Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning Blog: Archive for February, 2015

Why Ductwork Repairs Will Save You Money

Wednesday, February 25th, 2015

You can’t see most of the ductwork in your home, and that unfortunately makes it easy to forget that it sometimes requires professional repairs. If you start to notice warning signs that you have damaged ducts, such as odd smells coming from the vents or a decrease in airflow, you must contact duct repair professionals right away to take care of the problem.

Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning has the experienced team to handle what work you need done to fix your home’s ductwork in Winnetka, IL. We have been in the business of handling home comfort needs for more than a hundred and ten years now, making us one of the best names to trust when it come to your home comfort needs.

The money savings from ductwork repair

Fixing broken and leaky ducts does more than ensure that your air conditioning and forced-air heating system distribute air properly around a home to maintain comfort. Duct repairs will also help you save money.

Ductwork is designed to have an airtight seal to prevent a loss of pressure inside the vents. If air pressure starts to drop inside the ventilation system because of gaps, holes, and breaks along the ducts, it will force the air conditioner and/or heater to work harder. This can lead to a large jump in energy bills, often increasing your costs to heat and cool your home by a third. Broken ducts will also allow in large amounts of contamination that will coat the duct walls and place extra resistance against airflow, another source of energy inefficiency. Once you have professional ductwork repairs done, you will see a substantial drop in your monthly power bills.

Ductwork repairs will also help you save money by lowering the number of repairs you will need for the heater and air conditioner and prolonging their service lives. The less stress a comfort system experiences, the less likely it will start to encounter malfunctions due to wear and tear, and the longer it will last. You don’t want to pay for unnecessary repairs for your heater and air conditioner, and you certainly don’t want to pay to replace a heater or AC years ahead of its time.

You deserve to have an HVAC system in your home that works its best so your family will enjoy comfort and high indoor air quality—and so you will enjoy lower bills. If you think that your ductwork needs professional repair work, don’t hesitate to call Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning to schedule the job. We provide high-quality repairs for ductwork in Winnetka, IL and throughout Chicagoland.

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Indoor Air Quality | Comments Off on Why Ductwork Repairs Will Save You Money

Furnace Noises that You Need to be Aware of

Monday, February 16th, 2015

Furnace problems are among the most common home heating system issues in the country. This is because furnaces happen to be the most popular home heating systems. Though furnaces are actually no more prone to issues than any other system, the large number of people who own furnaces makes knowing about their repair needs a good idea. The most common indicator of a furnace problem is the emission of strange noises. Let’s take a look at some of the most common furnace noises that you need to be aware of.

Grinding

Inside your furnace is a collection of parts known as the “air handler.” The air handler is what is responsible for actually circulating air around the house. It is normally comprised of two parts, the fan and the motor. The air handler motor is placed under an enormous amount of strain while the furnace is going, due to moving quite a bit of air over a fairly long distance. To help cope with this stress, air handler motors are equipped with lubricated bearings to lessen the amount of friction that they encounter. Unfortunately, these bearings can eventually lose their lubrication and dry out. This increases the amount of friction on the motor during operation, producing a loud grinding sound. If the bearings aren’t replaced the entire motor can overheat and burn itself out.

Booming

A loud booming sound coming from your furnace is often caused by a partially blocked burner. As the burner assembly burns fuel, it produces a number of waste materials as combustion byproducts. One of these byproducts is carbon. Carbon particles can slowly collect on the burner assembly, until the buildup actually hinders the part from igniting. When it finally does ignite, it burns through all the built up gas at once and creates a booming sound. If you hear anything that sounds like someone firing a canon in your basement, call a professional to have a look at your burner assembly.

If you’re hearing strange noises coming from your furnace, schedule an appointment with us today by calling Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning. We provide quality furnace repair services in the Chicago, IL area.

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Heating | Comments Off on Furnace Noises that You Need to be Aware of

Valentine’s Day: Pagan Revelry, Clandestine Marriage, and 14th Century Poetry

Saturday, February 14th, 2015

What do you think of when you think of Valentine’s Day? Perhaps rushing off to the stationary store after work to choose the perfect card with which to express your feelings towards a loved one? Dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant? Roses, dark chocolates, and other gifts and confections? Whatever Valentine’s Day may look like to you, chances are that it is a far cry from the history surrounding this holiday – or at least we hope so. Here are a few interesting facts about this most romantic of holidays, from your friends here at Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning.

The fact of the matter is that there is no definitive history as to how Valentine’s Day came to be. There are a few different saints with variations of the name Valentine, for example. One of the most prevalent legends, and one certainly in keeping with the romantic nature of the holiday as we know it today, pertains to a priest serving during the 3rd century in Rome. Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, who believed that young men made for better soldiers if unfettered by marriage, it was illegal for young men to marry. A true believer in love, Valentine would marry young couples in secret. Until, at least, he was found out, and met a very unpleasant end for his crimes.

Like many of our modern holidays, Valentine’s Day can also be traced back to pagan ritual. Lupercalia, as the pagan festival is known, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, a god of agriculture. As is often the case with Roman celebrations, the details of this celebration are unfit to detail here. Suffice to say that, while there is certainly a touch of the amorous in the proceedings, the festival was a far cry from what we associate with Valentine’s Day today.

How, then, did our modern version of Valentine’s Day come to be? The answer may lie in, of all places, 14th century poetry; particularly, in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer. Famed for his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer may well be the very first writer to associate Valentine’s Day with romantic love, in the manner of which we are familiar with it today. His The Parliament of Fowls details the dream-vision of a narrator consumed with the idea of romantic love and the natural order of finding a mate. Valentine’s Day is mentioned by name a number of times, as the narrator witnesses a parliament of eagles vying for the hand – or, perhaps more aptly, the wing – of a mate.

Whatever you may think of the holiday’s sordid and convoluted history, we here at Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day with the special someone in your life.

Continue Reading

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Valentine’s Day: Pagan Revelry, Clandestine Marriage, and 14th Century Poetry

How Custom Ductwork Makes a Difference

Thursday, February 5th, 2015

When your forced-air heating and air conditioning system runs into trouble, you may be surprised to learn that the actually heating and AC unit might not be at fault. Sometimes, when a furnace or air conditioning system struggles to perform as it should, or if you notice hot or cold spots around the house, it’s actually due to a problem with the ducts. Ductwork is quite prone to leaks and cracks or unwelcome heat transfer, all of which is often due to faulty installation.

Unfortunately, a large number of ducts suffer from problems because the ducts were never set up properly in the first place. If heat can easily move into or out of the ducts, or if air is not well-contained, your heating and AC system may run into any number of issues. For example, air from your home blows over a cool coil in order to condition your home. The warm air keeps this coil from freezing, so without enough airflow, a frozen coil may drip water into your unit and cause serious component damage.

When heating or cool air cannot make it to your home because of leaks or due to an ineffective duct design, then the system has to work much harder than it should, which means parts wear down well before their time. Many times, your technician will simply repair the damage without attempting to figure out whether the ducts could be at fault.

If you decide it’s time for new ductwork in order to eliminate frequent heating and AC problems, custom ductwork design makes all the difference. A true ductwork professional will do the very best to make sure that no leaks or cracks are present and that they are unlikely to appear in a short time. These technicians will thoroughly inspect your existing ductwork before deciding whether sealing, repair, or replacement is best.

During installation, the technician must make several decisions to make sure the ducts are in an efficient location. They usually try to place ducts in a conditioned space so that heat cannot easily transfer out in the winter or enter the ducts in the summer. They’ll use the right fittings, connectors, and sealants, and try to form the ducts with as few twists and turns as possible for the most efficient pathway for delivery.

At Shavitz Heating and Air Conditioning, we’ve been around for a long time, so we’ve seen how poorly-designed ductwork can affect a home. Call us today and schedule an appointment with us for quality custom ductwork service in Lincolnwood, IL.

Continue Reading

Tags: ,
Posted in Indoor Air Quality | Comments Off on How Custom Ductwork Makes a Difference