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

Happy President’s Day from Your Bergen County HVAC Contractors!

Monday, February 20th, 2012

Everyone at DB Heating & Cooling, Inc. wishes you a very happy President’s Day! We hope you all get a chance to take advantage of some of the great sales! It is also a great time to think about how you can make your community a better place. Lend a neighbor a helping hand or volunteer your time; everyone doing a little good can make a big difference!  Being more green is also a good way to help you community, and upgrading your HVAC system can be a big part of that. If you have an older system that is using a lot of fuel, a new system will not only save you money but also help you make your home more environmentally friendly, which is good for everyone.

One of the traditions of celebrating Presidents Day is food made with cherries, in honor of George Washington, so here is a great recipe for some Cherry-Blueberry Pie:

“A fruity and fun surprise awaits you inside this double crusted cherry and blueberry pie.”

INGREDIENTS:

1 (15 ounce) package refrigerated pie

crusts

1/2 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

1 egg white

1 teaspoon water

2 teaspoons sugar

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
  2. Press one of the pie crusts into a 9 inch pie plate. In a large bowl, stir together 1/2 cup of sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Stir in the cherry pie filling and blueberries. Spoon into the pie crust. Top with the second crust, and press the edges to seal. Flute edges, or press with the tines of a fork. In a cup, whisk together the egg white and water with a fork. Brush over the top of the pie, then sprinkle with 2 teaspoons of sugar.
  3. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until crust is golden brown. Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil if they appear to be getting too dark. Cool for at least 2 hours to allow the filling to set before serving.

This recipe is from allrecipes.com, visit their site for more details!

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Heat Pumps and Zone Control Systems: A Tip from Bergen County

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

When you’re putting a heat pump in your Bergen County home, it may also be a great time to look into having a zone control system put in as well. These types of systems can do a lot to both lower your energy bills and make your home as comfortable as possible throughout the year.

Zone control systems actually allow you to set different temperatures in different parts of your home. They use a system of dampers to direct more heat to certain areas and less to others. For instance, you may like to keep the living room nice and cozy in the winter because you’re typically just lounging around when you’re in there.

When you’re working in the kitchen, on the other hand, you’re usually generating some heat yourself from the stove and oven, so you don’t need to keep the temperature quite as high as it is in other parts of the house in order for the kitchen to remain comfortable. Of course, in the summer, these situations are likely reversed, and a zone control system will allow you to adjust accordingly.

Having the type of refined temperature control that zone control systems provide can be beneficial on several levels. It certainly helps make your home more comfortable, but it can also make it easier to reduce some of your home heating and cooling costs because you don’t have to heat or cool your whole house to keep it that way.

Zone control systems can also be a great way to end those constant thermostat battles that tend to erupt from when certain members of the household prefer one temperature, while the rest of the people in the house are more comfortable with another.

If you’re thinking of integrating a zone control system with your heat pump, you should make sure that the heat pump you get is as compatible as possible with this type of system. Most heat pumps will, in fact, work with zone control systems, but certain types are better than others.

The most important thing to look at when you’re trying to find the best heat pump to fit with a zone control system is the type of compressor the unit has. Heat pumps are available with one-speed, two-speed and multi-speed compressors and this affects how well they work at part of a zone control system. For best results, it’s good to opt for a two-speed or multi-speed compressor when you’re installing a zone control system as well.

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Maintenance Tips From Bergen County: Why You Should Have Your Furnace Serviced Every Heating Season

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Particularly if you’ve just purchased a new furnace in Bergen County, it’s probably not something you think about all that much. As long as it works when you need it to, that is. Unfortunately you usually find out that something is wrong with your furnace just when you need it most. However, there is a way to avoid that kind of problem, and many others, and that’s to have regular maintenance service performed on your furnace by a home heating professional every year.

One of the main reasons to have your furnace serviced is that it allows technicians to catch small problems before they become large ones. During a typical maintenance visit, a technician will examine all parts of your furnace to ensure that they are still in good working order. He’ll also thoroughly clean out the unit to make sure there are no buildups of debris that could cause problems or impede the furnace’s energy efficiency.

And if they do find something wrong like a part that’s beginning to wear out or something that just isn’t working properly, the technician can make the necessary repairs right away. You can get the problem taken care of ahead of time and you won’t have to worry about going without heat during the coldest part of the winter.

That’s not the only reason that annual maintenance is important and beneficial, however. It can also help you save money, both on your monthly energy bills and in the long term. That’s because annual maintenance tune ups keep your furnace functioning at peak efficiency levels longer than they would be able to otherwise.

A typical furnace will lose a small percentage of its energy efficiency every year, and while it won’t seem like a lot at first, that can really add up over the course of a couple of years. With regular maintenance, though, you can often maintain up to 95% of your furnace’s original efficiency for the life of the furnace.

Plus, when the proper maintenance and service is performed on a regular basis, your furnace will simply last longer.

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Why Install a Ductless Air Conditioner? A Question From Bergen County

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

As you explore your options in terms of a new Bergen County home air conditioning system, you will probably have to decide whether you want a system that uses ducts to get the cooled air around the house or one that is considered ductless. Each type of air conditioning system is appropriate in certain situations, so it is important to understand the benefits of each before you can make a decision.

Duct air conditioning systems are the more traditional type on the market today. They generally consist of an outdoor compressor and condenser unit and an indoor air handler. The outdoor unit passes the cooled air through ducts to the air handler, which then takes over circulating the air through the house and back out to the condenser again.

It makes sense to install this type of air conditioning system if you have a large house or if you have ducts already in place. Duct air conditioners can cool a moderate to large sized house quite effectively and they can also be coupled with zone control systems to give you multiple climate zones within your house.

Ductless air conditioners, as their name suggests, do not rely on a system of air ducts to get cooled air distributed throughout your house. Instead, these types of systems use refrigerant lines to transfer coolant from the outdoor compressor to the indoor, wall mounted units. Each of these indoor units can take care of cooling one or two rooms, but in order to cool an entire house with one of these systems, you will need to install multiple indoor units.

However, these multiple indoor units can all be connected to the same outdoor compressor, and they can also be controlled independently. That gives you much greater control over which parts of your house are cooled and how much energy you are using to cool areas that may or may not be occupied.

Ductless air conditioners are generally more energy efficient than ducted ones, but their real advantage comes from the facts that they can be installed even in places where air ducts do not exist or cannot go. If you do not already have ductwork in your house, installing a duct system will add considerably to the price of installing a ducted air conditioning system. In a case like this, a ductless system is much easier and cheaper to install and certainly makes more sense.

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