Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Month: September 2018

Oh man, I’m not ready to start thinking about Up Your Heaterwinter yet. Come on, the heat of the summer months is still burning off! Why do you have to be like this! 

Because, sometimes, the truth hurts.

Look, we understand the thought of winter doesn’t appeal to all of you out there. And even those of us that love to hit the slopes will admit that,  sometimes, the cold can get to be a little much. But that’s the entire point!

Scheduling heating maintenance now means less hassle then, when you really need your heating system the most. By putting your heating in Loveland, CO in our hands, you can rest assured in knowing that some of the finest technicians out there are looking out for your comfort when the heating season arrives. Just remember that heating tune-ups cannot be completed by anyone other than skilled, trained professionals. So call today, and read on to learn more about what heating maintenance has to offer.

Why Hire Professionals?

To keep warranties intact, first of all. To protect your equipment. To protect yourself. Pretty much any reason you can think of. Are we saying there is nothing you can do to help maintain your heating system. No. You can change your air filter regularly. You can keep the ducts unobstructed. You can clear snow away from the outdoor unit of heat pumps. But you cannot crack open the heater and try to complete a thorough tune-up.

This type of job is much, much more complicated than many homeowners seem to realize. You need to clean electrical contacts, test voltage, tighten connections, lubricate all moving parts, replace worn components, test relays and controls, and so much more. It is a job that only trained, experienced professionals can handle, and any damages caused by DIY service attempts are only going to leave you on the hook for the resulting repair costs.

Why Do It At All?

Because there is no better way to keep your heater up and running reliably. Your heating system, regardless of type or make/model, incurs a lot of wear and tear over the course of the heating season. Left unaddressed, this wear and tear is going to make your heating system much more susceptible to problems and, eventually, breakdowns.

Of course, you don’t just get a more reliable heating experience by scheduling routine maintenance. You can also pay less for a better heating experience! How? Because a properly maintained heating system is the only type of heater that is going to function at peak efficiency levels. The only thing worse than failing to heat your home effectively and reliably is overpaying for such a lousy experience. When you remain diligent about scheduling routine heating maintenance each year, you won’t have to worry about such problems. It won’t increase the heater’s overall efficiency rating, but it will keep it working as close to its peak efficiency as possible.

Schedule your heating services with Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning. Big enough to serve, small enough to care.

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The City of Fort Collins is changing its utility billing structure to address peak demand use. Come October 1, 2018, Fort Collins Utilities will be switching to time-of-day pricing. This change will be reflected on your November utility bill. Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning wants to help you understand what these changes mean and how you can save on increased utility rates coming to Fort Collins, CO.

Unlike your gas utility that can be supplied constantly and be sitting, waiting for when you need it, electricity is much different as it must be produced on demand.  This creates challenges and increased costs during the peak demand times, and worst-case scenario, electric providers can’t produce enough to supply the demand and the power is reduced.  In some instances, you may not lose power completely, but voltage drops and certain appliances don’t work correctly. This is called a “brown out”. A “brown out” is hard on motors and compressors and can cause damage to devices. You will even experience dimming of lights.

In comparison to current utility rates, off-peak billing is going to reduce slightly (about 35%) when you use the least amount of energy, and it is going to increase by 150% during peak times when you are home using electricity the most.  With zero change in behavior, you could see your utility bill go up two to three times what it is now. For example, if your electric bill is currently $100 it could very likely go to $200 or even $300 immediately.

Here are the times that you will pay much more for your electricity.

A Big Change in Your Utility Bill

To estimate how these new rates might change your electric bill, the City of Fort Collins has created an rate estimator that you can find at www.fcgov.com/utilities/tod-estimator

Wondering what you can do to save money? Here are some tips from FCHA CEO Glenn Frank that he says you can try to reduce the impact of your utility bill increasing dramatically:

  • Invest in LED bulbs and keep lights off when not in use.
  • Consider installing timers on bath fans and lights in rooms that tend to be occupied for short times.
  • Install a programmable thermostat to adjust the temperature in your home during the day to help heat and cool during off hours so that you can use less energy during peak hours.
  • Install bath fans that have high-efficient ECM motors and humidity sensors to turn on and off automatically.
  • Plan to do laundry during off peak times. If you have an electric dryer, it could cost you between $1.50 to $2 to dry your clothes.
  • Avoid electric stove top, oven and microwave cooking. Plan more crock pot meals in the winter to be ready by the time the rate changes and utilize outdoor BBQ cooking in the summer.
  • Use the timer for delay start on your dishwasher to start after the peak time.
  • Potentially using your gas fireplace rather than running the furnace and fan depending on your situation (consult your expert HVAC company).
  • Maintaining your heating and cooling equipment by having it serviced, cleaned and running efficiently will be even more important with the new utility rates.
  • Keep your dryer lint screen clean and have your dryer vents cleaned.
  • Consider converting your electric appliances such as clothes dryers, ovens and cook tops to gas.

Schedule a maintenance visit on your HVAC equipment to make sure that it’s running at peak performance with the experts at Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning.

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Your air conditioner is making a weird Why Schedule AC Repairssound. Or it is starting and stopping too frequently. Or maybe it’s blowing warmer air than usual, or costing more to run. Whatever the case, there’s a problem of some kind affecting system performance.

But hey, we’re almost at the end of the 2018 cooling season. Why not just wait until the summer begins anew to have the air conditioner repaired?

Well, as it turns out, there are a whole lot of reasons.

And yes, we’re going to share a few of them.

First, however, an executive summary of what is to follow …

It is always best to schedule immediate AC repair in Loveland, CO.

If you ask us, no problem with your air conditioning system is ever truly “minor” enough to ignore. The sooner that you stop thinking of problems like that, the better off your air conditioning system.

Start Saving Money Immediately

The whole “well, my air conditioner is still working pretty well” argument really drives us nuts. Why? Because a good enough performance is not good enough, and for a few reasons.  Chief among them is the fact that we hate thinking of our customers paying too much for too little comfort. That is just what you’ll be doing if you fail to schedule your air conditioning repairs promptly, though.

Whatever the other effects that your problem has on your air conditioner may be, you can definitely count on energy efficiency suffering. It may not add up to too much right away, but even a little bit of unnecessary cost is too much for our valued customers. When we repair your system promptly, your budget reaps the benefits as well as your comfort!

Prevent Further Damage

If you sprain your ankle a mile from the marathon finish line, you may decide you’ve come too far to give up. It’s not as if you can have a doctor come out to the race and patch you up. If you do manage to finish, of course, you’re really going to feel it for a while to come.

When it comes to your AC finishing a marathon of cooling a home all summer, there’s no reason to force it across the finish line. You can easily have a technician come tend to its pain points. Scheduling prompt repairs helps limit further damages to the system.

For the Sake of Convenience

Let’s pose a question—how certain are you that you’ll remember to schedule your AC repairs before you actually need to use your system next year?

If your answer is “not very,” then have the job done now! The last thing you want is for summer to strike harder and earlier than expected when your air conditioning system isn’t prepared for it. If you get the necessary repairs out of the way now, you won’t find yourself scrambling to schedule service during our busiest time of the season.

Schedule your AC repairs with Fort Collins Heating & Air Conditioning, the company you can trust.

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