Archive for March, 2015

Why Consider a Solar Hot Water Heater?

Friday, March 27th, 2015

It wasn’t too long ago that the only choice you had to make in regard to your home’s hot water heater was whether you were going to use electricity or gas, oil or propane to heat the water. These days there are a number of options for homeowners, and one such option is the solar hot water heater. There can be concerns about using solar energy for any kind of heating, particularly in a cold climate like ours, but using environmentally-friendly refrigerant helps harness the sun’s latent heat energy year-round, including the chilly New Hampshire winter months. If you are ready for a new water heater in your New Hampshire home, and want to see if a solar water heater is a good fit, call the experts at HB Energy Solutions today!

How It Works

Because we live in a climate where water can easily freeze during the winter months, we use a solar hot water heater system that utilizes a solar collector and environmentally-friendly refrigerant. The solar collector is a protected panel that has a dark glass surface; contained inside the collector are numerous tubes that hold the refrigerant. The solar collector serves as the device by which the heat from the sun is ‘collected’ and heats the refrigerant in the tubes. Once the refrigerant is warm enough, it is circulated to a heat exchanger that resides in the tank of your hot water heater. The heat from the refrigerant is transferred to the water, and you’ve got hot water for your home.

Benefits

There are a number of benefits to using a solar hot water heater:

  • You can still have gas or electric back-up – using a tank water heater allows you to have back-up power for your hot water heater in the form of electricity or gas. As such, you’ll never have to worry that the sun alone won’t provide enough heat for your hot water.
  • Significant decrease of energy usage – it’s estimated that solar hot water heaters reduce your energy usage by 50-80%. This can significantly reduce your home’s energy usage.
  • Very environmentally friendly – if you are concerned about your carbon footprint, a solar water can help to greatly reduce yours.

Solar hot water heaters require specialists for installation, repair, maintenance and replacement, so if you are ready to install one in your New Hampshire home, call the people you can trust: HB Energy Solutions.

Why Consider a Ductless Heat Pump?

Friday, March 20th, 2015

The range of our temperatures in Southern Vermont can be huge: we can see summer temperatures over 80 degrees and winter temperatures of -20. It may seem impossible to find one system to handle this range of temperatures, but there is one: a heat pump. Heat pump systems can deliver air through either ducted or ductless systems, and today we’re going to talk about how a ductless heat pump system can work in your Southern Vermont home.

The Components

A heat pumps system has an outdoor unit that contains the compressor, condenser and heat pump technology, and indoor blowers that deliver the air. Each indoor blower contains a fan, a set of coils and an air filter. The blowers are about 3 feet long and can mount flush against walls or hang from ceilings. Each blower connects to the outdoor unit via a conduit drilled into an exterior wall. The conduit contains a refrigerant line, a power cord and a condensate drain pipe. A single outdoor unit can support up to 4 indoor blowers.

The Benefits of a Ductless System

One of the first benefits a ductless heat pump system offers is that it will both heat and cool your home, and it isn’t necessary to have any kind of ductwork. A second great benefit is that heat pumps do not use any kind of fossil fuel; they only use a small amount of electricity – imagine heating your Vermont home without a single oil or gas bill all winter long! This makes heat pumps very energy efficient. A third benefit is the longevity: heat pumps last an average of 20-25 years versus traditional heating systems, which last 15-20 years. Lastly, the heating and cooling heat pumps provide is very comfortable. Why? Heat pumps blow gently on a low-volume, continuous basis, so the heating and cooling feels more gentle.

Heat pumps should only be installed by experts, so if you think a heat pump may be a good choice for you Southern Vermont home, contact HB Energy Solutions today!

How Does an Electronic Air Purifier Work?

Friday, March 13th, 2015

Homeowners have a lot of choices when it comes to installing a new air purifier in their homes. The two main choices are between UV germicidal lighting and electronic air purifiers. Today we’re going to review electronic air purifiers – there are two types – and how they can clean the indoor air in your New Hampshire home.

Types of Electronic Air Purifiers

The two types of electronic air purifiers available for home usage are ion generators and electrostatic precipitators. Each of these types of air purifiers uses electricity to capture contaminants, but does so in a different way.

With an ion generator, negative ions are generated and dispersed into the air. These negatively-charged particles attach to particles and contaminants in your indoor air, creating a single, negatively-charged particle. The new particles are attracted to the surfaces in your home, and land on them. When you clean the surfaces, the contaminants are removed.

An electrostatic precipitator is a little more specific. With this type of electronic air cleaner, air is pulled into the device and directed to a chamber known as the ionization section. When particles arrive in the ionization section, they are negatively charged; the charged particles are then collected on oppositely-charged metal plates. The metal plates should be cleaned every three months to ensure effective operation of the ion generator.

Which Should I Choose?

Both types of electronic air purifiers can be seamlessly integrated with your current HVAC system, so a lot of your decision will be based on your needs and preferences, and this is where the help of a trained expert comes in. When you work with a trained indoor air quality expert, you will be given the assistance you need to make the best decision for you, your family members and your home. You may want to focus more on controlling allergens, or you may be looking for a more generalized solution.

Whatever your indoor air quality needs may be, the experts at HB Energy Solutions are here to help. Call us today and schedule an appointment today!

How Can a Smart Meter Help My Home?

Friday, March 6th, 2015

A big part of reducing your energy usage is knowing how much energy you use on a weekly or monthly basis. But ascertaining exact numbers on your utility usage can be a challenge. One new tool that is making it easier for homeowners to get a handle on their energy usage is the Smart Meter. In fact, these meters are so helpful that in 2012, they became mandatory throughout the state of California. So what does a Smart Meter do that makes it so helpful? Let’s take a look.

What It Is

You are probably wondering what makes a Smart Meter so different, and here is the reason it is different: it reports on your electrical and natural gas usage daily. For residential properties, a Smart Meter reports on electrical usage every hour and gas usage at the end of every day; in commercial properties, electrical usage is reported every 15 minutes (gas reporting stays the same). The Smart Meter reports all this data to your utility company over a secure wireless network, and you can access your energy usage information right online. The Smart Meter can also work with solar energy, so you’ll be able to see in detail how much energy you are using from the power company and how much is generated by your solar panels. This specific information provides a baseline of your energy usage, which allows you to create a plan to reduce your overall energy usage.

What Are the Benefits?

Here are some of the benefits a Smart Meter can offer:

  • Instant outage reporting – because of the two-way communication between your Smart Meter and your utility company, any outage will be reported immediately by the Smart Meter. This helps provide better service from your utility company.
  • Reduce energy usage – having a direct reporting system allows you to see exactly when you may be overusing energy, which will help you to create an effective energy plan for your home or business.
  • Instant notification of over-usage – the Smart Meter can email you, text you or phone you when your energy usage goes too high, alerting you to potential problems with your energy utilities before they can become serious.

A Smart Meter upgrade for your southern Vermont property may be just the tool you’ve been looking for to help reduce your energy usage.

Professional Smart Meter installation is required, so call the experts at HB Energy Solutions today and see how a Smart Meter can help you!