DB Heating & Cooling, Inc. Blog : Posts Tagged ‘Bergen County’

4 Reasons to Replace an Old Heating System before It Fails

Monday, January 18th, 2016

Imagine that you’re running your heating system on a cold night, getting ready to get into bed, when your heater fails suddenly without warning. Relying on an old system can lead to unexpected breakdowns, safety risks, and higher energy bills. You have to stop what you’re doing to find the number of a company that offers 24/7 service, or to look for an alternative heat source to get you through the night. And the unexpected cost of a heating replacement may come as a shock. Heating replacement involves understanding the entire process, including installation, removal of the old system, permits, and any necessary modifications. Replacing a heating system is a significant investment, so proactive planning is essential to avoid financial surprises. That’s just one of the reasons we recommend replacing your heater before it ever fails, and you’ll find four more good reasons to replace an old heating system below!

What are the benefits of replacing your heating system before it fails?

Avoids costly emergency repairs
Reduces monthly energy bills with better efficiency
Decreases the risk of safety hazards like gas leaks
Prevents unexpected breakdowns during cold weather
Gives you time to choose the right system without pressure
Improves overall comfort and peace of mind

Signs of a Failing Heating System

If you’ve noticed your home is experiencing uneven heating—some rooms are chilly while others are too warm—it could be a sign that your heating system is no longer operating efficiently. Another red flag is a sudden spike in your utility bills, even though your usage habits haven’t changed. This often means your system is losing energy efficiency and working harder than it should to keep your home comfortable. Pay attention to strange noises, such as banging, knocking, or screeching, coming from your heating system. These sounds can indicate mechanical issues that may lead to bigger problems down the road. Ignoring these warning signs can put your home at risk for more serious concerns, like carbon monoxide or gas leaks, which are hazardous to your health and safety. If you’re experiencing any of these issues, it’s wise to contact a professional HVAC installation expert. They can assess whether a repair will suffice or if it’s time to consider a replacement with a new, energy-efficient system, such as a heat pump system, to restore comfort and safety to your home.

Tags: Bergen County, Heating Installation
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The Benefits of Zone Control

Monday, August 17th, 2015

By this time of the year, you have likely been trying to manage your thermostat closely to save some energy. But do you set the thermostat to one temperature only to find that someone else in your home has changed it? The battle over the thermostat is a common one, and if you are looking to put a permanent end to it and gain some other great benefits, the AC experts at DB Heating & Cooling recommend you consider the use of a zone control system.

Tags: Bergen County, Zone Control Systems
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How a Whole Home Dehumidifier Can Help You Beat the Heat This Summer

Monday, July 6th, 2015

It’s no secret that our summers can be hot and humid. While your air conditioning system dehumidifies as part of the cooling process, we can have stretches of humid weather that goes on for days. When this kind of prolonged period of high humidity sets in, your air conditioner will be challenged to keep up with demand and adequately cool your home. But there is one way you can help yourself and your AC: install and use a whole home dehumidifier.

Tags: Bergen County, Dehumidifier
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Looking for an Easy Way to Better Control Your Cooling? Try Upgrading Your Thermostat!

Monday, June 8th, 2015

When most people think of getting better performance out of their air conditioners, a simple upgrade is often overlooked: your thermostat. What do we mean? If you are using a slide or dial thermostat, or one that doesn’t offer programming, you are losing out on some excellent ways to reduce your energy use and control your temperature. The experts at DB Heating & Cooling have several choices available for upgrading your thermostat, and we can install your new thermostat and show you how to use it to maximum advantage. Call us today and see what your choices are for a new thermostat in Bergen County, NJ.

Tags: Bergen County, Programmable Thermostats, Thermostat Installation
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3 Signs Your Air Conditioning System Needs Repair

Monday, April 27th, 2015

Spring has sprung here in Bergen County, NJ, which means that summer is lurking just around the corner: complete with high temperatures, stifling humidity and the kind of heat waves that make people run for the air conditioned indoors. If your air conditioner is suffering from problems, now is the time to get it repaired before the temperatures rise. The last thing you want is to see your system break down in the middle of 100 degree heat. Treating repairs now means you can schedule the technician to come at your leisure, and that you won’t need to suffer through the heat while he or she conducts repairs. But how can you tell if your system is struggling? Here are 3 signs your air conditioning system needs repair.

Tags: Air Conditioner Repair, Air Conditioning, Bergen County
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Indoor Air Quality Tips for the Winter Season

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

In an effort to stay warm while also staying energy efficient, many homes can become so air-tight that ventilation problems develop. Having good ventilation is an important factor in having healthy indoor air quality, particularly if you have a forced air system. However, there are some simple steps you can take to help maintain or maintain your indoor air during the winter, and to help you achieve that, here are some indoor air quality tips for your Bergen County home:

Change your air filter – if you have a furnace or heat pump system, the system has an air filter. These air filters should be changed every three months to keep them effective; when they fill up with dirt and dust, they can clog. This not only affects your indoor air quality, it can also affect the air flow in your heating system.

Move smokers outdoors – it may not be the best time of year to be outside, but second-hand smoke is one of the worst culprits of indoor air pollution and a leading cause of lung disease.

Make sure your ductwork is in good shape – faulty ductwork allows air to escape but it also allows numerous contaminants into your air deliver system and directly into your home. Duct repair and/or duct sealing can restore faulty ductwork, which will improve both indoor air quality and performance.

Dust and vacuum regularly – dust is major allergen, and when trapped inside for the winter, it serves only to aggravate allergies. Weekly vacuuming and dusting can greatly reduce the level of dust in your home.

Add some plants – plants help purify the air in your home, taking in contaminants, using them as food, and returning fresh oxygen to the air. Plus, they can also add a pleasing aesthetic to the living spaces of your home.

Use a whole-home air cleaner – if you have serious allergy sufferers, or just want to make a big improvement to your home’s indoor air quality, consider the installation of a whole-home air cleaner. Whole-home air cleaners are installed as part of your HVAC system, so they operate automatically.

Keeping your indoor air quality healthy helps keep you and your family healthy. For more indoor air quality tips for your Bergen County home, call the experts at DB Heating & Cooling today.

Tags: Bergen County, Indoor Air Quality Tips
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Why Commercial Building Controls Require a Specialist

Thursday, January 29th, 2015

When any part of your commercial property’s HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system is not operating properly, it may be because of an error in the commercial control system. Commercial control systems are either electric, electronic, or pneumatic, but any type serves the same function: to control every component of the HVAC system associated with the air handler automatically. Commercial control systems are set up to monitor a number of processes and settings, such as the temperature of the supply and return air, the temperature indoors and outdoors, the humidity in the building, and the air pressure through the vents.

These control systems can help an expert to adjust the supply fan in the ducts, the valves of a hot- or chilled-water system, dampers, or electric heating strips. When one of these doesn’t seem to be working as needed, you may consider attempting to access the controls and make adjustments yourself. However, it’s important that you only allow a professional deal with these systems. This means making sure that your technician is a commercial specialist with experience installing and adjusting large commercial building controls.

There are several reasons that an expert is the best person for the job. For one, commercial building controls can be complicated to understand, and an exclusively residential technician is not familiar with many of the settings and setpoints managed in the control panel. In fact, there may be hundreds of different settings for any single control panel. It’s also best to have a technician who has some preliminary knowledge of the fault codes that may come up upon troubleshooting the system, and who has access to a fault code guidebook, although the malfunctioning part may require a lot of background knowledge to diagnose as well.

Trained technicians take care in replacing sensors, controllers, and safety switches, as they know that the replacement piece can suffer damage from improper handling. They also know the different precautions to take when working with electronic vs. pneumatic systems, for example, and what safety procedures to taking when working with electrical equipment.

The technicians at DB Heating & Cooling are specialists trained in handling commercial HVAC systems including commercial building controls in Bergen County. Call us today.

Tags: Bergen County, Commercial Building Controls
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Can a Furnace Be Used for Ductless Heating?

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

Ductless heating and cooling has become very popular over recent years, which isn’t surprising as these systems have a number of benefits you can’t get with other types of HVAC systems. However, they do have their limitations, and one limitation is that a ductless system cannot provide heating via a furnace. But don’t be so quick to toss that furnace out! Why? Because an LG ductless mini-split system can act as a back-up heating system for your Bergen County, NJ home.

How Ductless Heating Works

Ductless systems provide heat by utilizing heat pump technology. What this means is that a ductless heating system has a component known as a reversing valve that allows the system to switch between heating and cooling capability. The system is set-up the same as a ductless air conditioning system: an outdoor unit containing the compressor and condenser connects directly to indoor blowers (up to 4) via a conduit placed in an exterior wall. The blowers contain the other necessary parts for heating and cooling, including a fan, coils and a small air filter. Everything needed to heat and cool your home is contained in these components, which is why it isn’t necessary to have ductwork.

Benefits of a Ductless Heating System

There are multiple benefits to be gained from a ductless heating system:

Great energy efficiency – heat pumps do not use fossil fuels and on average use about 25% of the electricity of a whole-home air conditioning system to operate, making them very energy efficient.

Customized heating – the indoor blowers operate individually, allowing you to customize your home’s heating, very similar to the way a zone control system does.

Long lifespan – the average lifespan for a heat pump is 20-25 years; comparatively, a combustion heating system has an average lifespan of 15-20.

Very versatile – not only can a ductless system work with an air-source heat pump, it can also work with a geothermal ground-source or water-source heat pump.

If a ductless heating system seems like a good fit for your home, you may want to consider the installation of an LG ductless mini-split system.

The experts at DB Heating & Cooling can help you determine if an LG ductless system is right for your living space, so call us today!

Tags: Bergen County, LG Ductless Mini Splits
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How Heat Pumps Work for both Heating and Air Conditioning

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

More and more homeowners countrywide are installing heat pumps for their myriad of benefits. Perhaps the most unique benefit to using a heat pump, however, is its ability to act as both a heater and an air conditioner. Let’s examine how this functionality is made possible, and why it’s such a huge advantage for the heat pump over other systems.

Anatomy of a Heat Pump

In order to understand how a heat pump can switch functions, you must first understand the different parts of a heat pump. There are two main parts we’ll be discussing in this part, the interior unit and the exterior unit. As you might have guessed, the interior unit is inside the house while the exterior unit is outside. These two units are connected by a refrigerant line, which flows into a coil housed in each one. These coils are the most important part of the system. When the heat pump is turned on, one coil will evaporate refrigerant while the other will condense it back into liquid. When the refrigerant evaporates, it leeches thermal energy out of the air and into the coil. When the refrigerant is condensed back into liquid, it releases the captured thermal energy so that the system can heat the house.

The Reversing Valve

The key to the heat pump’s dual functionality is a part called the “reversing valve.” In a normal system, like an air conditioner, the refrigerant flows only one way between the two coils. There’s a condenser coil and an evaporator coil, and the two never switch. The reversing valve works by reversing the flow of refrigerant, thereby making the condenser coil the evaporator coil and vice versa. This means that each coil can either take heat from the area around it or release heat instead. It is in this way that the heat pump can move heat back and forth in either direction between the house and the outside air.

If you’d like to know more about heat pumps, call DB Heating & Cooling. We install heat pumps throughout Bergen County.

Tags: Bergen County, Heat Pumps
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What Does a Trane Furnace Have to Offer in Bergen County?

Thursday, December 4th, 2014

The most popular heating installation in the U.S. today is the gas furnace. Furnaces are reliable, effective, and efficient, and today’s models can cut monthly costs dramatically over similar furnaces built decades ago. At DB Heating & Cooling, we’re proud to install and service one of the most trusted brands in furnaces, Trane. Trane has been manufacturing heating systems since 1910 and is recognized worldwide as an industry leader in residential heating. Learn more about why a Trane furnace may be the right fit for your home.

Options to Suit Any Home: When you need a new furnace, the size and style are both extremely important in making sure you have an efficient, long-lasting system. A heating system that is too small will not completely heat your home and will wear down too quickly, while a system that is too large will use way too much energy. The various Trane furnaces, oil or gas systems from any of their highly efficient models, are available in all sizes so a technician can make sure you get the right unit for your home.
High Efficiency Ratings: All Trane furnaces have a high AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) and some even go above and beyond. The AFUE is a percentage that indicates how much of the fuel your system uses actually goes into heating your home. Some of Trane’s highest rated furnaces, in their XL, XV, and XC lines, have an AFUE of over 94%. Compare that to the 50-60% average AFUE of furnaces created a few decades ago and you’ll see instant monthly savings when you replace with Trane.
Long Lasting: Trane furnaces are designed to last a long period of time and to withstand the harsh winters here in Bergen County. And when you get annual maintenance from a Trane dealer, you can be sure your system has an even better chance of exceeding its expected lifespan. With maintenance, your unit is cleaned, adjusted, and inspected, which helps you to know about repair needs early on and keeps your unit running more efficiently for longer.

Hear more about the many benefits of Trane furnaces in Bergen County. Call DB Heating & Cooling to speak with a friendly professional today!

Tags: Bergen County, Trane Furnaces
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