If your air conditioner isn’t working…

Check to make sure the thermostat is set to COOL

Make sure your AC condenser (the outdoor unit) is running properly. To do this:

• Check the circuit breakers in your electrical panel and make sure they’re set to the ON position.
• Check the air conditioner disconnect switch and make sure it is in the ON position.

Make sure the blower motor is running – if your thermostat is set to COOL, it should be. If not, check to make sure the ON/ OFF switch on your furnace is set to ON.

Make sure you have fresh filters and you change or clean them monthly.

Check to make sure your return grilles (floor vents) are not blocked by furniture and check all supply vents to make sure they’re open and blowing air.

Those are the most important things! If your AC stops working, try those first. If they don’t help, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning for Gaithersburg air conditioner repair!

Why and how to change your filters – not changing your filters is the easiest way to guarantee your air conditioner will break down at some point over the summer. Remember to change your air filters once a month to ensure the best air flow from your AC.

Why and how to fix leaky ducts – your ducts are one of the most important components of your air conditioning system, and leaky ducts can cost you as much as 30% of your AC efficiency! You can find leaks in your ducts using the old smoke trick – carefully light a candle and hold it near your duct connections. If the flame flickers, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning for duct sealing!

Why and how to use a programmable thermostat – if you’re looking for a super easy way to keep your cooling costs down during the summer, consider installing a programmable thermostat in your home. A programmable thermostat will allow you to set your AC for different temperatures based on different times of the day so you can keep your temperature up (and your costs down) when no one is home!

Why and how to insulate – ducts in hot attics and crawl spaces can heat up conditioned air before it gets distributed, forcing your AC to work harder to keep the house cool. Use spray foam, batt or rigid-foam insulation to keep the heat out and the cool air properly delivered to the different rooms in your home.

Why and how to service your compressor/condenser – your air conditioner condenser and compressor are usually located outside near your home’s foundation. Make sure you keep at least 2-3 ft of clearance space around the unit and, if possible, put them on the north or east side of the house or shade them. Putting them in direct sunlight can reduce their efficiency by up to 10%.

Why and how to keep your home cool – the more you help your AC, the more it will help you. Keep the blinds closed during the day and install awnings to shield south-facing windows from intense sunlight to reduce the load on your AC. You should also consider using ceiling fans to give your AC another little boost.

Why and how to maintain your AC – having your air conditioner inspected each year before the warm temperatures roll in can save you major headaches over the course of the season. Call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning to get set on an annual schedule so you never have to worry about forgetting to maintain your AC!

Why and how to maintain airflow–shutting too many doors inside the house will throw your airflow out of whack, preventing your AC from cooling as effectively as it should.

Why and how to upgrade your unit – air conditioner units today are a lot more efficient than they were even five years ago. Call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today to find out if you’re ready for an air conditioner upgrade!

For more tips on how to make sure your Gaithersburg air conditioner runs smoothly this summer, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning!

Benefits of Air Conditioner Inspection

Think about it – your air conditioner has been sitting outside in the cold for approximately 6 months, getting battered by wind, rain, cold temperatures and some snow. If you try to turn it on now, there’s no telling what it will do! A Gaithersburg air conditioner inspection from Michael Bonsby will help ensure you won’t have any sudden breakdowns, leaks, drips or other potential problems that could leave you sweating and waiting on an HVAC contractor’s list.

Not only will we inspect the nuts and bolts of your AC system to make sure it’ll keep you cool all summer long, but we can also help improve the indoor air quality in your home! Our trained technicians will get rid of any pollen, dust and other allergens that may have settled in your unit over the winter so you’ll only have the cleanest air blowing through your home. A clean air conditioner will also run more efficiently, allowing air to circulate uninhibited by contaminants (especially if you keep your filters clean!).

So let’s recap. A Gaithersburg air conditioner inspection will:

• Improve your AC efficiency
• Reduce your risk of AC breakdowns
• Extend the life of your air conditioner
• Improve your indoor air quality
• Keep you cool all summer long

Doesn’t get better than that! Call Michael Bonsby Heating & Cooling today to schedule your Gaithersburg air conditioner inspection before the temperature rises higher!

Use your thermostat wisely – you didn’t think we’d leave out all the HVAC tips, did you? If you use a furnace, every degree you lower your furnace will save you as much as 5% on your heating bills! Don’t forget to change your filters too (had to sneak that one in there!).

Replace old HVAC appliances – one of the most effective ways to improve your home’s efficiency is by replacing your existing furnace, boiler or heat pump with a new, high efficiency model!

You can call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today if you’re ready for furnace replacement in Maryland!

Lower your hot water heater temp – unless you absolutely need hotter water (say, for your dishwasher), keep the setting at 120 F – you can save as much as 7 – 11% on your water heating costs! You can save even more if you insulate the first five feet of your water heater pipe!

Seal up leaks in your house – even if you think your home is sealed up tight, there could be a lot of cracks around your windows and doors through which warm air can leak out. Leaks can also come from a number of places you wouldn’t expect, including:

• Pipes
• Vents
• Electrical outlets
• Bathrooms
• Spaces under the sink
• Pipes inside closets

Eliminate wasted energy – turn off lights when you’re not in the room, unplug that spare refrigerator in the garage, turn off exhaust fans when you don’t need them, keep your fireplace damper closed when you’re not using it – all of these things can shave off 30% or more from your monthly energy bills!

Take shorter showers – cutting your showers short can save you hundreds of gallons of water per month! Showers account for 2/3 of your home’s water heating costs, so cutting your shower time in half can reduce your water heating costs by 33%!

Use your appliances efficiently – don’t run the dishwasher or washing machine unless you have a full load, and use the cold setting on your washing machine – this will reduce the cost of each load by 75%! Don’t forget to clean the lint trap, and if you have it, use the moisture-sensing automatic dryer setting.

Unplug “leaky” electronics – TVs, chargers, computer peripherals and other electronics are sometimes referred to as “vampire” electronics because they consume energy even when they’re switched off. While these standby losses are typically only a few watts each, they can add up quickly over time – you can save a lot of energy by keeping them unplugged when they’re not being used!

Switch out your light bulbs – while light bulbs don’t make up a huge portion of your energy bills, that doesn’t mean they should be ignored –switching to CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs can save you 75% per bulb!

Install low-flow shower heads – low-flow shower heads can drastically reduce your hot water expenses – expect savings between 10 and 16%!

Wrap your hot water tank with jacket insulation – this is especially important if you have an older hot water tank with less than optimal inside insulation – keeping the heat in your water heater can save you as much as 10% on your water heating!

There are a million ways you can save energy in your home. For more energy saving tips, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today!

While we’re all for people switching to more energy efficient HVAC equipment, we don’t think there’s any cause for alarm – the wacky temperatures are being caused by totally natural, if not unusual, weather patterns. Here’s what’s going on:

So why is it so warm?

According to Scientific American, the primary cause of this warm winter is an atmospheric pressure pattern called the Arctic Oscillation, a pressure pattern that circles the high Northern Hemisphere. The lower edge of the Arctic Oscillation is called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Together, the two pressure patterns influence the path and strength of the jet stream, which is an air current that flows west to east across the northern latitudes of the US, Europe and Asia and basically stops cold Arctic air from drifting far south. This year, that jet stream has been much straighter and much more north than usual, meaning that cold air wasn’t able to get down to us. As a result, warm southern air was able to prevail over the entire US, preventing cold fronts from coming down from the north and clashing with warm fronts that would create the large snow and rainstorms. The jet stream has been stuck straight and north for pretty much the entire winter, creating the warmest conditions since weather tracking began in 1865!

Snowmageddon 2010

The funny thing is, last winter was the exact opposite! Remember all that snow we had? Last year, that NAO had some of the LOWEST pressures ever observed, which allowed the jet stream to move south and stay there. According to Jeffrey Masters, a meteorologist who runs the Weather Underground, “the December Arctic Oscillation index has fluctuated wildly over the past six years, with the two most extreme positive and two most extreme negative values on record.”

So why is this happening now? Meteorologists aren’t sure. Some think it’s a result of the loss of Arctic sea ice caused by global warming. Others are less concerned, blaming the weird weather patterns on sunspot activity, which was very low in December 2010 and very high in December 2011.

Should you be worried?

So should you be concerned about the warm weather? Probably not. Remember – we’ve still got a couple more weeks of winter to go, and scientists expect the temperatures to drop pretty soon (it’s not too late to have furnace repair in Maryland!).

In the meantime, you can head up to Cordova or Valdez, Alaska if you want snow – the two towns are buried under almost 20 ft of snow, with more on the way!

So far it seems they’re happy with the results! If you want more information, call Michael and Tim at Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today and ask about oil-to-gas conversions or boiler installation in Washington, DC or Maryland today!

“It is still January, so we have not used the system for cooling, but we have been using it for heating. It is quiet as a church mouse and pulls a significant amount of heat from the outside air even when it is 29 degrees Fahrenheit outside. We are using our gas furnace less, so it is possible the Mitsubishi heat pump will reduce our heating cost.”

Needless to say, Don and Mabel have been thrilled – they’ve even invited prospective buyers to check out their system! If you’re thinking of installing a Mitsubishi heat pump in your home, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today!

Yuck!

Fortunately, there ARE ways to improve your home’s indoor quality during the winter that don’t require you to keep windows open or invest in costly home ventilation systems!

“Eliminate, Isolate and Ventilate”

The keys to improving indoor air quality are simple:

• Eliminate – eliminate unnecessary chemicals and other pollutants in and around your home
• Isolate – isolate pollutants you can’t eliminate by keeping them out of your living space
• Ventilate – ventilate your home as much as possible to reduce moisture and pollutants

Let’s take a look at these in more detail:

Improve Winter Air Quality: Eliminate

You may or may not already know this, but your home is chock full of toxic, dangerous chemicals – way too many to list! Everything from your paint to your carpeting to your cleaning supplies emits some kind of harmful chemical. While this isn’t something to be afraid of, it is helpful to take steps to limit your exposure, especially during the winter.

The best way to eliminate harmful chemicals from your home is to swap them out with “healthier” versions of the same products. Swap out as many of your household cleaning chemicals with low pollutant varieties as soon as possible. You can also switch to low- or no-VOC paints and chemical free carpeting, textiles and furniture, though these tend to be bigger expenses. And, of course, if you smoke in your home, take it outside – cigarettes are a major contributor to poor indoor air quality, especially in the winter.

Improve Winter Air Quality: Isolate

As much as we’d like to encourage you to get rid of every harmful chemical in your home, often this is simply not possible. When it comes down to it, some chemicals are going to have to be diverted rather than eliminated. Two big players in this category are radon and exhaust from gas-burning appliances. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that emanates from the ground all over the world, in varying degrees – and is the number two cause of lung cancer in the US, after smoking! Simply by virtue of being on the ground, your home basically acts like a radon trap. Fortunately, there is a way to reduce the amount of radon going into your home (though it’s not a DIY project!). Basically, you’ll need to have a series of pipes hooked to an outdoor fan that continuously sucks the air out and exhausts it above your house.

Other prime sources of poor indoor air quality include your furnace, hot water heater and any other gas burning appliances. When gas burning appliances run, they emit toxins such as carbon monoxide that must be vented out of your home. While this is normally done automatically, it is possible your vents can get kinked. Have an HVAC serviceman come out and inspect your gas furnace and other gas burning appliances once or twice a year so you can make sure they’ll run safely at all times.

Improve Winter Air Quality: Ventilate

A slightly more complicated, but highly effective, way to improve your indoor air quality is installing a mechanical ventilation system in your home. Mechanical ventilation systems consist of electric fans that circulate and exhaust air from your home 24/7 (the fans are highly efficient, don’t worry!). A well-balanced mechanical ventilation system can greatly improve your indoor air quality without compromising your home’s heating efficiency – call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning for more details!

Indoor air quality is a problem in many homes in Maryland and Washington, DC – and it’s much worse in the winter! If you want more tips on how to improve your indoor air quality during the winter, or if you want to install a mechanical ventilation system, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today!

During the upcoming months, changing your furnace filters regularly is going to be extremely important in order to keep the air in your home safe and healthy. A lot of families have questions about the importance of changing their air filters regularly – questions which we hope to answer here!

How often should you replace your air filters?

Since you’re going to be both using your HVAC system more and staying inside more, it’s important you at least inspect them once a month and change them every three months. Remember: this is at minimum – you may need to change them as often as once a month.

Why do you need to change your filters so often?

Even though they seem simple, your air filters actually have a pretty major effect on not only your indoor air quality but also on the way your furnace operates! This winter, it’s important you keep on top of changing your air filters for a number of reasons.

As your filter collects various bits of dust, pet dander, pollen, etc., it starts to get clogged. Over time, the clog can build up and make it much more difficult for air to pass through. This causes the blower to work harder, increasing your energy bill and eventually causing the blower motor to overheat and burn out. If you let it go for too long, you may be calling us for Maryland furnace repair!

In addition, the reduction in airflow means it will take longer to heat your home. If the filters get too stopped up and your airflow gets too bad, there’s a chance many rooms farther away from the HVAC system won’t get any air at all!

Changing your furnace filters regularly – at least every three months but preferably every month – is the best thing you can do to ensure proper furnace operation all winter long. Don’t let dirty filters harm your indoor air quality and your furnace components – change your filters often, and any time you need furnace maintenance or repairs, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning!

Since heat pumps are still gaining traction in our area, it’s common for people to have questions about how they work. And while they’re not that much of a jump from furnaces, there are some key differences that tend to confuse many new buyers.

Do heat pumps save money in the winter?

Some of the most common questions we get from people new to heat pumps are about why their heat pumps don’t seem to be saving them as much money as they expected. When we go out and inspect the heat pump, we always find the same thing – whoever installed their pump originally told them about the backup electric heater (referred to as the emergency heater), but didn’t properly explain how to use it. We’ve even had people who upgraded from electric furnaces to heat pumps only to accidentally rely primarily on their electric backup heaters – simply because they didn’t know any better!

Why is my heat pump blowing cold air?

Another common question people have about their heat pump stems from the fact that when it gets colder, most heat pumps stop blowing hot air, instead blowing lukewarm (and sometimes cool-feeling) air. Fortunately this doesn’t happen a lot in the Maryland / DC area, but if it ever occurs it doesn’t mean your heat pump is broken – part of what makes heat pumps so reliable is they don’t rely on blasts of super hot air to heat your home whenever the temperature dips. Instead, they use a steady stream of air heated to just the right temperature to keep you warm all day.

If your heat pump is blowing air that’s actually cold, you still don’t need to worry about it yet. About every hour, your heat pump defroster will kick on. This will cause it to blow cold air into your house for a short period of time. Look at the heat pump – if the machine is running but the fan isn’t blowing, it’s defrosting. Again, this is when the emergency heater will kick on – if it doesn’t, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning for Maryland heat pump repair!

If you’ve been thinking about switching your home’s furnace for an energy efficient heat pump, don’t wait. Using heat pumps in the winter can save you considerable amounts of money, provided you use them properly. If you want to install a heat pump in Maryland or DC, call Michael Bonsby Heating & Air Conditioning today!