Remodel versus New Construction

The amount of open land available for development is less than before, so creativity is being utilized to design more compact developments, concentrating homes into multi-family structures and creating communities with shared spaces.

If you need more square footage for a growing family, staying put by increasing the footprint or adding a second story is viewed as more green than starting fresh on a new plot of ground.  In either case, careful consideration to the materials and systems used can have a significant impact on the environment.

Changing Habits and Habitats

From acoutrements to the house design itself, each decision to change an appliance or upgrade the finishes has greener impacts, no matter the choice of color.  Something so simple as converting light bulbs from incandescent to longer-lasting and more efficient compact florescents (the twisty tube ones) is becoming required in many communities and saves serious dollars in utility costs.

Hot water heaters can be combined with the boiler to share the energy.  More energy efficient glass can bring in more solar heat and light and hold it there longer.  Bamboo flooring only takes five years to grow, but can last 60, allowing our supply of trees to replenish.  Getting an energy efficient air conditioner can lower you energy bills during the summer.

Greening Your Home

Transforming the colors on our walls with odorless zero VOC  paints makes the chore fun to do yourself (instead of smelly and causing a headache), satisfying a need to feel accomplished and useful.  Composting left-over food to nourish our vegetable garden contributes to the effort of awareness far more emphatically than just flushing waste out of mind down the garbage disposal.

For information about how to make your Atlanta HVAC system more energy efficient, give Triad Mechanical a call today!

What you’ll need:

How to make it:

1. Nest three of the four paper bags inside each other. The last bag will be used to make the handle. (See photo.)
2. Place your hand in the center of the foil square and loosely gather it up and around your wrist. Insert your hand inside the bags and place the foil at the bottom. (See photo.)
3. Spread the sides of the foil up and around the sides so that they are flush with the edges of the inside of the bag. The foil will give a little more strength and body to the bag and will provide a better noise for the shaker!
4. Place a handful of rice inside the bag and then fold the edges of the tin foil closed (See photos 1, 2.)
5. Take the remaining paper bag and cut up one of the sides and then around the perimeter of the bottom of the bag. Lay the bag flat on the table.
6. Fold the bottom flap in, then starting at one end, roll up the bag to create the handle. Roll it up tight and tape closed. (See photos 1, 2.)
7. Put a piece of tape across the center of the handle. Place the handle into the bag with the rice and press the tape to the side of the bag. The handle should be half in and half out of the bag. (See photo.)
8. Gather the top of the open bag around the handle and secure with a rubber band. (See photo.)
9. Decorate the maraca with paint using stripes, dots and curved lines. Let dry completely. (See photo.)
10. Tie the red felt strip around the rubber band to conceal it.

Tips:

1. You can use brown or white lunch bags for this project.
2. If you prefer, have children decorate the bag first, let dry, and then proceed with assembly.
3. Be sure that children shake gently to allow their maracas to last!

The Basic Course

Through a process which involves the rapid evaporation and condensation of chemicals called refrigerants, air conditioners use compounds that have properties that allow them to change rapidly from gas to liquid and back again at low temperatures.

Heat is absorbed when the liquid evaporates and transforms into gas, making the space around it cooler.  Compressing it tightly together again, the heated gas condenses back into liquid with a residue of unwanted moisture that must be released and is vented usually to the outdoors.

The newly cooled air is distributed through the house by means of ductworks, pushed by fans driven by electric motors.  As the air moves along, it passes through a filter and can be further de-humidified.

Problems in the System

If the filter is clogged, movement of the cooled air is slowed to the point we might think the unit is broken.  If the condensate drain is plugged, the motor can get damaged and stop producing.  Regular maintenance performed by the home owner or as a service of  Triad Mechanical can avoid or eliminate these simple aggravations.

When the heat builds, however, and cool relief seems nowhere near the air ducts, it may be time to call an Atlanta HVAC professional to dig deeper to find the reason and suggest solutions.

Back to Cool

If not serviced regularly, the amount of refrigerant in the coils may decrease over time or the coils themselves could get clogged and impede the evaporation/condensation process.  A leak in the coils could drain the system, rendering the unit useless and wholly unproductive.

There are belts on each of the two separate fan motors which may be worn or loose, causing the fans to blow less efficiently.  The motor may need to be oiled or have a broken part that doesn’t allow it to push the air at all.

Most of the time, these fixes are relatively minor and do not threaten the life of the air conditioning unit.  Schedule an annual inspection and service from a certified Atlanta HVAC company like Triad Mechanical to take it off your list and stay cool.

The festival is from 10am-4pm in Grayson Community Park. There will be craft booths, live entertainment, and delicious food! For the kids, there will be FREE bouncy houses as well as fire trucks. The parade should be amazing with cash prizes being given out to the best floats. It’s going to be entertaining for the whole family; we hope we will see you there!

We planning to have some giveaways during the festival, so be sure to come over and say hi! We love being a part of this community, and we are really looking forward to spending the day with our friends and neighbors.

It is important to replace air conditioning filters as often as is recommended by the manufacturer.  A common result of not replacing filters frequently enough is a buildup of dust and dirt on the filter, which causes reduced air flow throughout the air conditioning unit.  With reduced air flow, the evaporator coil or cooling coil within the air handler can become blocked by ice or frost build-up.  Having cooling coil icing can significantly reduce or completely stop the amount of cool air being produced by an air conditioning unit.

Easy steps to diagnose and resolve your Atlanta air conditioning cooling coil icing problems:

Visually inspect the air conditioning cooling coils to check whether reduced air flow has been caused by cooling coil icing.  If ice or frost is found on the coils, thus blocking air-flow, call a professional who will perform these steps.

• Turn off the air conditioning system completely to allow ice to evaporate, the unit will have to remain off until all ice is completely melted and drained away from the unit
• Unclog the condensate drain to ensure proper drainage of melting ice
• Replace all dirty filters on the air conditioning unit
• Once the a/c unit is de-iced and has fresh filters, it is safe to turn the system back on, to test whether the icy build-up happens again

If after completing these steps, when the air conditioning unit is turned back on the cooling coils do not ice-up, the unit runs normally and cool air runs smoothly through the system.

If after completing these steps, when the air conditioning unit is turned back on cooling coil icing happens again, this could mean one of two things.  Either too little of the refrigerant is being released into the cooling coil due to a clogged capillary tube or a stuck thermostatic expansion valve.  Or the refrigerant charge is too low due to a refrigerant leak.  A refrigerant leak can happen at any point in the refrigerant piping system which would then need to be soldered and resealed, or it can happen in the cooling coil or condensing coil which could mean the entire coil needs to be replaced.  Fixing of refrigerant leaks should be handled by an Atlanta HVAC professional.  Contact an experienced HVAC technicians at Triad Mechanical that can identify the air conditioner cooling coil icing problem and execute the proper solution.

This process easily divides into indoor and outdoor components.

Air Conditioning 101

Based on the principal of thermal energy which states that heat gravitates toward cooler temperatures, compounds known as refrigerants are moved through a closed loop system, repeatedly contracting and expanding between liquid and gas forms, alternately releasing and absorbing heat along the way.  The particular chemicals are selected for their abilities to transform from one state to the other at low temperatures.

While the refrigerant evaporates into a gaseous state within the looped system, it absorbs heat, removing the stale air from the space being conditioned and evacuating it to the outdoors. The warm air is pulled through ducts to meet with the cooling loop.

Ductwork

The cooled air is distributed through ducts or tubing and released into individual spaces.  Additional ductwork is required to remove the stale air and pull it back to be reconditioned as it passes over the loop containing the refrigerant.  The air is moved in both directions by a blower, usually electric and sized to handle the amount of air no matter the building.

Ductwork is also sized to handle appropriate volumes of air. To maintain efficiency, large trunks distribute along central lines to smaller ones reaching farther out. The return air is usually taken from common areas.

The grates are found in the walls, floors and often as part of the dropped ceiling. When combined with your Atlanta heating system, the total energy use is much more efficient.

Looped Coils

The refrigerant is enclosed in a loop where it can expand and contract to make its transformation from gas to liquid and back again.  To change into a heat-absorbing gas, it travels through the evaporating coils, an intricate series of delicate fins that meets with the ductwork to regenerate the conditioned air.

An exchange valve allows just the right amount of liquid refrigerant into the evaporator coils.  If there is too much, the tube is flooded too tightly to allow expansion of the molecules and room to attract the heat.  If too little, the process is inefficient.

Maintenance

When set up and maintained on a regular basis, the system functions with little attention and over sight. To schedule your Atlanta HVAC annual maintenance visit, give Triad Mechanical a call!

A heat pump often uses an intermediate fluid called a refrigerant which absorbs heat as it vaporizes and releases the heat when it is condensed,  using an evaporator to absorb the heat (or energy) from inside an occupied space and forcing this heat to the outside through the condenser. The key component that makes a heat pump different from an air conditioner is the reversing valve which allows for the flow direction of the refrigerant to be changed, allowing the heat to be pumped in either direction.

Timeless Technology

While mechanical movement of this energy, what we can actually call a pump,  has been a relatively recent invention,  the concept of this principal of physics has been in use since ancient times. Harnessing the power of geothermal energy (produced from the heat of the earth itself), natural hot springs “pumped” warm air into cool spaces in China and Europe thousands of years ago.

By 1852, Lord Kelvin had theorized the heat pump, but it took nearly 100 years to actually build one.  In the last half century, the technological advances have made heat pumps part of our lives in many ways.

First Pump

In the 1940s a man named Robert Webber was motivated to build the first known heat pump while tinkering with his refrigerator.  Accidently burning his hand on the outlet pipes of the cooling system, he was quite painfully awakened to an idea about the transference of heat.

Recognizing the freezer was constantly producing heat to cool its interior, he connected the outlet pipe to the storage tank of his hot water heater, extended that into a flow through pipes which heated air nearby, and  then used a fan to blow the warmth into another room.

The first heat pump was a crude, but effective method to provide comfort.  Creating a full-size version soon after, Wagner could heat his entire home.

Heat and Electricity

Today, Duluth heat pumps are built in many ways and shapes to heat or cool buildings of many sizes. As technological improvements are refined during this time of climate change and dwindling fossil fuels, heat pumps promise to play an important part in our futures.

For more information about any Duluth HVAC system, give Triad Mechanical a call today!

Triad Mechanical Company, Inc. has created this scholarship to help motivate students to become HVAC technicians, as well as to encourage students who are already pursuing a rewarding career in HVAC.  Triad Mechanical Company, Inc. is a growing company, so they are always in need of bright, hardworking people.  By making these funds and future scholarships available, Triad Mechanical Company, Inc. hopes to motivate students entering the work force to contribute to the exciting position of HVAC technician.  With emerging green technologies in the HVAC industry, future students have the opportunity to shape this field.  Now more than ever we need the brightest and most ambitious students to step up to the challenging and rewarding career of HVAC technician.

Applicants for the Triad Mechanical HVAC Scholarship can visit the Triad Mechanical website here:

http://www.triadmechanical.com/about/scholarship-form

We will be accepting applications until July 21, 2012. Applicants with the most well thought out and inspiring essays will be considered for this scholarship.  Students currently attending or planning to attend four year colleges or vocational/technical schools are welcome to apply.

Baxter Carbine, owner of Triad Mechanical Company said, “We look forward to reading what inspires students to become leaders in the HVAC industry, and how they plan on positively affecting their career of choice.”

About Triad Mechanical Company, Inc.:

Triad Mechanical Company was founded in 1991 with one single philosophy … Value You Can Trust! Triad Mechanical has worked its way from its small beginnings into a company that is known and respected across North Georgia. While many heating and air companies have come and gone, we’ve sustained an impeccable reputation and have done it through hard work and unparalleled customer service. We pride ourselves on being on time, respectful and courteous to our customers and their family, taking pride in our work, and backing our work with a rock solid guarantee.