Celebrate High-Tech Month with These HVAC Products

Why not add some HVAC products embedded with high-technology to honor the month of January. They’ll bring a new level of function to your home that will be as useful as it is interesting.

Wi-Fi and Smart Thermostats

By their nature, thermostats that you can control from anywhere have to be among the smartest products to use in your home to control its energy use. These thermostats let you monitor your home from anywhere you can get a Wi-Fi signal.Some thermostats track room occupancy to adjust the temperatures. Others have features that tell you when the unit needs servicing or when a part is malfunctioning. Overall, smart and Wi-Fi thermostats save considerable amounts of energy for people who aren’t home 24/7 or travel a lot. They’re also useful to control temperatures remotely.

Air Purifiers

Considering the high volume of air that you breathe daily, installing a central air purifier will clean the air and reduce the symptoms of allergies or asthma. You can choose from UV (ultraviolet) air purifiers and the advanced systems that eradicate the pollutants in the air without using filtration.

Air Quality Monitors

If you’re not sure you need an air purifier, start smaller with an air quality monitor. If your garage is attached and someone in your home has a hobby that uses chemicals, an air purifier will alert you when the air isn’t necessarily safe to breathe. Harmful but all too common airborne chemicals include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that cause a variety of complaints and serious illnesses will show up on the monitor, as well as. Other dangerous gases include carbon monoxide and dioxide and radon.

Advanced Heat Pumps

If you need a new heating and cooling system, consider an advanced heat pump with variable-speed operation. These kinds save tremendous energy and ensure your comfort using high-tech sensors to monitor indoor and outdoor temperatures and adjust their running speeds accordingly.

If you’d like more information about any of these HVAC products and others, talk to a pro at Air Assurance, providing HVAC services for Broken Arrow homeowners.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Manual vs Programmable vs Smart: Which Thermostat Option is Right for Your Home?

The thermostat is a vital part of your home comfort system. It's tasked with keeping the indoor temperature at your desired level. Thermostat technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. Thermostats now range from manual to programmable to smart. Each type has its own set of advantages. Let's delve deeper into these thermostat options to help you establish the best choice for your needs.

Manual Thermostats

More often than not, these simple devices are found in older homes. They usually have a manual dial that you have to rotate to adjust the desired temperature. Digital manual thermostats have up and down arrows instead of dials.

Programmable Thermostats

These thermostats adjust your home's temperature automatically. For example, in the winter, you can program them to cool your home down a little while you're at work to avoid wasting energy on an empty house and start heating it up before you return. The predetermined schedule you can give these devices to operate by varies from one model to another. Some only allow you to create one schedule whereas others can allow two or more different schedules.

Smart Thermostats

These offer all the benefits of programmable thermostats. Additionally, you can control them with your smartphone, allow them to learn your routines and adapt to them, and even use them to monitor your energy usage.

What's The Best Option For You?

Manual thermostats can be inconvenient and imprecise. Also, they don't offer any energy savings. If you still own one, you should upgrade to a programmable or smart model. If cost is a significant consideration or you just want something to help you program your HVAC system while you're away, you can go for a programmable thermostat. But if you're tech savvy and want maximum control and convenience, a smart thermostat is your best bet.Upgrading your thermostat will help you maximize the efficiency of your heating and cooling system and lower your energy bills. If you need installation, repair, or replacement of any of the above thermostat options in the Broken Arrow area, contact the professionals at Air Assurance.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.

Smart HVAC Systems: What You Should Know

In your busy life, the temperature and comfort level of your home is just one more thing to worry about. How high or low is your thermostat set? Is it heating or cooling your home adequately? Are you sending air to a bunch of empty rooms? And how much energy is all of this costing?Fortunately, there's a way to deal with all of these issues automatically. It's called a smart HVAC system, and it can make your home comfortable without your having to think about it. Here are some features that can help make an HVAC system smart.

• Thermostat. A smart thermostat does more than just read and program the temperature. It measures both temperature and humidity, and can even tell how many people are in a room. The more people, the more heat they generate. Whereas if there's no one in a particular room, it doesn't need air at that moment. Either way, a smart thermostat can adjust accordingly.

• Air and ventilation. Once the thermostat determines each room's comfort needs, the ventilation system sends the appropriate amount of air. If one room is too cold, air can be diverted from that area and sent to another section that's still too hot. This is standard for zoning systems. But a smart system can also tell if any one zone is using more energy than it should. Maybe a vent is blocked, causing the system to work harder to cool that room. Maybe someone adjusted their zone's thermostat significantly lower than the others. A smart HVAC system can detect these things and let you know what's going on.

• Compressor and air handler. These are the two HVAC features that use the most energy. Therefore, a smart system monitors their use and makes sure they run only when they're needed. Additionally, it can adjust their use based on time, monitoring usage during peak hours to reduce energy consumption both for you and your community.

To learn more about how a smart HVAC system can benefit your home, contact us at Air Assurance. We're Broken Arrow's trusted source for quality HVAC solutions.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Ramdlon/Pixabay”

Should You Invest in a Wi-Fi Thermostat for Your Home?

Maybe you've heard about some of the benefits of a Wi-Fi thermostat, but you're not quite convinced that installing one would be worthwhile for your Broken Arrow home. Let's have a look at some of these advantages and see if maybe the relatively modest extra cost of these amazing devices might not make one worthwhile for your home.

Smart Technology Enters the HVAC Industry

The most obvious advantage of a Wi-Fi-controlled HVAC system is that you don't have to be home to change the temperature. Say you're traveling in another state and you hear a storm is coming back home. No need to enlist the neighbors to turn up the thermostat to save plants, pipes and pets — you can do it from afar, as long as you have an app installed on a smart device. Even if you're just stuck at the office all day, no worries. You can adjust the temperature as needed.

Other Smart Benefits

There are a number of manufacturers that produce Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats with differing functions and a range of prices. Obviously, the more sophisticated the device, the more you will pay. Here are some of the functions you may opt for.

• Learning function — Some devices can detect the movements of your home's occupants, and will store and analyze this information, adjusting the thermostat to respond accordingly. For instance, the thermostat might learn when your family gets up or leaves home, and will raise or lower the temperature accordingly.

• Detects service needs — Some Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats are able to detect when service is required, such as a refrigerant charge, coil cleaning or filter change. They may also report potential malfunctions.

• Detects homeowner's approach — You might choose a thermostat that can detect your approach to home through a Wi-Fi signal, and adjust the temperature of the home for your comfort.

• Energy reports — A thermostat that can produce energy reports can help you plan more efficient HVAC operation.

To discuss whether a Wi-Fi thermostat might be a good investment for you, contact Air Assurance. We serve Broken Arrow and the surrounding area.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Constantine-Pankin/Shutterstock”

How Smart Thermostats Can Boost Savings, Comfort and Convenience

If you’re looking to save money on your heating and cooling expenses (and who isn’t looking to save money?), consider installing a smart/programmable thermostat.

Smart thermostats don’t simply allow you to raise and/or lower the temperature in your home. They function as a control panel for your heating and air conditioning systems. A smart thermostat allows you to pre-program temperatures during the day. In other words, you can program it to heat up the house in the early morning, allowing you to wake up to a comfortable temperature.

Similarly, a smart thermostat can keep the house at a lower temperature during the day when the house is empty, and raise the heat so you come home to a warm house. Units range from thermostats you program on the control panel (similar to programming a DVD-R device) to those that are controlled via the Internet.

So because you’re able to program your temperature beforehand (or in the case of advanced models, remotely), you’re able to genuinely save money, because you’re not turning on the heat or A/C during the hours when you’re not home. It also is a comfort factor, as you can program your unit to raise or lower the temperature automatically, so your home is at the desired temperature.

Programmable/smart thermostats are pricier than standard units. Obviously, the more advanced and complex they are, the more they cost. Units that are programmed on the front of the unit and work on a timer are less expensive then their web-enabled counterparts.

Also realize that installing a thermostat is not a job for novices. If you have no experience with home wiring, it’s best to leave it to a professional. And you also should factor in that the more expense you incur to install smart thermostats, the longer it will take to realize the savings.

Whenever you need expert advice with heating and air conditioning in your home or office, or any other issues related to home comfort, please contact us. Whether it’s heating, air conditioning or hot water, we’ve been servicing the Greater Tulsa Metropolitan area for almost three decades.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Smart Thermostats: Check Out the Benefits of Going High Tech

Smart Thermostats: Check Out the Benefits of Going High Tech

With the advent of iPhones, tablets and advanced medical equipment, it stands to reason that HVAC systems would be getting smart too. Heating and cooling equipment on the market today is far more sophisticated and advanced than systems that were available 20 years ago. Thermostats, meanwhile, have kept pace. A new generation -- the smart thermostat -- has arrived. What can one of these neat little devices do for you in your greater Tulsa home? To put it simply: a lot.The development of programmable thermostatsFor decades, the thermostat was a simple, relatively uncomplicated device. It was a manually controlled box attached to the HVAC system that a homeowner used to change temperature settings and turn heating and cooling equipment on and off. Then programmable thermostats came along. These advanced devices offered customized heating and cooling, along with advanced digital displays. A homeowner could program different settings for certain times of the day and different days of the week. This gave gave the homeowner enhanced comfort and energy savings.Introducing the smart thermostatAs programmable thermostats have become invaluable to many homeowners, even greater advancements have been made possible. Today's smart thermostats offer all the bells and whistles of the programmable thermostat and then some. Among the sophisticated features available on today's smart thermostats:

• Greater accessibility: The standard programmable thermostat can be adjusted only when you're at home. The smart thermostat can be monitored and adjusted from anywhere that has a WiFi connection. Say you're at the coffee shop, and you realize you'll be home later than usual. From your laptop or smartphone you can send your thermostat the message to turn the air conditioner down or the heat up -- depending on the season -- shortly before your new arrival time. You can do the same if you're on vacation, and you'll be arriving home sooner or later than expected. In addition, the smart thermostat will alert you to any dramatic change that needs your attention -- if a system fails, for example.

• The capability to monitor your systems: The smart thermostat has the capability to track your home's energy usage, allowing you to have greater control over your energy costs. Some smart thermostats can even monitor energy prices and alert you to changes.

• Ability to learn your schedule -- In addition to allowing you to make changes yourself, smart thermostats can learn your daily patterns and adapt to them.

You've seen how smartphones and tablets can enhance your life. Why not upgrade to a programmable thermostat? To learn more about what they can do for you, contact the professionals at Air Assurance. We have been serving the HVAC needs of homeowners in Broken Arrow and greater Tulsa since 1985.Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Image courtesy of Shutterstock