install 1-inch deadbolt locks on all exterior doors. Use 4 inch screws to secure your deadbolt to the door frame. Many installers don’t drill the bolt hole deep enough and use only half-inch screws. Burglars can kick those doors in with little effort.

Install peepholes on all entry doors, including garages. Many burglars try to access the house through the garage.

Don’t leave House keys in obvious locations. Don’t leave extra keys under doormats, potted plants or any other obvious outdoor location. Thieves will generally find them. Find an inconspicuous place to hide the keys, or give a set to a neighbor you can trust.

Sliding glass patio doors should always be secure. Many times burglars work as a team. One at the front door keeping you talking while another enters through a rear and steals everything within reach. Burglar-proof your glass patio doors by setting a pipe, piece of wood or metal bar in the middle bottom track of the door slide. The pipe should be the same length as the track  and always keep it in place.

Always listen to your intuition. In these times we live in everyone has a cell phone or GPS. If someone comes to your door wanting information or directions.  If they are persistent in you opening the door for them to hear your explanation, Call 911 immediately

The ultimate goal of a thief is the master bedroom. Keep your valuables out of reach for an intruder. Use a secured safe deposit box in a bank to stash away your valuables when they’re not in use or if that is not possible hide your valuables in a safety box in a less conspicuous location In the house.

Keep drapes and blinds closed at night. Don’t allow intruders to easily see what’s inside your home – especially in rooms where there is expensive equipment. Drapes and blinds obscure a potential intruder’s view, making it difficult to see which rooms hold high value items, or even whether someone is inside the home.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to Spring. Not that it feels like it (at least not at the time of this writing). So, now that Winter is “officially” over, we can look back and see how it compared to the national weather service forecast. What do you know, they were pretty darn accurate. In a nutshell, they said that we were going to be on the borders of the weather all winter long and that when we had cold, we would have a string of days with it below normal, and when warm, we’d have a string of days above normal. Seems like we got the cold early, and then it pretty much stayed normal or above the rest of the season. And tho we did not get any record setting snow this year, we did get at least one good stretch of snow that accumulated to about 18” within a few days. And that’s when the wife and I took our first real vacation in about 20 years. We went on a short 3 day cruise to the Bahamas and what a great time we had. That water is just as clear as anything you could imagine and with the sand bottom, it was just so bright and turquoise. Then it took me 10 days to lose the weight I gained in 3 days. Oh, well. Definitely worth it.

Before we left on vacation, we became certified with the Illinois Commerce Commission. This is now required for any company who is installing 16 SEER or higher, for the homeowner to get their rebates. So, if your AC breaks down and you need it replaced, you can rest assured that DuAll can get it done right, and we can offer you instant rebates on qualified equipment. Please remember to changer your filters often, but especially before the air conditioning season starts. And if you are having a big event at your home this year (like a graduation party, wedding, etc) please have the AC system checked BEFORE it gets too hot. It will be well worth it to avoid the possibility of it breaking down that day. Did you ever notice that an air conditioner only breaks down on really hot days? Or when you have a house full of people!

We are on a big push to get reviews so we can let the world (or at least our little corner of it) know how good DuAll Heating & Cooling is. And we have made it EXTREMELY easy for anyone who wants to review us. Just go here: www.DuAllheating.com/review and you can leave a review in just a minute or so. No need to log onto anything. But we will have links if you are so inclined to leave a review on any of the major sites, such as Google, Yelp, Angies list, etc. We will be asking for reviews every time we see you. Apparently this is VERY important for us and we certainly appreciate any and all reviews we get.

With the steel and aluminum tariffs, we have been told to be prepared for a major hike in the price of heating and cooling equipment. That has not happened yet, but if you are trying to make a decision about whether or not to replace your AC this year, that information may help you make your decision. That along with the ever rising cost of Freon (R22) over $100/lb.

I know that  it is Spring and I should be talking baseball, but I’m just so excited about all the changes happening at Hallas Hall. Looks like the Bears might not be the bottom dwellers we’ve (unfortunately) gotten used to. A very exciting new coach, with some new assistants, experienced wide receivers that are both big and fast, and a quite talented tight end who can block AND catch. Improving the D is still a priority and we’ve even gotten a proven kicker. Can’t wait till fall…………….er, maybe I can enjoy spring and summer first.

Larry

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