Posts Tagged ‘Southern Vermont’

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The Features of ENERGY KING Wood Furnaces

Monday, November 3rd, 2014

If you need a new heating system, there are a lot of unique options available for your consideration. One type of reliable heating system that homeowners often overlook is the wood furnace. Wood furnaces are often utilized for outdoor heating, but an indoor wood furnace from ENERGY KING offers low cost heating and all-around comfort for your home. Let’s take a look at some of the many features of these heating system.

  • Energy Independence: With a wood furnace, you no longer have to depend on on the unreliable and often high cost of natural gas or electricity.
  • Efficiency: ENERGY KING wood furnaces are quite efficient due to a few key features that ensure most of the heat the furnace produces enters your home. A superheated secondary combustion, for example, allows gases and particulates to ignite when they would have otherwise escaped through the chimney.
  • Durability: ENERGY KING wood furnaces are built by experienced and certified welders which indicates the highest quality, durability, and safety.
  • Environmentally Friendly: Burning wood is environmentally friendly because, although it releases CO2, the effect is no different than as if the trees had died and rotted.
  • Thermostatically-Controlled Automatic Draft: All of ENERGY KING’s wood furnaces come standard with an automatic draft, which automatically opens and closes the draft damper in order to control the burn rate. You can also use a manual damper whenever you need it.
  • Insulated Cabinet: The insulated cabinet prevents heat from moving into the room instead of into your home where it belongs, increasing efficiency.
  • Removable Ash Pan: One final important part is the removable ash pan, which simplifies the process of cleaning ash accumulation from time to time.

A wood furnace is the perfect heating system for many homes, but it may not necessarily be the right choice for you. For whatever heating system you choose, you’ll need a professional to choose the proper sized unit for your home and provide skilled installation services.

Talk to one of the professionals at HB Energy Solutions to find out more about your options for wood furnaces in Southern Vermont.

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How Does a Heat Recovery Ventilator Work?

Monday, October 20th, 2014

Vermont gets very cold in the winter, as anyone here can tell you. Making your home more energy efficient with good windows and doors, insulation, and a well-maintained heating system can make a big difference in heating bills. Unfortunately, it can also cut down the ventilation in your home, making it challenging to have clean air circulating inside. Good ventilation is important to your health, and opening a window during a Vermont winter is really not an option. What is a great option is a heat recovery ventilator in Southern Vermont. Also known as an HRV, this device not only helps to greatly improve your indoor ventilation, it also improves your energy efficiency, all at the same time. The trained experts at HB Energy Solutions are ready to help you this winter with all your heating and ventilation needs, so call us today.

What Is an HRV?

An HRV is a ventilation device that can be added to your HVAC system or mounted to an exterior wall – it just needs a direct air supply. The HRV works by exhausting the stale, warm air from your indoors to the outside while bringing in the cool, fresh air from the outside. In the heat exchanger, which is the core of the HRV, the heat energy from the outgoing air is applied to the incoming fresh air, pre-heating it before it enters your HVAC system. This pre-treats the incoming air, warming it up so your HVAC system doesn’t have to. The two air streams never mix, so there is no chance of cross-contamination.

Why Install an HRV?

Here are some of the benefits an HRV can offer your home:

  • Improved energy efficiency – as we mentioned above, an HRV can help improve your energy efficiency because it pre-heats the incoming fresh air. This takes some of the burden off your HVAC system to heat your home, which can result in less energy usage.
  • Improved indoor air quality – an HRV provides a continuous, fresh stream of air for your home, and filters it before it becomes a part of your indoor air flow. This helps improve your indoor air quality.
  • Less wear on your system – during excessively cold weather, your system has to work harder to achieve your set temperature. An HRV does some of the work ahead of your HVAC system, allowing it to operate normally, which can reduce the level of wear and tear.

If you’ve been looking for a way to overcome the winter cold without blowing your heating budget, it may be time to consider the installation of heat recovery ventilator in South Vermont.

For more information on heat recovery ventilators, contact HB Energy Solutions today and let one of our indoor air quality experts help you!

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How Does Solar Heating Work?

Monday, October 6th, 2014

In the continuing struggle to find viable forms of alternative energy, solar has taken the lead as having the most promise. More and more people are installing solar panels on their homes to supplement their traditional heating systems. What most people don’t know is how solar heating actually works. Let’s take a look at some of the most common options for solar heating.

Liquid Solar Heating

Similar to other heating systems, solar heating is split into liquid and forced air methods. Liquid solar heating is a radiant heating system, using pipes to distribute hot water throughout the house. These pipes then radiate the heat up through the floor boards or through the walls. Radiators and baseboard heaters are also common.

Rather than using a boiler to heat the water, solar heating collects thermal energy directly from a sun. Solar panels are usually mounted on the roof or a south-facing wall for maximum exposure during the day. The thermal energy collected by the solar panel is then directed to a solar storage unit, which heats the water and distributes it.

Like all solar systems, this kind of heating becomes less effective if access to sunlight is limited. Some storage units can serve as backup water heaters. You may still have difficulty heating enough water if demand is high during evenings or overcast days, though.

Forced Air Heating

Forced air solar heating works much the same way as other forced air systems. The solar panel on the outside of the house collects and uses thermal energy to warm the air in a collector unit. The collector then circulates the air throughout the house using an electric fan. Ducts are obviously required for this kind of heating if you want to heat more than one room.

Forced air solar systems tend to collect slightly more thermal energy than thermal systems. However, this advantage is usually balanced out by water being a much better medium for thermal energy than air is.

If you are interested in learning more about solar heating, contact HB Energy Solutions. We operate all over the Southern Vermont area.

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Does My Furnace Need Repair, or Is It Time for a Replacement?

Monday, September 22nd, 2014

Whether to replace or repair a furnace is a question we hear a lot during the fall. Fall is a good time to replace, if that’s what’s needed, but you should first assess whether or not your furnace needs replacing. There are some key factors to consider when deciding whether or not to replace your current heating system, and we’ve outlined them below. Whether you need replacement or repair for your furnace in southern Vermont, HB Energy Solutions has the trained technicians to assist you with all your heating needs.

Signs It May Be Time for Replacement

There are some telltale signs that it may be time for you to replace your current heating system:

  • Constant repairs – did you make a lot of repairs to your system last winter, and are facing more this year? Repair costs can add up, sometimes to the cost of a new system. It may be worth looking at where your money is better spent.
  • Rust, cracking and corroding components – it is normal for your system to incur some general wear and tear, but if you are seeing clear signs of physical breakage, it may be time to consider a replacement. Cracking and corroding parts can be dangerous – carbon monoxide may be able to escape from them – and it isn’t always possible to repair or replace the broken areas.
  • High energy bills – did you see high energy bills last winter, despite not changing how you use your heating system? Decreased energy efficiency is a symptom of a poorly-performing system.
  • Age – the average lifespan for a furnace or boiler is about 15 years. If your system is over this age, and is experiencing any of the above problems, you may be better off investing in a new heater.
  • Decreased comfort – an aging system may no longer be able to meet your heating needs. This is usually indicated by hot and cold spots in your home, or an inability to achieve the set temperature. If your heater is not operating effectively, it may be time to consider a replacement.

The best way to truly assess whether it’s best to replace or repair your furnace in southern Vermont is to work with an expert.

For all your furnace repair needs call HB Energy Solutions today and make an appointment with one of our heating specialists.

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Finding the Right Company to Use for Whole House Plumbing Installation

Monday, September 15th, 2014

If you are building a new home, or you live in an older home with outdated galvanized steel plumbing, you will need to have professionals handle your whole house plumbing installation. This is a large job—probably the largest job you will ever need to call a plumbing company to handle—so you must make sure you bring in the best plumbing experts you can, people who will get the work done fast and accurately, leaving behind no impending repair problems.

Here are some tips on how to pick the right plumbing contractor to install whole house plumbing systems in Southern Vermont. We think that after you look around, you will decide that the best company to call is HB Energy Solutions.

Making the choice of companies for whole house plumbing

The first criteria to use when it comes to whole house plumbing is to search for a company that offers comprehensive services. New plumbing installation, from water pipes to gas pipes, covers the spectrum of appliances and systems in a home, so make certain that you hire a contractor who offers services that cover everything: installation, repairs, and maintenance for anything from water and sewer lines to water heaters.

Next, pay attention to the amount of years a contractor has served the community. Although it’s possible to find skilled technicians at a newer company, you have certainty that a company with many years to its credit has the experience a large job like whole-house plumbing requires. You should target a contractor with a minimum of 10 years in the business.

Look for a company that offers free estimates and second opinions. It’s important to know from the start what you should expect to pay for whole house plumbing installation, so look for a plumbing company that’s willing to tell you what it will cost before the work starts.

Finally, make certain that the contractor offers a satisfaction guarantee. This is an immense task that you need done, and you should have assurances upfront that it will get done right—or you won’t have to pay.

When you look over our qualifications at HB Energy Solutions, we think you’ll agree that we are one of your best options for any plumbing job, and especially for whole house plumbing systems in Southern Vermont.

We offer a 100% money-back guarantee and free estimates, and provide almost any plumbing service that you can imagine. Call HB Energy Solutions today.

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When Should I Schedule Heating System Maintenance in Southern Vermont?

Monday, August 25th, 2014

It’s always tough to say goodbye to summer and turn toward the colder months. But a winter in Vermont can be one of the loveliest in the country, and if you properly prepare your home for the coming cold weather, there’s no reason that you can’t make the winter as joyous a season as the summer.

With summer almost finished, now is the time to start thinking about your home’s heating system. You may not need to turn on your furnace or boiler, or switch the heat pump to heating mode, for a couple of weeks yet, but you should take advantage of this cooler time to schedule your annual heating system maintenance in Southern Vermont.

HB Energy Solutions is one of your best options for heating maintenance. We install and service an enormous variety of home comfort systems, from wood-burning boilers to solar-powered heat pumps. You can rely on our expertise to make sure that your heater is ready for the coming Vermont winter.

Why you should schedule heating maintenance now

Professional maintenance for a heating system is sometimes called preventive maintenance, because one of its principle objectives is to prevent repair problems and breakdowns. You don’t want to wade into the cold season without all the proper preventive measures done for your home’s furnace, boiler, etc. A repair issue or a complete breakdown during one of the coldest days of the year is something you definitely do not want to occur! With your heating maintenance taken care of a few months ahead of the heaviest colds, you will have the best assurance possible that you won’t need to make emergency heating calls.

Another reason to take advantage of the early fall for heating maintenance is that technicians have an easier time scheduling the sessions. Between the summer heat and fall chill, HVAC companies experience a lower amount of emergency calls, and you should have no trouble arranging a convenient time for a skilled technician to come to your home and inspect and tune-up your heater.

Call us to schedule your heating maintenance today

Yearly maintenance for a heater is mandatory: it keeps the system from prematurely aging and wasting energy, and it also protects you from malfunctions. Take care of the job as soon as you can so you can scratch one more “to-do” from your fall list. Contact HB Energy Solutions today to sign up for our maintenance plan, or download the plan from our website.

Let our wide range of expertise in heating and cooling help you receive the best heating system maintenance in Southern Vermont. Call us today!

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Air Conditioning Guide: What Is Refrigerant?

Monday, August 11th, 2014

The modern air conditioner requires numerous components to make it work: blowers, motors, a compressor, coils. But all of these together would create nothing more than an oversized fan if not for the presence of refrigerant running through the lines of the air conditioner. Refrigerant is the life-blood of an AC necessary for the process of heat exchange that cools down the inside of a building.

Like all the parts of an air conditioner, refrigerant is something that must remain in the hands of professionals. If you encounter a loss of refrigerant in your AC, call for experts to handle the problem.

HB Energy Solutions has 24-hour service in Southern Vermont from air conditioning specialists who will take care of whatever is amiss with your cooling system. Call us today. 

The details of refrigerant

Refrigerant is a chemical blend that can easily shift from liquid to gaseous state and back again. Refrigerant begins in an air conditioner’s compressor, where the action of the compressor changes it into a high-pressure, high temperature gas. The refrigerant then travels to the outdoor coil, where it releases heat to the outside through condensation. It then moves to the inside cabinet, passing through an expansion valve that lowers its pressure and further reduces it temperature so that it shifts back into liquid form. The cooled refrigerant then moves through the indoor coil, where it absorbs heat through evaporation, cooling down the air. The refrigerant finally returns to the compressor to begin the cycle over.

Today, the refrigerant found in most home air conditioning systems is a blend called R-410A, a non-ozone depleting chemical mixture designed to replace an earlier blend, R-22. There have been many different types of refrigerants over the years. The earliest were toxic, combustible, or acidic, and it wasn’t until the invention of the first safe refrigerant, which was given the trademarked name “Freon,” that air conditioners started to enter use in homes. Continual advances in the production of refrigerant have resulted in increased air conditioner efficiency.

Refrigerant loss

During the heat exchange cycle of condensation-evaporation, refrigerant does not dissipate. It remains at the same level—called its “charge”—throughout the air conditioner’s life, unless a leak occurs. Leaking refrigerant will threaten an AC’s ability to cool and could lead to damage to the compressor due to overheating.

Should you notice a drop in cooling, ice appearing along the indoor coil, or strange hissing sounds from your AC, the system may be losing refrigerant. You will need professionals to locate the leak, seal it, and then recharge the system with the proper blend of refrigerant.

Call HB Energy Solutions for assistance with your air conditioning in Southern Vermont if you think you have a refrigerant leak. You can count on our 33 years in the business of making homes comfortable.

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The Common Tools Used in Professional Leak Detection

Monday, July 28th, 2014

Leaks are among the most common problems that can afflict a home’s plumbing. Despite their frequency, leaks are also notoriously difficult to locate, especially smaller ones hidden behind drywall and floorboards, or leaks that occur under concrete foundation slabs. Once you start to notice signs of leaks happening in your home—such as high water bills, mold and mildew growth, or water damage appearing on walls and floorboards—you must contact professional plumbers to perform leak detection in order to pinpoint the leaking and fix it with the least amount of disruption to your home.

Leak detection is a specialized skill that requires equipment available only to professional plumbers. Below are some of the devices that our plumbers at HB Energy Solutions use for leak detection in Southern Vermont homes. Call us any time of the day or night when you need work for household leaks.

The basic leak detection tools

  • Acoustic devices: Sound is one of the ways that plumbers locate leaks through building material. The escaping water makes a distinctive noise which plumbers can locate using listening discs or ground microphones. The discos work very similar to medical stethoscopes, and can locate leaking acoustically even through thick concrete slabs. The plumbers will first use visual clue to narrow down the search area, and the use the acoustic equipment to determine the more exact location of the problem.
  • Pressure and heat sensors: A more advanced set of tools are pressure- and heat-sensing devices. Water escaping from leaks causes increases in pressure around the pipe and also temperature changes. These electronic sensors can locate these areas.
  • Video inspection equipment: The most precise way to locate leaks—and also the best way to find out how to fix them—is with video inspection equipment. These devices consist of flexible fiber-optic cables with digital cameras and LED lights mounted at the ends. Plumbers send these cameras down through pipes and watch a video feed on monitors to spot where leaking is occurring. The plumbers will also know the size and nature of the leaks, which will help the repair work go faster.

Not only is leak detection equipment too expensive for consumer use, but it requires years of training to operate properly and interpret the results. Make sure that you put your trust in professional plumbers when you need leak detection in Southern Vermont for your home’s plumbing.

For professional leak detection services in Southern Vermont call on HB Energy Solutions, and we will put our more than 20 years of experience to work for you.

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Advantages and Drawbacks of Ductless Air Conditioning

Monday, July 14th, 2014

No ducts? No problem! Ductless air conditioning systems offer a great alternative to central air conditioning, which uses the ductwork of a home in order to distribute cool air. If you need an air conditioning system, but your home or room addition makes ductwork installation difficult, the advantages of ductless air conditioning installation may outweigh the drawbacks.

The main advantage of ductless air conditioning systems is that they do not require any ducts to cool your home. Sometimes your home or room addition does not have ductwork installed, and ductwork installation may be a hassle because of the layout of your home. Also, central air conditioning systems often use more energy than is necessary because cool air can easily escape through the ducts before it reaches the rooms that need cooling. Ductless air conditioners eliminate this potential energy loss.

Ductless air conditioning systems are made up of an outdoor unit and several indoor air handlers which provide both heating and cooling. These indoor air handlers are installed in different rooms in your home, and these individual zones can be controlled via separate thermostats or with a master thermostat that controls them all. This is a great advantage for family members who have different temperature specifications. Furthermore, central air conditioners often use energy to cool unoccupied rooms. With a ductless system, you can turn off the AC in a room if nobody is using it, ultimately reducing energy costs.

One drawback of ductless air conditioning, however, is that the system itself may be more costly upfront. However, the long-term energy savings that come with owning a ductless system may offset this cost. Another drawback may be the appearance of large indoor air handlers in your home. However, these can be mounted high on the wall or suspended from the ceiling, so they may not interfere with the décor of a room at all. They also generally have a more pleasant appearance than window air conditioners.

When ducted system installation is not practical for your home, call HB Energy Solutions for ductless air conditioning installation in Southern Vermont today!

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The Advantages of Whole-House Surge Protection

Friday, June 27th, 2014

Power surges are sometimes an everyday occurrence in homes, a fact that people can find hard to believe. Because the term “power surge” comes pre-packaged with images of downed power lines, lightning strikes, and massive storms, people usually make the connection between a power surge in a home with catastrophic events.

But a power surge is any increase in voltage in an electrical system above normal that lasts for more than 3 nanoseconds. (Less than 3 nanoseconds and it’s known as a power “spike.”) This jump in power can happen because a large appliance in a home makes a sudden larger demand on the power supply, causing an imbalance that raises voltage. This may not trip circuit breakers, but it can cause damage to a home and its appliances.

When it comes to guarding your house from surges both large and small, you should invest in a whole-house surge protector installed with the help of electrical professionals. Contact HB Energy Solutions to speak to one of our staff members regarding surge protection in Southern Vermont.

Why whole-house surge protection?

We recommend that homeowners use power strips (point-of-use surge protectors) for computers, entertainment systems and other precision equipment, but not to rely on them entirely. These strips provide a level of defense against surges that shuts off the power flow to the device when an increase in voltage occurs. However, they do not provide the protection from both extreme and small surges that you will receive from a whole-house protector.

A whole-house surge protector is hard-wired into your electrical panel, where it re-routes increases in power into a home’s grounding. This makes them more effective at protecting a home than power strips that simply cut off current when surges occur. The smaller surges will make it through power strips, causing damage to computers and other appliances in amounts that will cumulatively become ruinous. Larger surges, such as those from a lightning strike, will overcome these defense and cause serious damage. A whole-house surge protector can handle both: regulating small surges and capable of handling enormous ones (except perhaps a lightning bolt striking right next to your home) without permitting damage to your property or equipment.

When it comes to shielding your home from electrical damage and defended your high-precision equipment and computer hard drives and SSDs, you can never have too much surge protection. Along with your power strips (which are also a safe way of increasing the number of outlets in your home) call an electrical contractor to wire a whole-house surge protector.

We will keep your home safe all year long, and we’re always a call away any time of the day or night.

HB Energy Solutions has 33 years of experience providing Southern Vermont with surge protection and other electrical services. Call us today to find out what we can do for your home.

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