Southside Heating & Air Conditioning

The end of January and beginning of February is usually a pretty good time of the year in Minnesota.  With the coldest month of winter passing we usually have some great snowmobiling, sledding, and ice fishing going on.  We had an excellent football game last night in my opinion; better than the commercials this year.  We have a slow sports month for a couple weeks but March Madness is coming up very quickly. 

Furnace safety is of utmost importance in our cold climate.  A clean furnace filter, which you should have checked this month by now, goes the farthest towards helping your furnace stay safe.  Annual inspections by qualified technicians are another thing that should be done every year, especially on furnaces older than ten years or so.  Safety controls are an important part of every furnace manufactured today to ensure safe operation before anything else.

We are installing a furnace this morning that is replacing a dangerously unsafe furnace.  This furnace is an older furnace that should be checked regularly.  The home is not being lived in full time, but it is checked every couple days to do all the little things that need done like watering the plants, checking the yard, and making sure the heating system is working properly.  The last time the home was checked a wall of heat blasted out the door as the home was opened.  All the plants were dried out and dead.  All the toilets were dried up because the water evaporated.  The veneer on all the wood finishes peeled up.  The studs inside the walls were measured at 120 degrees by the fire department an hour after the furnace was shut down and the entire house was opened up.  This house was dangerously close to catching on fire.

The furnace as a device to heat was working marvelously.  It was pumping out heat like no tomorrow.  It was tragically unsafe however and needed to be red-tagged.  The furnace was not responding to the thermostat controls.  The safety switches inside the furnace are not shutting the furnace off when they get too hot.  A furnace running full blast that long could very possibly have melted a hole into its heat exchanger opening the air stream of the home to the flue gasses.  An unsafe furnace like this one is our job to turn off to protect the lives and property of our customers.  Proper repairs to the furnace or a replacement of it need to be completed before a red tag can be removed.  That is regardless of whom red tags it as well.  We have lost customers to other contractors because they were so mad at us that we shut off their furnace.  Southside has gained other customers because they wanted us to do their repairs or replacement.  A red tagged furnace is a very serious issue and needs to be handled in the proper way, no matter who handles it for you.

If you have any questions please contact us at 952-884-2453 and we can provide you with answers and information.

Search engines are a wonderful thing; you can find just about anything you want.  Google, Bing, Yahoo, or any of the other engines give an amazing amount of results for whatever you happen to be looking for.  They do such a good job, they will tell you when you are spelling something wrong and that what you are really looking for is spelled this way.  Sometimes what you want though is not what you really should get.

Our service techs have been on many service calls this winter for furnaces that were installed by the cheapest guys out there.  Fly by nights, friends of friends, a guy I know, and I can install this furnace I got on Craig's list are some of the popular ways to install a furnace.  Saving a few hundred dollars like this is really not too smart of a thing to do.  We were on one just recently where "a guy that does this" installed a furnace.  We found 2 code violations, 2 more poor installation practices, and a grossly oversized furnace installed for a couple hundred dollars less than what we charge.  Of course a permit was not pulled to ensure the city can come and inspect the job to make sure it was done properly and safely.  Any warranty the furnace had is voided unless you can find a very generous contractor that can has a wonderful relationship with his supplier.  The oversized furnace actually heats the home slower than a properly sized furnace.  It gets too hot and turns itself off every couple of minutes.  This overheating not only takes longer to heat your home, but it also shortens the life of the furnace significantly by doubling or even tripling the number of start ups it will go through in its lifetime.  A weakening of the heat exchanger also happens when you overheat the furnace repeatedly creating a dangerous condition of cracks in your heat exchanger.  Cracks are an extremely dangerous situation that causes exhaust fumes to enter into your home. 

The other side of getting your furnace installed by someone working out of the back of his pickup truck is that you get a questionable furnace.  If it is a brand name furnace; did it fall off a truck somewhere?  Was it damaged in some way?  If it is an off brand furnace, how good is it really?  Parts may say that they are warrantied for 5 years, but if you have a technician out 3 times a year changing parts, is it really worth that?  Will that furnace last more than 5-7 years?  If you go on vacation to Disneyland for 2 weeks for winter vacation, can you trust the furnace to not go out the day after you leave? 

When you think about installing a new furnace, think about what it will cost you for 10 years.  The price difference from a multiple stage furnace to a single stage furnace will typically take about 2 years to make up the cost difference.  A variable speed furnace will save the difference in electricity over those same two years.  A quality furnace installed properly will last well over 15 years; typically we see 20-25 years of life on average.  Spend just a little bit more today and save yourself money for 20 years.  The other option is to save money today and pay for it for many years yet to come.

We all knew winter would make its presence felt, and it finally has.  The roads are icy, the lawns are snow covered, and the furnaces are working full steam ahead.  It may be too late to really save the ice fishing year, but maybe we can get enough to have a couple good runs on the snowmobiles.

I was in Iowa last week visiting the Lennox manufacturing plant in Marshalltown.  It was an extremely impressive plant.  They have 1 million square feet under one roof where they not only produce the equipment but also test all their lines.  The attention to detail is what I was most excited to see.  They scan each part as they move along their production run to ensure it is the correct part in the correct piece of equipment on the correct production order.  They not only test all of their equipment to the most stringent outside source guidelines, such as UL or AGA, but they have even more exact testing procedures to ensure everything is assembled to the hundred thousandth of an inch in exactness.  They have a division whose sole purpose is to measure every mold, every die, and every purchased piece to ensure that exactness.  Should anything ever be seen to be off in its exactness, the piece goes back to be redone. 

Lennox has kicked off its winter rebate program starting today.  All of the federal tax credit for high efficient energy improvements gone except for solar or geothermal credit.  Interestingly enough, the signature series of Lennox air conditioners and heat pumps are all solar ready.  They also have a solar panel package that will reduce your dependence on your electrical supplier by producing electricity to be used in your home as long as the sun is out.  Call us today at 952-884-2453 to ask about the rebates on replacing your equipment.  The program goes on until February 17th, but why wait to start lowering your utility costs until then?

We had a little bit of everything you can hope for in a winter this past weekend.  It was almost bitterly cold Friday, cold and some nice snow flurries on Saturday, and mildly comfortable on Sunday.  The ice is not a safe option this year in our area; I know the local Cub Scout ice fishing derby has been cancelled due to thin ice.  Snowmobilers have had a pretty poor year as well. 

With the unseasonably warm weather your furnace should not have been working too very extremely hard this year.  That should also be showing up on your heating bills as being not as bad as previous years.  Your furnace has been running this year though, and mechanical parts do fail even under less extreme conditions.  We had more than one call last Friday that started out with "my furnace has been not working well the last month or so but it was so warm we didn't do anything and now that it is cold it isn't working at all".  Now we know that sometimes thing slip our minds.  We also know that pocket books are tighter than ever.  We also know there are countless other reasons we put off fixing things until we absolutely have to.  All we ask is to please not be surprised if we cannot get out to you as soon as you call us with a problem that has been happening for the last 6 weeks. 

Proper maintenance is recommended highly for every furnace and spelled in the warranty information for every major furnace manufacturer to be done to maintain your warranty.  Amp draws on motors can indicate if the windings are starting to go bad.  Dirt and dust buildup overheat all mechanical parts and should be cleaned.  Filters should be cleaned or changed.  Flame sensors should be cleaned.  Safety limit switches should be checked to ensure proper operation.  An emergency no heat may not cost any more than a regular service call; but it definitely can cost much more because it is unplanned and happens at the most inconvenient time for everyone involved.  Also, planned maintenance does cost you less than an average service call when done properly because a planned maintenance agreement offers discounts to the service call price.  We offer our discounts not because we want to get in your door by giving a spectacular deal.  We offer ours because we can schedule them at a more convenient time for everyone involved.  Time is still money and when times are busy, it is much more money.  Save yours and schedule proper maintenance at the proper time.

What we have for winter this year is half over.  It seems more like an extended fall instead of a real winter with our unusual warm and dry weather.  After the dismal spring we had last year, maybe we can expect something better this year.

There have been more than a few deals on the internet this winter for tune up specials at outrageous discounts.  Half off deals or specials down to 75% off can be found if you look hard enough.  These are some great deals, maybe.  You need to compare what you are paying for and what you can expect to get before you determine if this is a great deal or not. 

If you schedule XYZ Heating to come tune up your furnace for a special price of $59 from $129, think about it for a little bit.  XYZ is going to pay a service technician $20-$25 an hour for his base pay; with taxes and benefits that will cost the company closer to $35 an hour for every hour his is on the clock.  With his drive time being 20 minutes and the time spent working on your furnace being close to an hour it will be almost $50 for the service technician to be there that XYZ needs to account for.  Then XYZ needs to pay for the service van to show up in your driveway with the parts and tools to do what is required.  $3.29 per gallon for gas, thousands of dollars of parts for many different furnaces, and the maintenance costs of operating a vehicle should add on another $10 to every call.  Then there is the office personnel that helped you set up your service call.  Do not forget the advertising budget that it takes to put that super special ad up in the first place.  Then the business operating expenses of electrical, gas, garbage, office products, and phones just to name a few.  All of this is before XYZ tries to make a profit.  Depending on the training of the technician and the amount of parts on the truck the expense to send a service technician to your home will be in the neighborhood of $100-$120 before a profit is shown.

Now XYZ wants to stay in business so it needs more than just that cost of the technician to grow.  XYZ needs to have money to train its technicians to stay current on all the new equipment.  XYZ also needs to continue to advertise to bring in new business.  They need to put a little bit from every service back into their business so that they can continue to show up at your home every year.

Now if it costs $130 for a particular service and you want to make a little bit of profit on that service, do you think you can sell that service for $59?  Now the flip side of that issue is that the most expensive group out there may not be the best either, they may just be more expensive.  With all the information available at your fingertips today, you should be searching for the most qualified mechanical service contractor for you.  If they are qualified, the value they deliver will be well worth the service charge they request.

The last year has had its ups and downs.  The Vikings, Twins and Gophers were down.  The Lynx and Wild are up.  The snow is way down, although we have some on the ground now.  After several years of stable prices from our suppliers, we did see an increase in the cost of equipment this last spring.  What helped is that we also did see an increase in the rebates available for high efficient equipment.

Last year we had some pretty good rebates both from the utility companies and from the manufacturers.  Although not as significant as the previous years, there was also a tax credit that was available as well.  The beginning of this year has us in something of limbo as to what the new rebates and credits will be.  Xcel Energy changes the electrical rebates for high efficient air conditioners from year to year.  Sometime around March or April we should see what their rebate schedule looks like.  Centerpointe should be similar if not the same as last year; their schedule is defined for a more extended period of time.  The Federal Tax Credits we saw finalized sometime around February last year.  As soon as we know what they are this year we will pass that information along. 

Lennox will have the first manufacturer's rebates this year with Southside.  They are once again pretty significant.  The program starts on January 23; but if you would like to know what they are offering call us today at 952-884-2453. 

Being as this is not only the beginning of the month, but also the beginning of the year as well, be sure to check your furnace filter.  A dirty filter will cost you more in electrical energy consumption than it will cost you to put a new filter in.  This savings goes above and beyond the strain a dirty filter puts on your system causing premature parts failure.  Also, for those of you out there that purchased a home with electronic air cleaners installed in them already, here is something from our service department.  There are two big electronic cells and two aluminum pre filters that all need to be checked.  When you open the door to the air cleaner, make sure to look all the way in and pull everything out to be cleaned.  If you have questions on the proper way to clean, feel free to contact us with your questions as well.

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Southside and our employees had the chance to spend the holidays with our friends and families; we are now ready to go for the last week before the new year. 

The last three years have had some great rebates and credits from just about everywhere for new equipment.  Manufacture's rebates, Federal tax credits, and utility rebates have given the consumer's an opportunity to upgrade their equipment to much more efficient heating and cooling equipment.  If you have had these upgrades you should have noticed not only a savings in your utility bills, but an increase in the comfort in your home. 

Southside will be waiting to see what the utility rebates are going to be this coming year.  Every year there is a possibility of the utility rebates changing.  As soon as the rebate schedule is posted, Southside will post the rebates to all our customers and potential customers.  The Federal tax credit for energy efficiency improvement appears to be expiring; we will also let everyone know the status of that rebate.  There is still going to be a Federal tax credit for installing solar ready equipment; Lennox has currently 4 air conditioners that qualify for this credit.  Lennox will also be having some pretty decent rebates sponsored by Lennox coming up in January, check back very soon for all the details on those.

Hopefully the last week before Christmas has you relaxed and calm instead of harried trying to finish your holiday shopping.  My house has seen a new laptop, tv, and dining room set come into our home; my wife has told me she loves all the gifts I have purchased for her this year.  I will also enjoy the new wallet I am getting; now if I just had something left to put into it.

On Friday December 16th, the Department of Energy had a webinar discussing a new regional standard for energy efficiency for furnaces and air conditioners.  Starting in May of 2013 this means for Minnesotans that you will not be allowed to replace a furnace with anything less than 90% efficient furnaces and any air conditioners with less than a 13 SEER system.  The air conditioner standard is nothing new, that standard has been a national standard for several years now.  The furnace standard is new however, and may pose some barriers to homeowners.

A condensing or high efficient furnace captures more heat in the burning process and puts that heat into your home instead of allowing it to leave through the exhaust system.  A regular furnace is approximately 80% with a steel chimney system that goes up through your roof, commonly vented together with your water heater.  These furnaces typically have exhaust temperatures of somewhere around 300-350 degrees Fahrenheit.  A condensing furnace uses PVC pipe for venting that may either go up through the roof or out the side of your home.  These furnaces typically have exhaust temperatures of around 110 degrees Fahrenheit; much lower than a regular furnace.  This extra bit of heat is put into your home instead of being vented outside.  The issue involved is getting the vent to the outside on the more efficient furnaces.

Venting a high efficient furnace is done in PVC piping because the lower temperature allows the moisture in the exhaust to condense.  A metal vent would rust out very quickly with this condensing; the PVC allows the water to flow back to the furnace and be drained down your floor drain.  There are very strict codes for venting a furnace properly and each one must be vented differently.  Changing from an 80% furnace to a 90% furnace does not leave many options to vent the new furnace.  If your furnace room is surrounded by finished rooms, it may be necessary to run the vent pipes exposed through your home somewhere.  This will require some sort of soffiting to be done to hide these pipes if you want your finished basement to be finished. 

Southside has been able to install a high efficient furnace in almost all of the homes that have asked for them.  There are homes that are not finished to allow them though.  If you are concerned you may have such a home, schedule a visit from us to see what your options are.  In May of 2013, those options will be drastically reduced.

Last weekend was a busy weekend again for service calls.  We certainly hope your furnace is working well this winter keeping you warm and comfortable.  There is a previous blog post that goes over a couple things that you can do for yourself before you call a service technician for a service call.  If you do need to have a service call but want to wait until a better time; or if your home is already cold here are a couple things you can do to help keep your home warm in an emergency.

     1. Turn on your fireplace if you have one.  It is only going to be 40,000 btus or so, 
         but it will keep your home warm

     2. Turn on your oven.  It is not really efficient, but it will put a lot of heat into your
         home as well.  Leaving the door open helps put the heat into your home, but do
         so with caution.  A hot oven has a high potential for burns.  If you are not watching
         it, close the door.

     3. Portable electric heaters can put out up to 15000 btus per heater.  Read the
         instructions carefully though, if you use a light weight extension cord the cord may
         heat up and burn your carpet and potentially start a fire.  Do not fix one problem
         with another, plug the heaters in directly to a wall outlet and place them on a solid
         hard surface.

     4. Fill your bathtub with hot water.  Every little bit of heat helps and hot water has a lot
         of heat energy stored in it that can be released into your home.  As the water
         cools off you can drain your tub and refill it.  This is the least efficient way to warm
         your home but also very easy.

All of these measures are just a stop gap for until you can have a service technician to your home.  The best way to heat your home is still a properly operating furnace, boiler, or heat pump system.  If you have any questions, please contact us at southside@southsideheating.com or call 952-884-2453.

We know that right in the middle of the holiday season sometimes some of the routine things get missed or forgotten about.  Please remember to check your furnace filter to ensure that your furnace is running properly. 

A broken furnace is the last thing you want to think about while making Thanksgiving dinner or opening Christmas presents.  This year we have had a no heat call on Thanksgiving so far; we are waiting to see what the next month brings.  Although we hope to not be needed on the last weekend in December, we are ready for if we are.  We also fully expect to receive at least a few calls with homeowners that are out of heat desperately trying to find anyone that will come out to them right away.  There is a law, Murphy's Law, which basically says that whenever anything bad happens, it will happen at the most inconvenient time possible.  Do your best to thwart Murphy and have your furnace maintained properly.

Proper maintenance for each furnace is described in detail in the homeowner's manual that should be left with every furnace.  It will call for making sure there is a clean filter.  It will detail which parts need to be cleaned in the furnace and how.  There is very little that ever needs to be lubricated in a furnace anymore; they have gone to permanently lubricated motors.  All the steps for a proper yearly maintenance will be laid out for you in that manual.  Some things you can do and are expected to do as a homeowner.  Some parts the manufacturer will tell you to hire a certified technician to perform.  If you do not do these things, your furnace will not break down in one year, probably.  It may not break down in two years most likely either.  However, it will have a significantly shorter lifespan with higher operating costs than a properly maintained furnace.  No one wants to wake up on New Year's Day to find out that their furnace has gone out while they were counting down the Times Square ball. 

Cyber Monday is when America spends the day searching for deals on the internet for new home electronics or the newest toys for Christmas presents.  Although it is physically safer than fighting through the crowds at stores, please make sure you are cyber-safe as well.  And if you find any good deals, make sure to share them with everyone.

This fall Lennox has had by far and away the best rebates on purchasing new equipment.  With the purchase of a fully modulating gas furnace and a solar ready air conditioning system you can receive up to $1400 cash back.  With the installation of the complete system you can also receive $425 from Centerpointe Energy for the furnace and $400 from Xcel Energy for the air conditioner.  The system will also qualify for up to $1100 Federal tax credit for being better than 95% efficient, 16 SEER/13 EER and solar ready.  Adding all those together is a pretty hefty return on one of the best furnace and air conditioning systems that Lennox has to offer. 

Now that you know you can get a lot of money back on a new system you might want to know what that system will do for you.  The modulating furnace will start at a reduced capacity and ramp up as needed to provide the exact amount of heat in your home that you need.  This will decrease the amount of fuel used by only burning what it needs to and increase your comfort by reducing the temperature swing in your home from plus or minus as much as 2 degrees to down to around a half a degree or less.  The furnace is extremely quiet, especially at slower blower speeds.  If you are green for energy efficient to save the planet or green for saving money by using less electricity; both are very well satisfied with this equipment as it will use a fraction of the electricity a standard model furnace/air conditioner uses.  Longevity will not be a concern either with a standard manufacturer's warranty of limited lifetime on the heat exchanger and 10 years on all other parts with proper maintenance.  The loophole on the limited lifetime is that the original homeowner gets that warranty, should you buy the home from them your warranty reverts to twenty years for the heat exchanger. 

Anyway you look at it; Lennox has a great offer going.  Contact us today at 952-884-2453 or southside@southsideheating.com if you have any questions about how you can make your home more comfortable today.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Winter has decided to show itself a bit more clearly with the snow this last weekend, although it may be gone by Thanksgiving.  We should be back in the low 50s by Thursday again, making it a warm holiday.

Now that winter is here people are starting to need the heat from their furnace more than just to keep the chill off.  The best thing to do to ensure proper operation of the furnace is to keep a clean furnace filter.  A plugged filter will hinder the furnace in its ability to put the heat where you want it, in your home.  Repeated plugged filters or just one that is never changed will cause a furnace to overheat.  This overheating will cause a failure of the high limit switch prematurely, an increase in the wear on all the components in the furnace due to a radical increase in the number of startups, and a shortening of the lifespan of the heat exchanger.  This heat exchanger weakening will over time cause cracks to appear which require immediate attention, either replacing the heat exchanger or more typically replacing the furnace altogether. 

Now that you have changed the filter, is there anything else you can do?  There are a couple basic things you can check to see if you need a service visit, and how pressing you need one.  There should be a light switch next to the furnace that only controls the furnace.  When you shut that off, wait about 15 seconds, and turn it back on again you will reset the control board on the furnace.  That reset will allow the furnace to try and restart again if it was in a lock out situation.  If it is a nuisance problem, the furnace may start again in the first couple of attempts.  If it is more serious, the furnace will try to restart 4 times before it goes back into a lock out.  If the furnace restarts, you may just need to have a tune up done to it, have a service visit scheduled soon but maybe not an emergency visit.  If the furnace locks out again, you do need to have someone out as soon as you can get them.  A cool home on a cold and windy night will probably require an emergency service call. 

Regardless of if you are in need of a tune up service or an emergency service on Christmas Eve, please tell the technician everything you have done to restart your furnace.  The more information a technician has, the quicker he can properly diagnose what is wrong with your furnace and make a repair.  The sooner that happens the sooner you have warmth in your home and the less expensive it is for you. 

If you have any questions or comments on this, please contact us at southside@southsideheating.com or call 952-884-2453.

Halfway through November means that the holiday season is upon us.  Christmas decorations are up for sale in the different stores and black Friday early bird sales are in full swing.  This fall as been good or bad depending on your point of view.  For the shovelers out there, it has been wonderfully warm.  For the snowmobilers and ice fishers, we need to get about 45 degrees colder really quickly. 

Judging by some of the phone calls we have had over the last weeks, people are changing their water panels in their humidifiers.  AprilAire recommends changing out their water panel once a year for the typical humidifier.  The model 400 is the one model that may require twice a year changing, it uses a different water panel and the scale build up affects its operation sooner.  You really should change the panel yearly to get the full humidification effect from your humidifier.  Trying to save money by changing it less often will result in the unit not operating properly.  I have also seen some homeowners that have tried to clean their panels off with a descaler of some type.  These panels typically fall apart after a couple such cleanings and really do not give the humidification that they should either.  Plus the added time of cleaning the panel and expense of purchasing the cleaner usually makes it cost more than just buying a new panel.

The proper panel is just as important as changing it to begin with.  We recommend only using AprilAire water panels.  The off brand panels may be less expensive to buy, however they have problems with the texturing melting off of the panel and getting clogged up in your drain line.  The resulting clog will back up the water in your drain line back up into the humidifier, down your ductwork, possibly into the furnace, and all over your mechanical room until it gets to the floor drain.  The AprilAire water panels may cost a dollar more than the "made for AprilAire" water panels, but they are worth every penny of the difference. 

Winter is not really here yet, there is still plenty of water in the air.  As the winter progresses though, the air will dry out.  This drying will cause damage to any wood furniture or flooring you have in your home.  A lower humidity level also makes a temperature feel cooler, a properly operating humidifier will not only protect your health and your home, it will save you money on your heating bills by helping you feel warmer. 

This week in November is one that many Minnesotans hold dear; deer opener was this last weekend.  Bob and Don each were able to get a deer on opening weekend this year; hopefully all the other hunters out there were equally as lucky. 

Everyone is looking for a good deal on a furnace it seems like.  With everything being available on the internet these days, people are looking there for new or used furnaces at discounted rates and then someone to put them in.  Others are looking for a furnace that we must have in the back that is still in good condition.  For those customers, please go somewhere else.  We do not wish to take the responsibility of putting any of our customers at risk with a furnace in poor condition just to save a buck.  We will also flat out refuse to put anything in that someone found on the internet, new or used.  Without knowing where a furnace has come from, we cannot offer any sort of warranty on its operation.  Doing such a gross disservice to our customers is something we will not do. 

What we can offer is some good deals on great furnaces.  Most HVAC contractors offer one brand of furnace, saying theirs is the best.  Southside Heating offers 4 brands in Ruud, Carrier, Lennox, and Coleman.  Southside offers all 4 of these brands to make available the best offer and the most options that we can.  Currently Lennox has some of the best rebates of the 4, but throughout the year that will change.  Southside offers what most dealers cannot; the best deal from anyone at any given time.  With our installers being NATE certified and QI qualified, we can also put any of these systems in so that they operate at their designed efficiency.  A high efficient furnace installed incorrectly will work no better than the low efficiency beginner's model. 

Just about everything you buy today comes in grades of quality.  The best quality does come with the highest initial price.  However, with your furnace and air conditioning, the best quality is also the best equipment.  It will run for a longer lifetime, it will run more efficiently, and the parts will be covered under warranty for a longer time.  Today it may cost you more, but in just a few years you will be money ahead over a bare bones system.  You will only change your mechanical system a few times in your lifetime, Southside encourages you to do it right the first time and not to pay for a mistake for years to come by being uninformed.  Contact us today at southside@southsideheating.com or 952-884-2453 with any questions you may have.

The last day of the month usually is not that big of a deal, but in October it is.  Enjoy some fun, scary, and safe trick or treating on this year's Halloween. 

Being the end of the month it means that tomorrow is the first of the month.  Time to check your furnace filter once again.  If you are wondering whether it is still good or not, hold it up to the light.  If you can still see good light through it, you should be able to get another month out of it.  If you are wondering if it is still good after that, change it.  A new furnace filter helps your furnace run so much nicer it is well worth the time and effort to change it. 

I spent the weekend visiting family for an 85th birthday party and saw a new story that we all do not want to see.  A house fire occurred because the person's furnace was not properly maintained.  It was an oil burning furnace; the burners had gotten so dirty that when the furnace started the flames rolled out into the house starting a fire in the mechanical room.  Fortunately, no one was hurt and the fire department was there in time to prevent any major damage.  The moral of the story is that a furnace check is to ensure your furnace is working properly and safely.  We would much rather tell pa person that their furnace is in prime working condition, but if it is not we will tell you.  If necessary, we will also turn your furnace off until it can be made safe.  Being in Minnesota in the winter, should we ever need to go to that extreme, we will make sure you have temporary heat to ensure your home does not get too cold. 

Heating and cooling your home must be done safely and properly, that is our primary goal.  After that, we can start looking at making you as comfortable as possible in your home.  With today's equipment available, that is a very achievable goal.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us at southside@southsideheating.com or call 952-884-2453.

Another brisk morning today in Bloomington; it should get up to the low 60's today.  There are a few clouds in the sky this morning but it really does look like a nice fall day.  The rest of the week should be gradually cooling off, making for a great time to visit an apple orchard or play a little football.  With the weather going the way it is, it is very safe to say that your air conditioning will no longer be needed this year and that you may go about with winterizing it.  This may be a little strange to hear, but the best thing you can do for you air conditioning unit is a conditional nothing. 

For those of you that have the custom made canvas air conditioning tops; please do not use them.  Also, any large plastic covers that reach all the way to the ground are not needed.  The homeowners that use their own tarp, plastic, or canvas to wrap their condenser are also doing it more harm than good.  The reasons we hear as to why these things are done are basically to keep the snow and leaves out of the air conditioner.  Those sound like a couple of pretty good things to try to do, but what you aren't seeing is what you are actually creating in the air conditioning by wrapping it.

Minnesota is one of those places that mice just seem to like.  If it is good food, nice weather, or just the way it is, we have our fair share of mice.  In the winter they do typically find a nice nest where they can keep warm and find a little something to chew on.  Wrapping up your air conditioner makes a wonderful little home out of the wind for a mouse to make his home.  Our experience has been that anytime a mouse makes a home in a condenser, he likes to chew on the most expensive parts.  Your best course of action is to not wrap up the condensor and to not give him that home.

Humidity in Minnesota is almost always uncomfortable.  It is either too high in the summer or too low in the winter.  Wrapping your condenser traps all the humidity inside the unit over the winter, especially on those sunny spring days before the snow has melted away.  Older air conditioners have a contactor, a capacitor, and some wires in its control cabinet.  Newer, higher SEER air conditioners have a control board along with or in some cases instead of those components.  They are designed to be outside in the cold, the wind, and the rain; however they last a lot longer when they are not subjected to extended periods of condensation forming on them from the higher relative humidity found in a wrapped up condensing unit. 

The only time you may need to do anything to your air conditioner is to protect the outside unit from falling ice.  If you have bad ice hanging from above your condenser you may want to put a board on top of the unit to absorb the blow of any falling ice instead of your air conditioner doing so.  If your air conditioner is flat, just setting the board on top of it along with something heavy to keep it from blowing away will suffice.  If the top of your unit is rounded you may wish to build a table of sorts, a simple top with some legs for support.  Whatever you do, it does not need to be fancy at all, just something to absorb the blow of a chunk of ice falling.  If you do not have any ice on that side of your home, you would not even need to do that. 

It is starting to get a little brisk outside in the mornings; frost is most likely just around the corner.  The leaves are changing, and if your yard is like mine, piling up.  The days are noticeably shorter now; both in the morning and evening.  If you have not checked your furnace, now is the time to do so.

If you have ever typed furnace repair, furnace service, or furnace installation into Google or some other search engine, you probably were not feeling good about it.  Your furnace was most likely not working when you were checking, and most likely not working for more than a little while when you noticed it was getting cold.  That is the bad news.  There are a couple things you can try before you do make an emergency call that can mitigate some of that bad news.
     
     1. Check the batteries on your thermostat.  Weak batteries can cause erratic operation, change them once a year.
     
     2. Check your furnace filter.  A plugged filter will cause your furnace to overheat and turn it off.
    
     3. Check your furnace power switch.  There should be a light switch by your furnace that only powers the furnace.
         Children and pets like to play with switches, make sure your furnace is on.

These are some of the easiest to fix and common problems as to why your furnace may not be working.  You can definitely check all of them yourself; none of them require any special training.  If you have not had your furnace checked recently, now would also be a good time to do so.  Regular maintenance is the only way to get long life and maximum efficiency out of your equipment. 

For the last 3 months, humidity has been a dirty word in Minnesota.  High temperatures and high humidity made some of those days in July truly unbearable.  The extra humidity in the air makes it feel warmer; every 10% adds a relative degree to the temperature.  Half of the effects of an air conditioning system are to remove the excess humidity from your home, making your home feel comfortable to live in.

The average relative humidity in the Sahara desert is 23%.  Closer to home Death Valley, California has 25%.  Even closer than that would be a Bloomington home with a forced air furnace hat on a cold winter day can have a relative humidity down to 10%.  So in a couple months from now, when you have your thermostat set on a comfortable 76, it may only feel like 72 if your humidity is down in that single digit range.  With proper humidity you can get that same 72 degree feeling by actually setting the thermostat to 72.  If you don't think that those 4 degrees are a big deal, know that every degree you set back your thermostat in winter can be about a 5% savings on your heating bill.  Saving 20% in January doesn't sound like such a bad idea, does it?

There are other benefits to proper humidity control.  When the humidity is too high there is an increase in viruses, bacteria, and molds.  When the humidity is too low there is an increase bacteria and viruses as well.  Low humidity also causes high static electricity, dry nasal passages, and warped wood furnishings.  For those of you that have a piano, guitar, violin, or other wood instrument, you know the importance of not letting those instruments dry out too far.  Also, nobody really enjoys receiving static electricity shocks, although some young boys I know like to give them.

     HIGH HUMDITY
     -increase bacteria
     -increase mold
     -increase viruses
     -uncomfortable "clammy" feel

     LOW HUMIDITY
     -increase bacteria
     -increase mold
     -increase viruses
     -air feels colder than it is
     -wood cracks and splits due to drying out

So what is the ideal humidity range?  Ideally, you should try to keep the relative humidity between 40%-60%.  It is wet enough to inhibit the low humidity problems yet dry enough to not induce the high humidity problems.  If you have any questions, call us at 952-884-2453 or you can check out www.aprilaire.com for information about humidity along with other indoor air quality issues.

October is starting out how our spring should have been.  I remember the 50 something days we had all spring until we rocketed up to the 90 plus degree summer days.  Now in October, the first week in the Minneapolis area looks gorgeous, high 70s to low 80s all week with the sun shining.  We certainly hope you have not put your Carrier air conditioner away yet in favor of your Ruud furnace; we still may need to cool as well as heat this fall.  Whatever you are doing, you should be checking your furnace filter today.  The single most important thing you can do to ensure proper operation and a long life for you HVAC system is to keep a clean filter.  As a bonus, whenever your furnace fan runs it will help keep the air in your home clean, cutting down on dust and pollen.  That in turn gives you cleaner air to breathe and helps you not get sick.  Not being sick does wonders to enjoying this beautiful day we have out today. 

How can checking my furnace save me money?  The same way an oil change on your car saves you money.  Our fall furnace check up starts with just taking a look at the furnace.  If it is being held together by duct tape and a prayer, there is really not a lot more that we can do for you.  We will also check the filtering system when we come out, a plugged filter causes a significant percentage of service calls.  If you don't think a new filter is all that important, try holding your breath for awhile.  A bad filter is not allowing the furnace to breath properly.  The difference between you holding your breath and the furnace getting a new filter is that the furnace has to wait for someone else to change the filter.  A furnace check will also include cleaning all the safety sensors that need to be cleaned then checking them along with all the other sensors for proper operation.  An inspection of the blower wheel should be done as well, if your filter was plugged, the furnace still tries to pull air into itself.  Sometimes that force will cause debris to get pulled through the filter and lodge onto the blower wheel or in the evaporator coil of your air conditioner.  After all that is checked and more, then we put the furnace through a normal operation cycle testing for anything that doesn't look right, sound right, smell right, or test right. 

If you still think that your furnace will save you money by not taking care of it, call us.  If you think that your 30 year old furnace is efficient enough, not to mention safe enough, call us.  If you think you can't afford a new furnace, call us.  If you have any questions, comments, thoughts, concerns, or just want to chat about your heat, give us a call.  Southside has a lot of answers on how to make your heating your home a lot more affordable.

For those of you that remember, the state fair was just about a month ago.  I did not go, I was going to take my wife but the days we could go always had something else come up that we decided needed to be done more importantly than going to the fair.  We ended up going to a movie and a Twins game instead, so we did get out mini donuts.  I do remember going to a carnival once though and for only 5 dollars you could win a stuffed toy prize.  Well we wanted the three foot tall Spiderman toy.  We paid the price, popped some balloons, and won a 3 inch tall toy bear; but if we won two more times we could upgrade to the next size up prize, and then when we won three of those prizes we could upgrade to the next size, and when we won three of those prizes we could upgrade to Spiderman.  Needless to say we stopped after the first size upgrade content with that and not needing to spend almost $150 to win a $25 Spiderman toy. 

Southside Heating and Air Conditioning is not the cheapest heating and cooling company in town.  Southside does not want to be the cheapest place in town; we want to be the best place in town.  Our technicians are NATE certified.  That means they take tests given by North American Technician Excellence requiring a minimum level of technical knowledge and customer service skills.  They take continuing education courses to ensure that they know all the newest technologies that are available and the best practices we can use to service or install our equipment.  NATE was started by the ACCA, or Air Conditioning Contractors of America.  This organization is an invitation only organization dedicated to upholding the top practices for mechanical contractors across the United States.  Southside has the finest quality techs and is associated with one of the strictest organizations to be a member of.  We feel that is a pretty good way to build a business.

Now our winter energy savings maintenance is a standard price.  We do not do half off specials or have a cheap price on it.  We also do not find a bad part unless you actually have a bad part.  Southside does offer a good check up of your furnace to ensure it is ready for the winter ahead, cleaning what has gotten dirty and checking what needs to be checked.  Southside starts our service time when we enter your home, not when we leave the home before yours.  Southside does all of our own warranty work because we stand behind our equipment, only using the best quality HVAC equipment.  Southside also does a lot of warranty work for companies who no longer answer the phone after their "super special" deal has run its course. 

Now Southside is not the cheapest company by far; on the other side of the argument we are not the most expensive company either.  We have looked long and hard at our prices for furnace repair services, air conditioner installations, humidifier repairs, pilot assemblies, and everything in between.  Southside knows that we need to be able to make a fair profit while offering a fair price.  Southside believes that a fair price brings value to our customers for the service we provide and ensures we can bring that value for years to come.  Southside does not need to charge outrageous prices for our products to make the same decent living that our customers are trying to earn.  Southside does not need to use a hi-pressure sales technique to get you to buy our Lennox, Carrier, or Ruud systems from us.  Southside does offer a quality service at a fair price bringing good value to the homeowner.

The air conditioning season is almost over.  Not what we like to say at a heating and cooling company, but the time has come.  There is a definite possibility that we can still see a day or two of 80 degrees or higher, but the coming of fall ensures there will not be an extended hot spell. The autumnal equinox on Friday means that very soon the green on the trees will be orange or yellow instead. 

Now that you will not be using your air conditioner much the rest of the year, what do you need to do to it for winter?  The best answer Southside can give is a very simple one, do nothing.  Ruud, Lennox, Carrier, and Coleman all do not require having anything done to their air conditioners to prepare them for winter.  Before you start worrying about the leaves falling into your condenser and pull out the tarp, canvas, or plastic cover you have in storage to wrap it up to look like a Christmas present let me explain.  Leaves falling into the unit will either get blown out the top when you start up your air conditioner or get washed out the bottom when you clean the unit.  Proper maintenance has the leaves that enter it this fall being cleaned out next spring.  Now, it is generally very dry in the winter, but when things get a little warmer on any particular day, the air gets a little humid.  That nice looking cover traps all that humidity inside your condenser causing your electrical components to corrode faster shortening the life of the blower motor, capacitor, contactor, and any circuit board you air conditioner may have.  You also create a wonderfully cozy little hotel for any mice that need a place to stay over the winter, and they really enjoy chewing on the most expensive wiring they can find. 

For those of you out there that need to do something to winterize your air conditioner here are a couple things that you can do that will not actually harm your unit as the wrapping so many people do does.  You can remove the electrical power to the outdoor unit by turning off the circuit breaker, removing the fuse, or turning over your disconnect.  A small amount of electricity goes to most units even in the winter.  Just remember what you did to disconnect that power so you can undo it in the spring, and we recommend undoing it at least a week before you would even think about turning on the air.  Leaves entering your condenser outside are no big deal, but if you have an ice problem on your roof or surrounding trees that may fall and hit it, that is a cause for concern.  Plastic or canvas will not help much for ice hitting it, which is why we recommend placing a board of some type on the condenser weighing it down with a stone or block.  Another way to protect it is to build a table over it, with plywood or similar top and wooden legs.  Any ice falling will hit the wood instead of the condenser.  Again be sure to remove it before you use the air conditioning next year. 

Everything else should be done in the spring before start up, and we will cover that in the spring.  If you have any questions on winterizing, please contact us at southside@southsideheating.com or call us at 952-884-2453.

Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  We remember the brave men and women that rose to action to help those in need in New York, in Washington, in Pennsylvania, and everywhere across the country.  We thank the men and women that serve our country, both inside the borders and around the world.

As with Labor Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day, we remember those that have affected our lives.  We remember friends and family.  We remember our soldiers and emergency workers.  We remember our teachers and clergy. 

Americans have many differences, but the common bond we all have is we are all Americans and that tie binds us closely together working for the betterment of all.

Children across Minnesota return to school today, or at least all the kids that go to the same school as mine do.  My dad wonders what all his grandchildren's teachers were doing this last weekend, probably drinking he thought.  Whatever they were up to, and the rest of Minnesota as well, Southside certainly hopes you enjoyed your holiday weekend. 

The summer weather has cooled off to pretty nice day and night.  You may be running your heat as often as you run your air conditioning the next month or so.  You may also just turn everything off and open your windows enjoying the fresh air.  Either way, it is time once again to check your furnace filter.  Check it once a month and if it requires changing, do it.  If it is still clean, go ahead and use it for another month. 

The weather may have cooled off, but it is getting to be a better and better time to get a whole system change out.  The weather is still warm enough to do an accurate test on your air conditioner to get your electrical rebate.  The gas rebates are still significant and they are quick to receive.  Manufacture's rebates are in full swing, with Lennox having some really good dollar amounts but Carrier and Ruud offering some pretty decent money for a system as well.  You only need to wait a couple months to collect your tax credit on a qualifying system right now as well.  With winter approaching, you can start saving money on a new high efficient furnace.  We recently replaced a 3 gravity vent furnaces with 95% efficient furnaces (yes there are still some of those old octopuses out there), that is going to be a lot of money saved on staying warm this winter.  Call us today and ask a question or two to find out how you can pay yourself to upgrade your equipment.

The sun is shining and the weather is cozy, an absolutely beautiful day to take off and go enjoy the fair.  Enjoy it today, the rest of the week might be having some more rain roll in. 
Willis Carrier is the engineering mind credited with engineering modern air conditioning.  The company he helped to found with some of his co-workers back in the early 1900s is still a leader in innovation and technology in heating and cooling today.  Carrier will be has a new variable speed heat pump that was just rolled out this last spring that is so far ahead of the rest of the industry it does not even compare.  The technology involved for absolute heating and cooling control is simply amazing.  This piece of equipment brings the energy savings of geothermal into a heat pump application, providing the exact amount of heating or cooling for your needs. 
Carrier is an innovator in the heating and cooling industry.  Starting September 1 and going into November Carrier Cool Cash is available, giving you a nice little manufacture's rebate on top of all the utility rebates you can earn.  Carrier equipment is not cheap to buy, mostly because it is not cheap equipment.  20 years after you purchase a carrier system it will still be going strong whereas an off brand system could very well be on its third replacement.  The dollars you spend on heating and cooling add up every year, spend them wisely on a quality system to begin with and watch them stay in your pocket on the hottest and coldest days.

The Minnesota State Fair starts this week and traditionally that means hot days with a couple storms thrown in for good measure.  Looking at the 10 day forecast it looks to be a not so hot time though, highs in the upper 70s and lower 80s.  Regardless of that, the funnel cakes and your meals on a stick will taste great. 

The middle part of August most people start thinking summer is over, at least as far as fixing their air conditioner goes.  There is a certain time of year both in the spring and the fall where windows start opening up and we start letting Mother Nature keep our homes comfortable.  Just be prepared that when school starts and then football season, and then the winter holidays, and then spring break and Easter, and then fishing opener that when it does hit the hot humid again next summer that your air conditioner that broke down the fall before is still broken.  Southside manages to get a good couple of days of service calls on the first hot day of the summer that we hear "it stopped working last fall and I decided to wait to fix it."  That would be just fine if people did not get so miserable in the hot humid weather that they could wait until their turn comes around to get serviced, but we lost customers that cannot wait until tomorrow to the other guys, and they lose customers to us for the same reason now that we have openings in our schedule.  Please save yourself the anger and frustration next year of trying to get someone out right away and have it fixed now.  Our prices do not change from the busy time to the slow time, it will not cost you any more or less, but you will be much happier enjoying your climate controlled home instead of suffering in it.

Lennox Industries is a big name in heating and cooling.  They are coming out with a fall consumer rebate program that is putting an extraordinary amount of money back to you, the homeowner.  If you are looking at just a furnace or an air conditioner you can qualify for rebates; some of the package rebates are like getting an almost 15% off rebate back from Lennox.  Lennox also has in its line of air conditioning equipment solar ready condensers which will qualify for the big 30% Federal tax credit, consult your tax advisor on that one.  All of this equipment is more expensive initially that a plain, vanilla model furnace, but all the rebates and credits you can get now bring the price of the best lines down to almost the same as the good lines.  Couple that savings with the energy savings you can earn with the more energy efficient equipment you will enjoy, it is like paying yourself to get a new Lennox heating and cooling system.  Call Southside today for details, it might surprise you how much it won't cost you to get updated.