Top Gun HVACR

Important Factors for Choosing Central Heating and A/C Efficiency, size, ease of maintaining, are all important factors for choosing central AC.  Efficiency This is the amount of electricity that is used to cool your house. Efficiency ratings for air conditioning systems is known as the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating (SEER). The higher the SEER, the more cost efficient, approximately 5% less energy per SEER. So a 10 SEER upgraded to a 16 SEER system will use roughly around 30% less energy, which in return will lower your electricity bill. The minimum SEER in our region (DFW) is 14, therefore 14 and above SEER is what you need to be looking for.   Size Size matters! The rule of thumb for sizing is approximately 1 ton per for every 500 square feet . A manual J Heat Load calculation is the standard for sizing residential systems. different areas have different design temperatures and system needs. For sizing guidance, use the calculator on the Energy Star website . An

Why Is My A/C System Freezing Up?      You’ve probably already guessed this isn’t a normal part of the operation of your air conditioning system and you would be correct in that assumption. If you’ve never experienced this, the idea can seem far fetched. After all, not many people are used to seeing a block of ice surrounding their compressor on a 95-degree summer day. Air Conditioning and Refrigeration systems freeze for different reasons depending on what is impacting what part of the refrigeration cycle (see below) These reasons can be listed under 4 different categories; airflow loss, refrigerant loss, mechanical, and temperature. The first reason for you’re a/c system freezing is probably the most common. The freon pressures in your system rely on the absorption of heat in the evaporator section. This is typically transferred from air that is pulled in from your house into the air handler unit and across the evaporator coil. With a loss of air flow co

Indoor air pollution can make you sick, feel lethargic, dizzy, experience headaches and suffer from a host of other things. Air fresheners, cleaning solutions, secondhand smoke, off-gassing paints, glues, dust mite feces and other things can contribute to unhealthy air conditions in your home. A personal example of how bad air can affect someone reminds me of an apartment my wife and I lived in about a year ago. Our heating system in that house was a gas furnace located in our closet. Whenever it would turn on, my wife would start sneezing and sometimes I would get dizzy. We had it checked for carbon monoxide but came out with acceptable levels. Then I had a friend of mine remove the air-conditioning coil. It was filthy, and our drain pan was full of a blackish mold in the pan. We cleaned everything out, leveled the drain pan, sealed the ventilation system the best we could and then put everything back together again. After that my wife stopped sneezing and I felt fine.