Diamond Certified Resource Heating and Cooling Your Home Guide
Diamond Certified Resource Heating and Cooling Your Home Guide
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Read MoreDUBLIN — Did you know the air inside residential homes can be up to 90% more polluted than the air outside? Due to a comparative lack of ventilation, it’s easy for airborne contaminants like dust, dander, mold, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to build up inside the home and create poor indoor air quality (IAQ) levels. Fortunately, there are things you can do to improve your home’s IAQ. The most effective way to improve IAQ is to incorporate one or more air purification technologies within your existing HVAC system. For example, a high-efficiency air filtration product arrests airborne contaminants, while a UV light system eliminates viruses and other particles that are too small to be captured by a filter. Read more
EL CERRITO — Some people think air filters are all the same, but this is far from the case. While the heating and cooling systems in many homes have standard, one-inch fiberglass filters, the reality is that these do little to improve indoor air quality—they’re only good for filtering out very large airborne particles. To get better filtration for your HVAC system, consider upgrading to a MERV 13 air filter. This four-inch pleated filter removes particles down to the level of viruses and bacterium, which makes it at least 60 times more effective than a standard filter. In addition to the quality of the filter you choose, another consideration is how often you replace it. Read more
FREMONT — When purchasing an air filter for your HVAC system, you have a lot of options to choose from. One important thing to know about is the Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) rating scale, which is used to assess filter effectiveness. With MERV, filters are rated on a scale of 1 to 20, with 1 being the least effective and 20 being the most effective. For example, a MERV 3 filter can capture 70 to 75 percent of basic airborne particles like pollen, dust mites and pet dander, whereas a MERV 8 filter can capture more than 90 percent. Filters rated MERV 9 to 11 are also able to capture mold spores, Read more
VALLEJO — California has established a goal of relying entirely on zero-emission energy sources for electricity by the year 2045. A likely byproduct of this goal is that gas prices will skyrocket over the next 25 years. For this reason, you should think twice about investing in gas-powered furnaces, water heaters and other appliances. Even if they’re less expensive up front, the long-term cost of running them will likely result in a higher overall expenditure. Rather than buying gas-powered appliances, consider going all-electric. Electric heat pump technology has come a long way over the last decade, and today there are high-efficiency heat pump systems that use a fraction of the energy that older systems used. Read more
SAUSALITO — If your thermostat stops working, there are a couple of things you should check before calling a professional. The first is simple: make sure it has batteries. Locate the battery compartment either by taking the thermostat off the wall or removing its face or cover. While you’re checking for batteries, you should also check to see if there’s any corrosion on the battery contacts. If there is, clean it off using a cotton swab and white vinegar. If the batteries are in place, you’ll need to take another step to diagnose the situation. After removing the thermostat from the wall, take a gator clip or piece of insulated wire and insert the ends into the R and W terminals on the wall-mounted wiring panel. Read more