• Have enough fresh batteries around the house for flashlights, a portable radio and/or a television set. It’s important to stay in touch with announcements about the length and size of the outage.
• Write down your electricity account number, along with the company’s phone number for reporting outages, and keep it in an easy-to-find place. Once your electricity is out, contact the electric company to report it. Don’t assume they know.
• Keep emergency candles in a specific location if you need to light your home at night, along with lighters or matches. Use the candles to light a room you’re using. In the winter, the candles provide some limited heat. Place the candles up and away from children and pets who can knock them over.
• Obtain a car charger for your cell phone. If the batteries get low during power outages, you can recharge it in your car. It’s also a good idea to keep plenty of gas in your tank for a long outage, so you can go elsewhere should you need to.
• Know how to operate your garage door manually so you can get the car out in case of power outages.
• Stay out of the freezer and refrigerator. Use an instant-read thermometer when the power comes back to test the temperature of the food. If it’s over 40 degrees, consider throwing it away. Keep some shelf-stable food on hand so you’ll have plenty to eat.
• Have an alternative way to cook your food. Use a camping stove or barbecue to cook food outside. Never use these stoves indoors, since they emit deadly carbon monoxide.
• Keep extra blankets or sleeping bags on hand to stay warm in the winter.
• Turn off your heating and air conditioning equipment. A surge when the power outage ends can hurt these appliances.

If you have any questions about your HVAC equipment, contact Wolff Mechanical. We’ve been serving the Phoenix area for over 20 years.

• Wet insulation – The insulation in your attic and throughout your home should be completely dry. If you find any wet insulation, or even a little bit damp, it’s one of the telltale signs that your roof is leaking. Contact a professional right away to get to the root of the problem.
• Vents exhausting warm air into the attic – Check your household’s vents, specifically the ones for your kitchen, bathroom and clothes dryer. These vents all need to be pushing their warm, moist air directly outdoors rather than inside your home. Make sure that this is the case in your home.
• Moldy rafters – Take a look at the rafters and floor joists in your attic. Are they showing any signs of mold or rot? If they are, you’ve got some type of moisture issue in the area, and you’ll want to contact a local professional as soon as possible.

Keep in mind that some of the most common places for air leaks are around wiring holes, plumbing vents, doorways and windows. Usually, if you’re able to locate them, you can seal them up nicely with caulk, foam insulation or weather stripping and keep your heating system from having to do too much work. Not only will this improve your home’s energy efficiency, but it will also increase the lifespan of your appliances and lower the likelihood of technical problems.

The licensed experts at Wolff Mechanical can take on any air leak problems you may find. For more information or to schedule a appointment, contact us today!

In order to upgrade insulation factors, follow these steps:

• Use the right type of insulation.

There are a variety of insulation materials from which to choose, but ducts normally require flexible insulation, in order to wrap around their often circular pipes. However, rigid insulation is acceptable to use around square or rectangular ducts. Regardless of which material you choose, duct insulation must have a special foil or vinyl material on the outer side of the insulation. This material helps to reduce the possibility of moisture absorption into the actual insulation, which can damage it and reduce efficiency. Never use insulation lined with paper, as it will increase fire hazards and the likelihood of moisture problems.

• Use an effective R-value. 

R-value is the standard method for indicating insulation efficiency, and homeowners in the Phoenix area should use recommended R-values to achieve maximum efficiency. For ducts that are located in unconditioned areas, such as an attic, use R-4 to R-8-rated insulation materials. It will be difficult for most homeowners to access ducts that are located in conditioned spaces throughout the home, so it’s best to call an expert for help. These R-value recommendations apply to homes that use either gas, oil, heat pump or electric resistance heating methods.

Duct efficiency is also negatively impacted by leaks in the ducts, so it’s important to regularly assess whether ducts are leaking, either through holes and cracks or through poorly connected duct sections.

Help raise your home’s duct efficiency a few notches by ensuring that insulation is helping, not hindering, efficiency. If you’d like a professional assessment of your ducts’ efficiency, or suggestions to improve your home’s overall energy savings, contact the experts at Wolff Mechanical.

Controlling the source

One of the best, and no-cost, ways to drastically reduce indoor pollution is to prevent it from happening in the first place. This is called source control, and the process involves evaluating your home and ridding it of suspect items. This can include sealing asbestos, removing old paints and varnishes from basements and garages, and properly maintaining combustible equipment.

Ventilating the home

Having a ventilating system in your home is also a great way to control pollution. Ventilation is a means to exhaust polluted inside air and replace it with fresh outdoor air. You can use bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans when you’re using those rooms to drive pollution outside. Make sure these systems vent air to the outside, and not your attic, where it can cause a lot of damage. If you’re conducting home projects, like painting or remodeling, keeping windows open and exhaust fans going will help reduce pollution from them. You can also install a whole-house ventilation system to ensure an equal supply of fresh air with exhausted, polluted air.

Using an air-cleaning device

It’s also possible to purchase an air cleaner that’s designed to purify the air. You can select a system that targets a specific class of pollutants, like mold and bacteria, through a UV-light system. Alternatively, you can choose a higher-end system that will combine technologies to successfully remove a variety of pollutants.

To upgrade your home’s air, employ source control, ventilation and air-cleaning technology, three indoor air quality strategies that will take your home’s air from dismal to clean. For help with any of these strategies, or to have your heating or cooling equipment serviced, contact Wolff Mechanical. We serve Phoenix Valley homeowners as the No. 1 area HVAC contractor.

Ease of use

Whole-house humidifiers, once installed, will operate efficiently and easily, without requiring attention from you. Portable units, however, require daily attention, because the water tank has to be full in order for it to function.

Capacity

The whole-house system you select will have a capacity to humidify your entire home, because your HVAC contractor will evaluate your home’s square footage to match a system to your needs. A portable device will generally be able to humidify a single room, so its capacity is limited.

Cost

Whole-house models will cost more to purchase and require expert installation, whereas portable devices are a low-cost method of humidification. On the other hand, to humidify a whole home, you’d need several portable models, and at that point a whole-house system starts to make more economic sense.

Maintenance

Whole-house systems require little maintenance beyond annual service visits that ensure that your system is clean and inspected. And once the device is connected to your home’s water source, the system is set up for use. Portable devices, on the other hand, require daily care. It’s necessary to wipe the tank down to prevent scale and sediment buildup. If it has a filter, it will need to be changed regularly. And probably the most bothersome task with a portable unit is the daily filling of the tank with water.

Comfort

Whole-house humidifiers provide the ultimate comfort experience. Attached alongside your HVAC equipment, these humidifiers will release moisture into the air as your HVAC systems produce conditioned air. That moist air is then sent through your ductwork and delivered to every room in your home. A portable humidifier will provide a measure of comfort, as long as you remain in the room with it.
Think a whole-house humidifier is right for you? Contact the experts at Wolff Mechanical today. We’ve been serving Phoenix Valley homeowners since 1990.

Like anywhere, Phoenix area homeowners should consider setting back their thermostats at night or when they’re away from home to lock in savings. But setbacks can be counterproductive to savings if you’re using a standard manual thermostat. This is because heat pumps don’t do a good job of making the several-degree switch from a night-time temperature of, say, 63, to the ideal daytime temperature of 70 or so. As a result, when it comes time for that temperature change, they’ll call upon backup heating, often electrical, to negotiate the jump in temperature, which will be more expensive than running the heat pump.

Often, the backup heat is designed to cycle on and run continuously until the thermostat closes to within 1.5 degrees of the original temperature setting.

Special programmable thermostats designed for use with heat pumps use adaptive recovery to enable setbacks. These devices can cancel out the backup heat when using setbacks.

Further, adaptive units offer improved heating capabilities, because they can sense comfortable room temperatures much like humans do. Conventional thermostats can only read the air’s temperature, which does not provide an accurate assessment of a room’s actual temperature. An adaptive device can respond to program settings that read the temperature of the air and walls, and calculate how long it will take for the space to return to the preset temperature. By doing so, the thermostat can manage how to adjust the temperature, and will do so gradually to enhance comfort and energy savings. Keep in mind, however, that heat pumps will still consume more energy from extreme setbacks. An effective setback of just a few degrees can lead to energy savings with heat-pump systems.

Take your heat-pump thermostat to the next level and get optimal energy savings with proper use. For help with operational tips, or if you’d like to find out more about heat pumps, contact the experts at Wolff Mechanical today. Serving homeowners in the Phoenix Valley.

Efficiency is of the utmost importance for residents living in hot, arid climates, because the more efficiently your cooling – and heating – systems function, the better your energy savings. And efficiency is the top benefit for variable-speed models. Here’s how they work:

These air handlers employ cutting-edge technology in a motor that varies its speed according to the temperature needs of your home. Running most often at a lower speed, they use a lot less energy than standard air handlers, which basically just run at one full-on speed. With variable-speed air handlers, when the thermostat setting calls for the cooling or heating system to cycle on, the handler begins at a low speed. After several minutes, it will ramp up to a higher speed, but only if the weather demands that it do so.

Conventional units that operate at one speed aren’t capable of providing these energy savings, because they are either “off” or “on” – and “on” means full capacity. However, full-speed operation is not always required, so these systems actually waste energy a good portion of the time.

Comfort is also enhanced with the use of a variable-speed air handler. When temperatures soar, the unit will provide even cooling. Because it runs nearly continuously, varying its speed according to the needs of your home, the air handler delivers consistent cooling, instead of strong blasts of air blowing through your home. Additional benefits include less noise, and the improved filtration and climate control that comes with continuous operation.

Increase your options with variable-speed air handlers, and watch the benefits of using such a system roll in. If you’d like help selecting an air handler to suit the needs of your home, contact HVAC experts Wolff Mechanical, ranked the #1 contractor in Arizona since 2009.

Developing a preventive maintenance plan is as simple as scheduling HVAC service each year. In the spring, maintenance for your A/C keeps it humming all summer long, and in the fall, service for your heating system ensures that you’ll have heat when you need it. Why is regular maintenance so valuable?

A preventive maintenance plan ensures efficiency

In order to operate as manufacturers designed them, cooling and heating systems must be inspected and cleaned on a regular basis. If these systems aren’t serviced annually, dirt and pollutants will begin to build up inside the system. This buildup eventually causes the internal HVAC components to work harder. For instance, without maintenance, buildup will gather on the air handler’s motor, the motor’s belt will become loose, and the motor’s lubrication will decrease, all of which causes HVAC systems to work harder to produce heated and cooled air.

A preventive maintenance plan leads to energy savings

When your cooling and heating systems are regularly serviced and inspected, and the system operates efficiently, you are almost guaranteed to see savings on your utility bills.

A preventive maintenance plan increases the life of your systems

When a system is kept in peak condition, it lasts longer, because the internal components and parts are less likely to break down. When belts are replaced, fan blades cleaned and so forth, the systems will last longer. In fact, experts agree that regular maintenance can extend the life of a system by as much as three years.

To lock in savings for your HVAC equipment, call your Phoenix Valley HVAC contractor, Wolff Mechanical, to develop a preventive maintenance plan for your home comfort systems. We are happy to help you put a plan into place and ensure that your HVAC systems are operating at peak capacity. To lock in your energy-savings potential, just give us a call today.

A programmable thermostat simply ensures that you can set the device to drop in temperature just a bit in winter and raise a few degrees in summer, ensuring that your HVAC systems don’t consume energy when it’s not needed. However, you don’t want to set the thermostat to extreme temperatures, because your equipment will consume more fuel to bring the home back up to a comfortable level. To maximize savings, schedule eight-hour setbacks or set-forwards of 2 to 4 degrees from your regular settings.

The science behind these principles shows why this strategy works. When a home is a comfortable 72 degrees in the summer, and the air conditioner is regularly pumping cooled air into the home, your home actually loses a good portion of that energy. However, when the temperature rises just a bit, to 75 degrees for instance, it will lose energy slowly to the outdoors, which is why you save when you set the thermostat higher. The contrast between the indoor and outdoor air is decreased, so the rate of heat transfer slows down, too.

The same principles operate in the winter when you set your thermostat back. So energy-saving settings on your programmable thermostat offer a one-two punch: You don’t waste conditioned air by running equipment when you’re not home and you don’t need heated or cooled air, but you also save because the rate of heat transfer slows down.
Ensure that your Phoenix Valley home is comfortable and energy efficient at the same time by setting your programmable thermostat to maximize savings. To explore how you can save more energy around your home, contact the experts at Wolff Mechanical today!