If it’s the first time you’re having your furnace checked, it can be hard to know what to expect. With many companies and claims in the area, there are some best practices you can look to when choosing a heating and cooling contractor.

• Free evaluations and cost estimates — You should not pay for evaluations or estimates of work that may be needed in your home.
• Clear plan for work — While unexpected obstacles or additional repairs can come up during any project, your contractor should be able to outline the plan for work and a cost estimate in advance.
• Respect for your home — Your home should be in the same condition after the contractor’s work as it was beforehand. This includes the contractor handling cleanup and any repairs to walls, etc.
• Right tools for the job — Your contractor should have all the tools needed for the job, including ladders.
• Insurance to protect you — Reputable contractors insure their workers to protect you in case they are accidentally injured while working in your home.

Unfortunately, not all HVAC contractors have your best interests in mind, and they may be looking for a way to make a quick sale. The following scenarios are signs of improper sales tactics:

• Carbon monoxide claims — You should not be told that carbon monoxide is present in your home without the use of a measuring device. Other signs to watch for include being told that your lips are blue, or that the technician is lightheaded and that these conditions are being caused by carbon monoxide in your home.
• Heat exchanger excuses — If you’re told that your heat exchanger is cracked, you must be given proof or a reasonable explanation. Be careful of pictures of a heat exchanger crack that may actually be a stamping mark. Another poor sign is if you are not told that a heat exchanger warranty may be in effect if your current unit is less than 20 years old.
• Another questionable tactic is a contractor advertising a special maintenance price, but you find out later the fee only covers an inspection — not the actual maintenance cost.

Purchase-process red flags — You should never feel forced to buy. In the state of Iowa, any contractor must honor your request to cancel a contract within three days of signing. Here are some red flags:

• The brand name of the equipment you’re buying is withheld from you.
• You see an ad for something that appears too good to be true and the company cannot provide you with clear terms or “fine print” to back it up.
• You’re forced to return product brochures or proposal paperwork to the representative unless you sign a contract to buy.
• The company can’t support their claims that the new “high-efficiency” equipment you’re buying truly meets the industry definition — and isn’t just performing at a higher efficiency than what you have now.
• You’re being asked to buy due to “factory overstock,” “truckload pricing,” or “never-pay-for-a-service-call-again” promotions.

Bell Brothers Heating and Air Conditioning was voted the best HVAC contractor in the Des Moines metro by readers of the Des Moines Register. We are proud of this title and take the responsibility of keeping our customers’ homes safe and comfortable very seriously. If you have any questions about the maintenance and equipment service process, don’t hesitate to call us at 515-244-8911.

Why the Auto function might not be the best option for your furnace fan

The next time you’re setting your thermostat, take a look at the fan option. Is it set to On or Auto? Turns out, there is a difference, and it could mean savings on your next energy bill.

What is the Auto function?

If you program the fan control on your thermostat to Auto, the fan will come on with a call for cooling or a call for heating. After the call for cooling or heating is satisfied, the fan will shut off.

The benefits of the Auto function:

When there is high humidity in the house during the summertime, the air conditioner coil is wet and, if you run the fan continuously, it will rehumidify the house. Those situations are rare and it’s usually when the air conditioner is considerably oversized for the house.

What is the On function?

The other option is to run the fan continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The benefits of the On function:

There are many benefits to utilizing the On function. From a reliability and an energy-efficiency standpoint, leaving the fan on continuously is generally the best way to go. It keeps the air moving in a home, improves indoor air quality and helps to even out temperature swings, especially in two-story houses.

Busting the On function myths

Despite these benefits, people are likely more familiar with the myths associated with the On function.

Myth 1: If you run the fan continuously, it costs more money and uses more energy than the Auto function.

In reality, a motor takes a decent amount of energy to get it started, but once it’s running it doesn’t require much energy at all. The biggest use of electricity happens when the motor starts. If you let it run continuously, it will actually cost less than the Auto function when the fan is turning on and off repeatedly throughout the day.

Myth 2: There is more wear and tear when the fan is run continuously.

The most wear happens to the motor during the starting process when there is a lot of torque on the motor.

Myth 3: Outside of energy and motor maintenance, it doesn’t really matter which function you use.

Lower energy costs and motor wear are great benefits of using the On function, but indoor air quality is another important factor to consider. When you let the fan run continuously, there will be more air going through the furnace air filter. The filter’s job is to collect dust and other particles from the air. For high-efficiency filters, it’s even more important to keep the fan running continuously.

Flipping the switch
These three myths can be debunked through customer education, and we train our Bell Brothers technicians and installation specialists to inform customers of the benefits of the On function of their thermostats. When homeowners do switch to the On function, they often report that their homes feel more comfortable and their heating and cooling costs are lower.

If you’d like to know more about which fan function is best for your home comfort needs, contact us online or at 515-244-8911.

 

Edited, June 29th, 2021.

I find myself comparing an HVAC system to a car engine quite often. People understand the importance of preventive maintenance when it comes to their vehicles, so the comparison seems to carry some weight. When thinking about a car, a dirty engine has to work a lot harder to function properly. The same goes for a heating and air conditioning system with dirty ductwork.

Why is an Air Duct Cleaning Necessary? 

Clean ducts allow a heating and air conditioning unit to operate at maximum efficiency. Homes built in the ‘70s, ‘80s and even the ‘90s often didn’t have the air ducts cleaned after construction on the house was complete. Any debris restricts airflow — requiring your HVAC system to work harder and less efficiently. When the system has to exert more effort to function, you pay more in energy costs.

Like committing to regular maintenance for a vehicle, there are steps you can take to make sure your HVAC system is operating at its peak performance — including a duct cleaning.

Here are a few signs you should get your air ducts cleaned:

• If you’ve lived in your home for longer than five to 10 years and have never had your duct system cleaned

• You have done significant renovations in your home

• You notice an excess amount of dust on your furniture

• There are soot stains around your register

• Your heating and cooling costs begin to increase inexplicably

What Does an Air Duct Cleaning Cost? 

Once you decide to have your air ducts cleaned, it’s important to select the right company to perform the service. As with most anything, you get what you pay for when it comes to duct cleaning. Low-priced services will use a wet/dry vacuum to clean out the supply duct as far as it can reach and clean out the return air grills. This is not the preferred method.

Instead, the company should run a camera down the duct work to show you the condition of the ducts before and after cleaning. They will blow air into one end of the system while sucking it out of the other. This ensures all the dirt is contained within the duct system and is not blowing out the registers into your home. Once finished, the ducts should look brand new.

A proper duct cleaning will last five years. The service might cost several hundred dollars up front, but the infrequency of the expense combined with the energy savings is well-worth the initial cost.

Indoor Air Quality Benefits

There are other benefits to having your duct system cleaned in addition to the energy savings. Clean ducts mean the air in your home will be cleaner for you and your family. Duct work becomes dusty overtime just like the furniture in your living room. Ducts will also collect dirt, pollen, allergens and pet hair and dander. In turn, mold spores, bacteria fungus and mildew can grow and be circulated. This indoor air pollution can impact the indoor air quality and reduce comfort in your home, especially for those who suffer from allergies, asthma or other respiratory conditions.

How to Choose the Right HVAC Unit Size

When we’re considering buying a vehicle, one of the first factors we consider is the gas mileage. The gas mileage, when it comes to both city and highway driving, is an indication of efficiency. Cars are much more efficient when cruising at a consistent speed on the highway as opposed to the stop-and-go of city driving. People are usually very concerned with the efficiency of their vehicle but often overlook the importance of selecting the right heating and cooling system to maximize efficiency.

To maximize efficiency, think about choosing a system that allows your AC to circulate air consistently. Like a car driving on the highway, you want to eliminate as much starting and stopping as possible. An AC system that’s properly sized to your home will constantly be running — not shifting between high-blast and not running at all.

Why Proper AC Sizing Matters for Comfort and Efficiency

Customers frequently ask us, “What size air conditioner do I need?” When it comes to choosing an air conditioner that’s going to make your home as comfortable as possible, it’s not always best to super-size the system. A unit that is too small for your home will be working too hard to reach your desired temperature, if it reaches that temperature at all. If it’s too big, however, the AC will begin a cycle between blasting cold air and shutting off completely. Like a car in the city, this is not an efficient way to operate.

An air conditioner also dehumidifies a house. If it is oversized, it won’t always be running, which means it isn’t dehumidifying. A humid house will feel much warmer than it really is. A system that is the right size will continuously run — keeping the humidity at the appropriate level.

An HVAC professional will help you determine a system that’s right for your home.

Consider Efficient Air Conditioner Technology

Air conditioners today are equipped with technology that makes it easier to keep your system operating efficiently. Variable capacity equipment, like the Carrier® Infinity® system, is a good example of that technology at work.

The Infinity system measures indoor temperature, indoor relative humidity, and outdoor temperature, and uses these measurements to adjust its operating capacity as needed. The system tracks how long it takes to reach the desired temperature in the house and adjusts the capacity of the unit to meet that requirement. Varying capacity results in lower humidity levels in the house which means people are more comfortable at a warmer temperature. Instead of 72 degrees, they may set it at 76, which saves money on cooling costs.

Updated: August 9th, 2021

I'm a big basketball fan, and in this post I'll be sharing how using a "zone defense" can help homeowners with heating and cooling costs.

Right now, many homeowners manually close registers in rooms that aren’t in use to reduce wasted heating or cooling. If we’re continuing with the basketball metaphor, this is more like a man-to-man defense. Unfortunately, this approach can compromise the efficiency of the system and make it work harder than necessary. Thanks to technology advancements, there’s a more convenient and more efficient way of controlling the heating and cooling output. This method is called “zoning your home.”

What is zoning your home?

Zoning allows homeowners to heat and cool different rooms — or zones — at different temperatures. A homeowner can control multiple zones separately to reduce hot and cold spots for more consistent comfort. Zoning your home can be more energy-efficient, as it allows for individual room temperature control. For example, you can set the temperature of the nursery or an office at 72 degrees, your living room at 70 degrees and the basement at 68 degrees.

How does zoned temperature control work?

Zoning a home starts with the ductwork. Each duct has a damper inside that will regulate airflow to each zone in the home. Depending on the system, the dampers are automatically controlled by a network of thermostats or sensors. When there is just one thermostat for an entire home, different areas may be up to five degrees off the desired temperature. With a thermostat or sensor in each zone, however, those inconsistencies are greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated. With some systems, you can coordinate settings for up to eight zones with full, seven-day programmability.

You may want to consider zoning if your home has:

• More than one level

• A sprawling single-level floor plan

• A room over the garage

• A room addition

• A finished room in the basement or attic

• A room built on a concrete slab floor

• Vaulted ceilings or lofts

• Rooms with expansive windows

• Infrequently used rooms or areas

Updated: November 11th, 2021

As an energy-conscious Des Moines homeowner, you probably read our blog post about how to reduce air leaks in your house. Following the tips outlined there will help your home be more comfortable, keep your HVAC system from working overtime, and keep your heating and cooling costs from increasing. But that’s not all …

An obvious, but typically forgotten, cause for air leaks is duct leakage.

Have you ever wondered why one room in your home isn’t heated or cooled as well as other rooms? Or, does your basement seem much warmer than it should be? These problems could be from a leak (or leaks) in the ductwork. Sound terrible? Don’t worry — it’s fixable. I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, it’s important to understand how the ductwork was designed.

Design Factor in Leaky Air Ducts

The ductwork in your home allows air to move from the furnace and air conditioning unit to all parts of the house. Depending on your type of house, ductwork can run from the basement to the attic or vice-a-versa. Some homebuilders design the ductwork to run through the attic, with the air coming into the second (or third) floor via ceiling registers. This means if there’s a leak in the duct — that lost air never reaches its final destination and is unfortunately wasted in the basement or attic. In turn, the HVAC system has to work more to reach the desired temperature and you have to pay more in heating and cooling costs.

Preventing Ductwork Leaks

It’s ultimately up to the builders to ensure a quality duct system. Surprisingly, until the past decade, there had been no regulations ensuring ducts were leak-free. In the mid-2000s, building codes began requiring builders to seal ductwork for maximum energy efficiency. In fact, homes built since 2007 must pass an air leakage test.

Air Sealing Your House

If you think your ductwork may have a leak, here’s what to do. You can easily check for leaks any place the duct is exposed by feeling for escaped air. If you locate a leak, you can use mastic tape to seal it. Keep in mind, it’s possible there are more leaks hiding behind the walls, floors or ceilings.

This is why I suggest calling a professional. Sealing your ductwork using a product called Aeroseal® can help improve the comfort in your home and reduce leaks by up to 90%. Sealing your ductwork also provides better air quality because dust, dirt and pollen are not being sucked into the ducts and pushed around your house.

Central Iowans make their homes comfortable by controlling the temperature and humidity level inside their house. But two things can prevent this from happening easily and efficiently: air leaks and negative pressure. While air leaks are well-known to many homeowners, negative pressure may not be. This means there is less air in your home than outside, which causes the house to pull in air to try to balance out the pressure.

Both air leaks and negative pressure lead to air infiltration in your home, which can negatively impact your comfort.

• Cold, dry air gets into your home during the winter.
• Hot, humid air infiltrates your home during the summer.
• Both of these scenarios force the furnace and air conditioner to work harder to maintain the preferred settings.
• When the HVAC system works harder, heating and cooling costs increase.

Air Leaks
Some air leaks are easy to spot. Make sure to use weather stripping around your windows and doors for a tighter seal. Investing in new windows will make those leaks practically non-existent. If you have a wood-burning fireplace, make sure the damper is closed when not in use.

Other air leaks are less noticeable and trickier to find. Did you know air can enter your home through electrical boxes? Many outlets, light switches and lighting fixtures aren’t insulated. For example, if there is an attic directly above recessed ceiling lights, that cold or hot attic air can seep into your living space. Or, air infiltration can happen through outlets on exterior walls. If you add those all up, it sure can make a difference. Fortunately, this can be easily remedied by adding foam inserts in the electrical boxes, which is inexpensive and can be found at your local home improvement store.

Negative Pressure
When a home is in a negative pressure situation, it needs to replace that air by pulling in outside air from the easiest source. There are three main sources for creating a negative pressure in your home:

• Exhaust fan
• Dryer
• Water heater (draws air from the room for the combustion process and then exhausts it outdoors)

These three conveniences suck the air out of your home. If a door isn’t properly sealed or electrical boxes aren’t insulated, they can become a location for easy air infiltration.

There are a few tips to follow to keep your home from experiencing negative pressure.

• Don’t let the bathroom exhaust fans run all day. For ease, you can install a 20-minute timer for them to shut off automatically.
• Only use the kitchen range or microwave exhaust when you’re cooking.
• The clothes dryer removes a ton of air from your house. Consider not doing multiple loads of laundry back-to-back.
• In addition, try not to use the exhaust and dryer at the same time.

Addressing air leaks and negative pressure will help keep your Central Iowa home more comfortable, your HVAC system from working overtime, and your heating and cooling costs from increasing.

Imagine never worrying about maintenance or replacement of your electronics, car or home — it sure would be great. Unfortunately, we know that’s not the case. Many items we own need to be maintained and eventually replaced. You probably replace your smartphone every two years and your car every five to 10 years, but your home’s heating and cooling system will last 17 to 20 years. For many homeowners, they only purchase one new system in their lifetime.

Every HVAC system won’t last 20 years on its own. Here are several contributing factors you need to know.

1. Location
   Living in Iowa, your air conditioner and furnace each only work three to six months of the year. Lower operating hours mean a longer life expectancy. Compare that to homes in the Southwestern United States that require air conditioning for more months of the year or northern states that require more heating throughout the year.
2. Maintenance
   We recommend one yearly tune-up for your air conditioner and one for your furnace. Lack of maintenance can take years off the life expectancy. Plus, the system could lose up to 40 percent efficiency, which means you’ll be paying more in energy bills.
3. Proper use
   It’s tempting to set the thermostat to 68 degrees on those sweltering summer days or 76 on those wicked winter nights. Unfortunately, setting it to the extreme is overworking the system, which will reduce its useful life. Also, if you turn your system on and off frequently, the engine is being overworked. On average, the unit runs 10 minutes before reaching peak efficiency.
4. Right-sized
   For years it was common practice to install a bigger unit than what was needed in homes. Now, HVAC professionals can find a unit that is right-sized to your home’s needs. If the unit is not properly sized, it’s most likely working too hard or too inefficiently, which can take time off its useful life.

Here are two important reasons you need to know the life expectancy of your air conditioning unit.

1. Avoid health risks
   Continuing to use a system past its useful life runs the risk of a carbon monoxide leak. The odorless, colorless and tasteless gas can be deadly if not quickly detected.
2. Avoid a breakdown
   You may be thinking — if it’s not broke, why replace it? Knowing your system is at the end of its life can help you avoid an unexpected complete breakdown. Emergency replacements can be inconvenient to schedule and difficult to pay for (if you haven’t been saving up) and could leave your family without cooling or heating when Mother Nature is at her worst.

Updated: October 11, 2021

What to Expect During Your Home's HVAC System Installation

Deciding to purchase a new heating and/or air conditioning system for your home is a big deal. Most likely you haven’t purchased one before and are entering into unknown territory. To help prepare you for this purchase, below is a guide to what you can expect during your new HVAC system installation.

Selecting the Right AC and Heating Contractor

Do your homework and research local hvac companies. Find out what products they sell and services they offer — but most importantly, find out their reputation. Ask your friends and neighbors for recommendations. Keep in mind — your new hvac system is only as good as the company that installed it.

Quote Expectations to Keep in Mind

There are many variables that affect which system is best for your home. In order to give you the most accurate pricing, the company will ask to visit your home. A home evaluation should take one to two hours and includes checking the ductwork and testing for the proper size of system. This ensures they provide the best recommendations based on your home’s needs. You’ll receive options for equipment and accessories as well as financing options.

HVAC Quote Red Flags

You should not do business with the company if the professional:

• Does not ask any questions and immediately tells you a new system is necessary
• Uses high-pressure sales tactics or won’t leave your home without a purchase
• Does not provide proposals for multiple options

Scheduling the HVAC System Installation

After selecting a system, it’s time to schedule the installation. It typically takes one day to install both a new furnace and air conditioning system. You do not need to be home during the installation, but some homeowners feel more comfortable doing so.

Don’t Worry About a Mess

Professional installation specialists will be respectful of your home. From wearing shoe covers to covering your floors to cleaning up after themselves, there should be virtually no evidence the installation ever took place (besides the noticeable difference in comfort and a lower utility bill). They will also dispose of your old equipment in accordance with EPA regulations. A reputable HVAC company will be bonded, insured and licensed to protect you from any accidental damages during the HVAC system installation.

Understanding How the New HVAC System Works

A quality installation specialist will make sure you understand how the system works before they leave your home. This includes discussing how to replace the furnace filter and how to operate the thermostat. Ask the technician if they will fill out and submit warranty and rebate forms or if you are responsible.

Heating and Cooling Company Follow Up

A few days after the installation, the company should follow up with you to ensure the system is running properly and that you understand all the warranties. This is also the time Bell Brothers will schedule your free annual maintenance appointment, which all homeowners receive when purchasing a new furnace or air conditioning system. You can also schedule your HVAC system installation at a later time.