Wednesday, June 30, 2010

How Humid Climates Affect Indoor Air Quality and Comfort

Regional climate plays a large role in Indoor Air Quality and comfort. Regional climate characteristics are determined by geographic location and long term weather conditions. Two of the most important factors that affect an areas climate are temperature and precipitation.
What makes Humid Climates Uncomfortable?

Humid climates have a high amount of water vapor in the air. When it’s hot, high humidity makes people feel hotter because it reduces the ability to evaporate moisture from the skin. In humid climates, becoming comfortable means going into a conditioned space.
Potential for Mold Growth

While mold spores are in every region and every climate, mold growth is highly dependent on the amount of humidity. Mold growth typically occurs when an environment reaches a relative humidity of 60 percent or greater in a 72 hour span. If mold is found within your home or workplace remediate the problem immediately, mold spores can be distributed throughout the home or building through the HVAC system impacting indoor air quality.
Air Conditioning in Humid Climates

Air conditioning coils serve a very important role in regulating temperature and humidity in humid climates. As air passes through the evaporative coil of the air conditioner, heat and moisture are removed from the air. To a degree, the lower the humidity level, the more comfortable you will feel at a given temperature.
Air Duct Cleaning and HVAC Maintenance

Overtime foreign debris is drawn into the evaporative coils and fan blower of the air conditioning system, gradually decreasing air flow and energy efficiency. Maintaining HVAC system, will keep your cooling and heating components operation at peak energy efficiency, and prevent potential indoor air quality problems. Yearly air conditioner inspections and routine air duct cleaning with assure maximum efficiency.

Monday, June 21, 2010

What Does the EPA say about Indoor Air Quality?

What Does the EPA say about Indoor Air Quality?

The US Environmental Protection Agency states that poor indoor air quality is one of the top five environmental threats to our country. So why does the EPA feel so strongly about indoor air in homes and workplaces? Well, according to the EPA, indoor air is on average a staggering three to five times more contaminated than outdoor air and in some instances as high as seventy times.
So why is indoor air so much worse in our home than outdoor air?

The answer is in modern day construction practices. Homes are being built more air tight in an effort to be more energy efficient and environmentally conscious. Older homes are being re-insulated and getting air tight window upgrades. The result is less drafty homes that no longer have natural ventilation to bring in fresh air.

Normal everyday living provides an ongoing source of airborne contaminants like dust, dander, chemicals and other allergens. These pollutants become trapped in your home due to this poor ventilation and then are re-circulated by your heating and cooling system.
So what does this mean for you?

The average American family now spends ninety percent of their time indoors. That means that the bulk of our days is spent breathing in these irritants and pollutants and the health effects are significant. Dust, pollen, household chemicals and smoke can create an unhealthy situation in your home for everyone, but especially for people with compromised respiratory systems such as children, the elderly, and people with asthma and allergy sufferers.
So what can you as a homeowner do to improve your air quality?

Today doctors agree that one of the healthiest things to do is to minimize your exposure to these indoor pollutants, allergens and irritants in your home. One of the most logical places to address indoor pollutants is in your heating and cooling system. Think of this system as the lungs of your home. It takes in air and breathes it out; it circulates all the air and everything in the air throughout your home. In fact, on average all the air in your home passes through your heating and cooling system five to seven times each day.

Begin by making sure that you regularly change furnace filter. While these filters do not eliminate airborne contaminants they can help reduce pollutants from entering your furnace and circulating through the house. Most experts recommend replacing your filter every two months.

Another important step to take to improve the quality of the air in your home, and one that many overlook is having your heating and cooling system thoroughly cleaned. As polluted air is re-circulated through your heating and cooling system dust, dirt, and contaminants are deposited throughout the system overtime. These subtle particles are then picked up by the airstream and are then pushed back out into the living areas of the house to be breathed in by family members. In a large number of homes the heating and cooling system has never been cleaned. Even in newer homes or homes undergoing renovation contaminants such as sawdust and drywall dust left over from construction process are deposited in your ducts.

So how clean is the heating and cooling system in your home? Here is a quick way to check. Remove a vent cover and use a mirror and flashlight to look inside. Or use a small digital camera to take a picture of the inside of your duct. If your ducts are dirty it is time to have your air ducts cleaned.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Solar Heating Boilers are getting popular.

Hot water heated by the sun is used in many ways. While perhaps best known in a residential setting to provide hot domestic water, solar hot water also has industrial applications, e.g. to generate electricity [1]. Designs suitable for hot climates can be much simpler and cheaper, and can be considered an appropriate technology for these places. The global solar thermal market is dominated by China, Europe, Japan and India.
A solar hot water heater installed on a house in Belgium

In order to heat water using solar energy, a collector, often fastened to a roof or a wall facing the sun, heats working fluid that is either pumped (active system) or driven by natural convection (passive system) through it. The collector could be made of a simple glass topped insulated box with a flat solar absorber made of sheet metal attached to copper pipes and painted black, or a set of metal tubes surrounded by an evacuated (near vacuum) glass cylinder. In industrial cases a parabolic mirror can concentrate sunlight on the tube. Heat is stored in a hot water storage tank. The volume of this tank needs to be larger with solar heating systems in order to allow for bad weather, and because the optimum final temperature for the solar collector is lower than a typical immersion or combustion heater. The heat transfer fluid (HTF) for the absorber may be the hot water from the tank, but more commonly (at least in active systems) is a separate loop of fluid containing anti-freeze and a corrosion inhibitor which delivers heat to the tank through a heat exchanger (commonly a coil of copper tubing within the tank). Another lower-maintenance concept is the 'drain-back': no anti-freeze is required; instead all the piping is sloped to cause water to drain back to the tank. The tank is not pressurized and is open to atmospheric pressure. As soon as the pump shuts off, flow reverses and the pipes are empty before freezing could occur.

Residential solar thermal installations fall into two groups: passive (sometimes called "compact") and active (sometimes called "pumped") systems. Both typically include an auxiliary energy source (electric heating element or connection to a gas or fuel oil central heating system) that is activated when the water in the tank falls below a minimum temperature setting such as 55°C. Hence, hot water is always available. The combination of solar water heating and using the back-up heat from a wood stove chimney to heat water[2] can enable a hot water system to work all year round in cooler climates, without the supplemental heat requirement of a solar water heating system being met with fossil fuels or electricity.

When a solar water heating and hot-water central heating system are used in conjunction, solar heat will either be concentrated in a pre-heating tank that feeds into the tank heated by the central heating, or the solar heat exchanger will replace the lower heating element and the upper element will remain in place to provide for any heating that solar cannot provide. However, the primary need for central heating is at night and in winter when solar gain is lower. Therefore, solar water heating for washing and bathing is often a better application than central heating because supply and demand are better matched.In many climates, a solar hot water system can provide up to 85% of domestic hot water energy. This can include domestic non-electric concentrating solar thermal systems. In many northern European countries, combined hot water and space heating systems .




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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Heating Tips

Heating Tips

# Set your thermostat as low as it is comfortable.
# Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month.
# Clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters and radiators as needed; make sure they're not blocked by furniture, carpeting or drapes.
# Use kitchen, bath and other ventilating fans wisely; in just one hour, these fans can pull out a houseful of warmed or cooled air. Turn fans off as soon as they have done the job.
# Keep draperies and shades open on south-facing windows during the heating season to allow sunlight to enter your home; close them at night to reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.
# Close an unoccupied room that is isolated from the rest of the house such as in a corner and turn down the thermostat or turn off the heating for that room or zone. Do not, however, turn the heating off if it adversely affects the rest of your system.
# Consider installing a programmable thermostat. You can save as much as 10% a year on your heating and cooling bills by simply turning your thermostat back 10% to 15% for 8 hours with an automatic setback or programmable thermostat. A progammable thermostat will pay for itself in only one heating season. After that, it's money in your pocket.



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provides other useful information about air duct system in your house.


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If you can like information about the latest mobile phone you can visit mobilephonesclub.blogspot.com.

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If you would like to read useful articles on various topics visit The Articles Direct.

If you are looking to outsource you marketing campaign visit The Call Experts.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Troubleshooting heating system

Now this is a typical heating system, it's part of a central HBAC system that you find in homes these days. Now the first thing that you want to do that I will say in working with your system, it's important to have it properly maintained, so the first thing I would say in troubleshooting it is make sure that you have inspections by a professional company at least once a year. With that said, there are some things that you can do as a homeowner to make sure that your HBAC unit is working properly. Now the first thing this is actually a gas fired system. So in this case, I have a valve down here and to make sure it's operating properly I want to make sure that this valve is on. Typically with these valves, if they're in line with the pipe, that means they're on, and if it's ninety degrees out from the pipe, that is off. So if your heat is not coming on, that's a good thing to check first. Next, we can access this unit by pulling this up. Now this particular unit here has electronic ignition, which means it does not have a pilot light. Now if it happened to be a unit that does have a pilot light, then you would have some kind of box here with a glass window on it. And you would simply look in that window to make sure the pilot light. This particular unit whenever it actually comes on, it has an electronic igniter that starts firing, and until the actual gas flames and the gas engine ignites. Now a common thing that you'll run into on these units if it's not running at all, and particularly if the air handler will not come on. There is a safety switch, this is called a maintenance switch and it's always located on the side of the unit. So if your unit is not working at all, it could be that this switch has been bumped. It's like a light switch, it's an on and off switch, so you want to make sure that it is in the on position. Many times when you find your unit is not operating it's because this switch has been has been bumped into the off position or perhaps when they performed maintenance on it last, they may have left that off by mistake

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Allergy free bedding products can be a lifesaver for adults and children who suffer with nighttime allergies. Dust collects all over a house and bedroom. Particles can be seen on the top of a dresser and mirror. For some people, it can cause itchy eyes, sneezing and coughing. They are actually having an allergic reaction to tiny parts of dead dust mites and their feces. Not a pleasant thought. That is just another reason why many people opt for allergy free bedding products. Just the thought of these nasty, microscopic critters living in a mattress makes people want to clean house. The use of these products help prevent the presence of dust mites as well as indoor mold, fungi spores, tobacco smoke and pet dander inside of our box springs, comforters, blankets, pillows and mattresses. The cotton or synthetic fabric and the special weave of allergy free material will keep these irritants out. Young children and people with asthma benefit because they can breathe easier through the night.

Among the many products that consumers can purchase, there are some primary items that can be found just about anywhere. Individuals can buy a mattress protector or cover which keeps allergens out of the mattress. They can also buy pillow shams to keep dust mites out of pillows. Some companies even make actual allergy free pillows. Some of these products are called organic. This really means that the allergy free bedding products are made of one hundred percent, all-natural unbleached and untreated cotton cloth. They contain no biocide or flame retardant chemicals and are free of 21 specific allergens. Others are made of a synthetic fabric called Dacron, which is commonly recommended for allergy free bedding by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Online sites and local stores provide information and items that can be useful for anyone suffering from allergies. All of the major department stores and chains carry allergy free bedding. Consumers can also purchase these items at bedding and linen stores. These stores may also offer a larger selection compared to department stores or chains. Online, individuals can buy allergy free bedding products on major auction sites as well as online stores. There are items that are sold only online through the distributor. These products may cost a little more than other brands. Seeking a money back guarantee is a great idea, no matter where items are purchased. In a matter of days, the individual should suffer fewer allergy symptoms. If buying allergy free bedding for cleaner air, consumers should see less dust in a matter of weeks. With these products blocking the dust mites from their source of nutrients, it's only a matter of time before they all die off.

There are other things that can be done to cut back on dust and allergies in the bedroom. For one, individuals should never eat in the bedroom. Dust mites will eat crumbs. Also, keeping skin exfoliated with creams and lotions will limit the amount of dead skin cells on a mattress or bed. Staying away from fuzzy wool blankets or feather- or wool-stuffed comforters and mattress pads which collect dust mites is another important tip. Silk sheets can be a great alternative. These are naturally hypoallergenic. Consumers should wash bedding at least once a month. Sheets, blankets, and other bedclothes must be washed in water that is at least 130 degrees Fahrenheit. A well ventilated home with open windows will keep the occurrence of allergies to a minimum. Dust mites love humidity and an undisturbed room. Keeping pets out of the bedroom is a must to keep fleas, ticks, and outside dirt from making the way onto bedroom furniture. Consumers can also try using an air filter or dehumidifier to fight dust. Finally, steam cleaning carpets regularly will help to kill off dust mites. If at all possible, do away with carpeting and stick with hardwood. Dust mites live in carpet. As these steps are taken, it is important to understand that a home will never be completely free of dust mites. They will still be carried in from other environments. They are, unfortunately, a natural tenant in every home. Yet, consumers will see a difference in allergies if the effort is put forth. "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word" (Psalm 119:9).

It is important to seek quality products when trying to get rid of allergens. Allergy free bedding products can fit into a wide range of prices. Consumers should not necessarily equate the highest price with the highest quality. Looking for the most recommended brands is useful. Seeking information from doctors or other allergy sufferers on brands to use can provide some insight into this topic. Online ratings and reviews of specific brands of allergy free bedding can also be of assistance. No matter what product is chosen, it is important to verify it can be returned for a full refund should it not live up to standards. If special products do not work, it may be necessary to consult a doctor for medical treatment options. The individual made need an inhaler or some prescription allergy medicine. Taking the time to research this topic and find products that will help fight against allergens is vital.


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