Lower Heating Bills Next Winter

Posted on May 15, 2012

With blooming tulips and daffodils all around us, it is easy to think only about pleasant weather, and not about the cost of heating your home. But now, when the weather is warm and spring is upon us, is actually a great time to think ahead to next winter and to prepare your home for cold temperatures to come. There are several things easy that you can do now in order to help lower your heating bill next winter.

  1. Fill in leaks. According to EarthWorks Group’s “30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save the Earth,” all of the cracks around doors and windows in the standard American home altogether add up to equal a 9-square foot hole in the wall. Plug up cracks around windows and doors now using caulk or weather stripping, and come next winter, you will save up to 10 percent on your heating bill.
  2. Maintain your ducts. If your ducts travel through an unheated space such as an attic or crawlspace, you could be losing up to 60 percent of your heated air before it even reaches your home’s vents. To maintain your ducts, begin by looking for places where your ductwork may have become disconnected. Re-connect ducts, then examine them carefully for places where they may need repair. Fix cracks and tears with metal-backed tape (rather than duct tape) or aerosol sealant. Straighten out any areas of the duct that have become pinched, as this can impede air flow.
  3. 3. Keep your furnace in tip-top shape. The time to receive furnace maintenance from a Wm. Henderson heating technician is now, before you need to begin using it again. Both oil fired boilers and gas systems need to be cleaned and tuned annually. Having your heating unit properly maintained by a trained professional can save you up to 10 percent on your heating bill next winter, as well as prevent a system failure on a cold winter day. For extra certainty in the winter, a follow-up inspection in the fall will ensure that everything is in its proper place and that damage has not occurred over the summer.

Don’t forget that once winter weather hits, one of the easiest ways to lower your heating bill is to simply turn the thermostat down! Consider installing a smart thermostat now, which can be set to change the temperature for you while you are at work or sleeping. For every degree that you set back your thermostat, you will save up to 3 percent on your heating bill.

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Hiring a Heating Technician

Posted on May 1, 2012

When it comes time to heat your home, you want to make sure that your system is running properly and safely. The heating system in your home is a complex mechanical device that incorporates the use of electricity, gas or other types of fuel to keep your home toasty in the winter. Knowing how to care for this system and keep it operating well is a job for a trained professional, but knowing what to look for in a heating professional is all up to you.

It is important to find out if your state or area requires HVAC technicians or heating techs to be licensed. Heating systems are complicated and in order to work on them safely a person needs to be properly trained. Check with your local building division to see if a license is needed to work in your area. If it is, make sure you ask any potential heating technician if they are licensed to work on your type of system.

Besides being licensed, an HVAC technician should have experience working with the type of system you have installed in your home. There are many different kinds of heating systems and they all have their own unique quirks, strengths and weaknesses. School training can only take you so far in the repair world. Having actual experience wielding a wrench in a dark basement or crawlspace goes a long way. Make sure your technician has some experience before letting them work in your home.

As far as experience is concerned, the trained professionals at William Henderson have over 35 years of it. They’ve been helping Pennsylvania homeowners tackle their heating repairs every step of the way. And they have seen it all. They understand what makes heaters tick and what goes wrong most often. Give them a call and let them get your home heating system up and running, both quickly and safely.

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Optimal Heat Pump Performance

Posted on April 24, 2012

Your home’s need of repairs typically comes as a surprise and always comes at a cost. Every system in your home continues to become less and less efficient. As time wears on, parts wear out and pieces begin to fail. It’s the natural progression of everything around us. But, Wm. Henderson technicians know that the key to saving money on costly repairs is to perform regular maintenance to ensure your systems are running efficiently. This is especially true to ensure you get optimal heat pump performance in your air conditioning systems.

Heat pumps are used in any system that heat or cool your home. Even though they are cost-effective and efficient, they are complicated pieces of machinery that require a regular maintenance schedule in order to ensure that they operate well. Below are a few heat pump repair items to check to make sure that you are getting all you can from your system.

  • Make Sure Your Ducts Don’t Leak. Depending on the size of your ducting system, you may be losing up to 20 percent of the efficiency of your heater through leaks in your venting system. This means that for every dollar that you spend, 20 cents is wasted and lost. That adds up. Take a quick peek at your ducts and make sure they are sealed tight.
  • Make Sure You Have Proper Air Flow. This one might be a bit trickier to do on your own, but you need to make sure that your ducts are clean and clear and that airflow is sufficient. A general rule is that you should have airflow within the system of at least 400 cubic feet per minute (CFM).  If the CFM of your system falls below this, the performance of your heat pump will suffer. If you suspect you have problems contact William Henderson Maintenance and we’ll take a look.
  • Check Your Coolant Levels. Your cooling system works hard during the summer. You need to make sure that the coolant levels are appropriate to keep up with the amount of air conditioning your home needs. It’s easy to check these levels and it will save a big hassle down the line.

William Henderson Heating and Cooling has over 35 years of experience helping Pennsylvania homeowners keep their homes both cool and warm. We know what it takes to keep these systems operating optimally. If you have questions about how you can take advantage of our expertise, give us a call. We are always happy to help.

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The Benefits of Humidifiers

Posted on April 2, 2012

Winter is a long season, and that means months of utilizing your heating system to keep out the cold. If you have a gas-forced air heating system, you may have noticed that after a few months of heating your home, your living space becomes dry and uncomfortable. This is because gas furnaces are actually cooking the air and removing moisture from it, much like a convection oven. William Henderson Heating has seen the effects that long term use of gas furnaces can have on a family and a home and how both can benefit from a humidifier.

Prolonged periods of dry air in the home can lead to dry everything else for your family. Often times the first sign is a rash of dry throats and coughing. Some people react with dry skin irritation, especially in the hands. Perhaps the worst symptom is a dry nose, which, if not treated can lead to a host of medical conditions including sinusitis. Generally speaking, dry environments lead to irritation. If you have a family member that has allergies, an under-humidified home will exacerbate their problems.

Beyond the effects on your family, a dry indoor environment is also bad for the structure of you home and everything in it. Furniture left untreated in an overly dry home will begin to show signs of cracking as the wood dries out. Wood floors are susceptible to the same conditions. Even the paint in your home can become dry and crack well before its time.

The good news is that humidifiers can help all this.

Adding moisture to the air in your home is an easy and effective solution to all of the problems above. In order to keep your home at the optimum level of moisture, you only need to install a humidifier that can regulate the air and counteract the effects of your gas-forced air furnace or other heating system. Wm. Henderson and our team of trained professionals are here to inspect the conditions of your home and suggest the right humidifier for you. After 35 years of helping homeowners keep their indoor air clean and comfortable, we know a thing or two about moisture. Call us today to get started.

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Recent Advances in Heating Efficiency

Posted on March 23, 2012

Pennsylvania homeowners know the sting of high heating bills that can come from Pennsylvania winters. It’s a long, cold season and sometimes it seems like your heating system will never turn off. There are a number of steps you can take to lower your heating bill in the winter, such as increasing the r-factor of your insulation, tightening up the envelope of your home so that you have less outside air infiltration or just putting on a sweater and keeping the thermostat a little lower. With all the new advances in energy efficiency, Wm Henderson Plumbing and Heating suggests taking a look at a new heating system for your home.

If your heating system is old or has low efficiency, you will greatly benefit from a new high efficiency system. Old heating systems worked well in their time, but now, just don’t have the ability to stand up to today’s standards. Many of these old units are between 60-80 percent efficient. If your heater is only 60 percent efficient, that means that for every dollar you spend, 60 cents worth of fuel heats your home and 40 cents of fuel goes outside through your exhaust. It’s easy to see how this can add up over the course of a winter season.

Advances in heating efficiency have produced new heating systems that are up to 98 percent efficient. This is accomplished by technological advances in how the fuel is burned, how the heat is transferred and by how the exhaust is routed. Over the years, engineers have been tinkering with heating systems. Slowly, one percent at a time, we have been able to develop more and more efficient systems, such that we now have available furnaces and boilers which hardly waste any of our fuel burning dollars.

The technicians working for Wm Henderson keep up to date with new technologies and super-efficient heating systems. We understand what types of models work best in which situations. If you find yourself tired of throwing good fuel dollars out the exhaust pipe, give us a call. We are more than happy to use our 35 plus years of experience helping you find the right heating system for your home.

Pennsylvania homeowners know the sting of high heating bills that can come from Pennsylvania winters. It’s a long, cold season and sometimes it seems like your heating system will never turn off. There are a number of steps you can take to lower your heating bill in the winter, such as increasing the r-factor of your insulation, tightening up the envelope of your home so that you have less outside air infiltration or just putting on a sweater and keeping the thermostat a little lower. With all the new advances in energy efficiency, Wm Henderson Plumbing and Heating suggests taking a look at a new heating system for your home.

If your heating system is old or has low efficiency, you will greatly benefit from a new high efficiency system. Old heating systems worked well in their time, but now, just don’t have the ability to stand up to today’s standards. Many of these old units are between 60-80 percent efficient. If your heater is only 60 percent efficient, that means that for every dollar you spend, 60 cents worth of fuel heats your home and 40 cents of fuel goes outside through your exhaust. It’s easy to see how this can add up over the course of a winter season.

Advances in heating efficiency have produced new heating systems that are up to 98 percent efficient. This is accomplished by technological advances in how the fuel is burned, how the heat is transferred and by how the exhaust is routed. Over the years, engineers have been tinkering with heating systems. Slowly, one percent at a time, we have been able to develop more and more efficient systems, such that we now have available furnaces and boilers which hardly waste any of our fuel burning dollars.

The technicians working for Wm Henderson keep up to date with new technologies and super-efficient heating systems. We understand what types of models work best in which situations. If you find yourself tired of throwing good fuel dollars out the exhaust pipe, give us a call. We are more than happy to use our 35 plus years of experience helping you find the right heating system for your home.

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How Do Heat Pumps Work?

Posted on March 15, 2012

When the technicians at William Henderson, Inc. talk with folks about heat pumps, most people think we are speaking about furnaces and other heating sources. The fact is, though, that a heat pump is nothing more than a system created to transfer heat from one location to another. This system can then be used to move heat in a heating or cooling system. These heat pumps can do this very efficiently. Because more and more people are considering heat pumps in their home and business, Wm. Henderson Heating decided to provide some quick information on how heat pumps work.

Heat tends to want to travel to low temperature environments. This is why the heat in your home works hard to get outside during the winter and why it is so hard to keep your home cool in the summer. A heat pump system uses this science to create an artificial environment to reverse the process.  This means turning cold air into warm for winter heating and warm air into cold for summer cooling.

For example, an air conditioner draws in warm air from outside the home. This air is passes over a set of cooling coils that lowers the temperature of the air. As long as that air is cooler than the air in the home it will travel through the ducting system, aided by a fan, and bring down the temperature of the home. The energy used to keep the coils cool is very little, making the process very efficient.

There are several different kinds of heat pumps that are appropriate for use in special environments. The most common is that used in an air conditioner, but there are also ground source heat pumps that utilize the stable temperature of the earth to heat, cool and transfer air to homes and businesses. The William Henderson heat pump repair technicians understand how these systems work and are available to meet and talk more about these energy saving systems whenever you are. Give us a call.

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A Quick Guide to the MERV Air Filter Rating System

Posted on February 27, 2012

In a world with that is filled with huge amounts of information and different kinds of appliance technology, it’s good to have standards. That’s why in 1987 the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers developed the MERV rating. MERV (which stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) is a rating system that measures how effective an air conditioning filter is in a home. Wm. Henderson Heating knows that having a working knowledge of the MERV system is important in getting the right filter for your needs and lifestyle.

There are three basic levels of quality when it comes to the MERV rating. Filters with a numerical rating from 5 to 8 are considered Better Residential filters. This is really the minimum rating you need to keep the air in your home clean and free of small particles. Levels between 9 and 12 are considered Superior Residential filters. These filters are great for families with members that have stronger reactions to dust and allergens. Lastly there are filters that are great at filtering out odors as well as dander, pollen and dust. These filters have a MERV rating of 8 or more, but also have a component of activated charcoal to remove odors and smells.

It should be noted that there are filters that have higher MERV ratings up beyond 13, but these filters are recommended for commercial use only. These are not typically used in residential applications, because they are extremely restrictive to normal airflow. This can be harmful for residential air conditioners, causing them to wear out quickly while consuming more electricity.

The professionals that work for Wm. Henderson understand the MERV rating scale and how to best apply it to your unique home and family needs. Let us use our 35 years of experience in Delaware County and the Mainline to help you choose a filter that will extend the life your unit, save you money and keep your family healthy.

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Where Should You Install a New Thermostat?

Posted on February 20, 2012

There is nothing more exciting than getting a new heating system for your home. The joy that comes from an energy-efficient heating system comes from both the warmth it gives off and the lower energy bills that come in the dead of winter. William Henderson Heating knows that a new heating system comes with a lot of choices before its up and running smoothly, from the type of system to install to the size of the system to best match your house. Perhaps one of the most important questions however, is where to put the thermostat.

The placement of the thermostat in your home is key. The thermostat regulates the temperature of your home by communicating with your central heating system and calling for heat or stopping the system as the ambient temperature in your home fluctuates. Digital thermostats even allow you to raise and lower the temperature depending on the time of day and season of the year.

Since the thermostat takes real time temperature information and relays this to the central heating system, it must be placed in an area of the home that is not subject to wild temperature fluctuations. Placing the thermostat on an outside wall or near a window will cause the thermostat to call for heat inappropriately due to being in a colder part of your home. Conversely, having the thermostat placed above a register or near a heating vent will cause the heating system to turn off to early as the thermostat heats up more quickly than other parts of the home.

Instead, place the thermostat in a central location in your home. Make sure it is on an inside wall and not near a source of heat. This will ensure that the entire home is receiving consistent heating and that the thermostat is able to relay accurate information to your heating system’s brain.

If you’re having problems deciding where to place the thermostat in your home, give William Henderson, Inc. a call. We have 30 years of experience helping Pennsylvania homeowners design, install and repair a wide variety of heating systems. We can help you get the job done right.

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How to Detect a Gas Leak and What to Do When One Occurs?

Posted on February 20, 2012

WARNING: This article is for informational purposes only. Detection, and especially repair, of natural gas lines should only be performed by a trained professional.

It’s a scary event when it happens. You walk outside, or into a room in your home, and you catch the faint whiff of natural gas odor. The problem is that often times the smell is so faint that it’s hard to determine if it’s real or just a smell on a passing breeze. In order to determine if you actually have a natural gas leak nearby do the following:

Visually Inspect the Area Find where your natural gas lines run and where it is visible. Often times it is possible to see damaged gas pipes or the cause of a damaged pipe, like a fallen tree or errant parking job with the car. These types of incidents are easy to see.

If it’s not clear where the damage is, take a look around for vegetation that is dying or dead in areas where there is no explanation for why. The presence of a constant stream of natural gas will have a negative effect on plant life. If the leak is large enough and the pipe is underground you will see a disturbance in the area such as dirt blowing up in the air, or a small, cave-like hole dug out by the stream of gas as it leaves the pipe.

Lastly, if you suspect that the leak is coming from a certain joint or area of your system you can take a spray bottle filled with soapy water, soak the joints and see if bubbles form. The presence of bubbles means that gas is escaping from the joints.

Stop and Listen Sometimes to find a gas leak all you have to do is stop and listen. If you hear a hissing sound, you’ve found your leak.

What to do if you think you found leak in your gas pipe:

  1. Leave the area of the gas leak immediately. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FIX THE LEAK YOURSELF.
  2. Do not use fire of any kind near the leak.
  3. Don’t turn any lights on or off. Do not use any appliances. Any spark of electricity could ignite the gas in the right situation.
  4. After you have left the area and are a safe distance away, call your local energy company and report the problem. If you feel there is immediate danger to you or others, call the fire department.

William Henderson, Inc. wants you and your family to be safe. If you suspect that your home has a gas leak, leave immediately and let the professionals worry about detection and repair of any damaged gas lines.

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Furnace Buyers’ Guide

Posted on February 15, 2012

There is no substitute for having a well working furnace in your home in the winter. Consistent heat and low winter bills will keep you snug and cozy and your bank account filled with cash reserves. If your furnace is on the fritz and you think it’s time to purchase a new one, you’ll have a lot to consider in order to maximize your money and your heating potential. The following are a few considerations that Wm. Henderson Plumbing and Heating wants you to understand before you buy.

  1. Repair or Replace? Just because your heater doesn’t seem to heat your home the way it did in previous years, doesn’t mean it’s time to replace it. Some furnaces just need a little help from a professional heating technician to get their spark back. Because furnaces are a large investment for your home, consider repair before replacement unless your furnace is 15 years or older, has been converted to gas from another fuel, or has a pilot light instead of an igniter.
  2. 80-Percent Efficiency or High-Efficiency? High-efficiency furnaces are on every homeowner’s mind these days and for good reason. A smart homeowner wants to minimize their bills as much as possible. However, high-efficiency furnaces cost a great deal more than the typical “80-percent efficiency” model. So much so, that if you do not have long, very-cold winters, then you may not benefit in the long run from the extra up-front cost associated with high efficiency.
  3. Variable Speed Blowers. If possible, make sure the furnace you choose has a variable speed blower. A variable speed blower allows your furnace to put out the appropriate amount of heat without causing undue stress on the working parts of your furnace. A furnace that is forced to cycle on and off frequently is bound to break down faster and require more maintenance.

These are just a few considerations you will need to take in order to find the right furnace for your home. To ensure you make the right choice you should involve a professional like Wm. Henderson Plumbing and Heating. William Henderson reviews furnaces of all types and can help you get into one that is sized right and will keep you warm throughout the winter months.

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