Home comfort tips

Home automation is increasingly common these days as the number of consumer-focused smart devices continues to increase. Though automation covers everything from light controls and security systems to water leak monitors and door locks, one of the most common automation devices is the smart thermostat. These thermostats offer improved climate control and energy savings through programmable adjustments for a range of different scenarios.

There is one issue with the early smart thermostats that were introduced, however: most of them only offered a single point of climate control, not taking into account several common heating and cooling scenarios that require a bit more nuanced control. Fortunately, there are other thermostat systems now available that provide smarter climate control options.

Why a Multi-Room Approach is Important

There are a number of reasons why having a single point of temperature control isn’t always ideal. In some cases, rooms that are farther away from your unit may not get the same degree of air flow,
especially in older systems; if everything is controlled by a single thermostat located near the air intake then the rooms with lower air flow won’t get the air that they need to keep pace with the rest of the house. Similar problems can occur if you have a split system or zoned heating and cooling. It may be a cool 68 in your living room, but rooms that are served by other system components could be staying in the 70s or higher.

You Need a Multi-Room Thermostat

Regardless of the reason, if your thermostat isn’t able to consistently heat or cool your entire home then it’s not going to be nearly as efficient as you’d like. That’s where a multi-room thermostat system comes in handy. These thermostats have additional sensors that you can mount in other rooms around the house. These sensors take additional temperature readings and broadcast the data back to the thermostat. The thermostat takes this additional data and adjusts the way it heats and cools your home with a focus on maintaining the entire home’s temperature instead of just the room where the thermostat’s located.

Because the thermostat has information from all over your house, the amount of warm or cool air
circulated into each room is adjusted based on the home’s actual needs. This gives a greater amount of control over the internal temperature of the house, preventing warm and cool spots. It also ensures that adjustments made when you’re not in certain rooms or when you leave the house are optimized to save you the most money on your heating and cooling costs.

Taking Control of your Home Climate

There are a number of models of multi-room thermostats that you can choose from. The initial
installation shouldn’t be any more complicated than any other thermostat replacement, as the majority of multi-room units use wireless technology to communicate with the central thermostat. Since you don’t have to directly wire the satellite sensors you have a lot of freedom in where you place them without having to drill holes and run wires through your walls.

Once the thermostat is installed and all the sensors are in place, all that’s left is to sync the sensors with the central thermostat. How you do this may differ depending on the make and model of thermostat you choose, but each model should have detailed instructions on how to connect the units together. Once everything’s connected, all that’s left is to sit back and enjoy the controlled climate.

Need Another Opinion?

While most smart thermostats are designed to be a DIY installation, setting up a multi-room thermostat unit isn’t always easy. Whether it’s a result of confusing installation instructions or you simply don’t have the time to spare, you might find yourself wanting to call in a home automation professional to get the job done. That’s where you’re in luck: HomeKeepr’s recommendations are based on genuine referrals instead of inaccurate reviews, so you can trust that the pro you choose will be the best one for the job. Check it out now and get your new thermostat up and running in no time.

5 Ways to Make Your A/C Dollars Go Further

The aqua jeweled waters of the Caribbean pared with lush, jungle-like vegetation that seems to stretch along the beach forever greet you every single summer. It’s amazing, really, and you hope that one of these days you’ll be able to turn off the Travel Channel and see them in person. But your air conditioning bill is such a killer — and ruiner of vacation plans.

There has to be a way to knock those electricity bills down while staying cool this summer. After all, the islands are calling you. Will you fill up your travel penny jar this year?

How Air Conditioners Work (The Abridged Explanation)

Air conditioners are very simple devices. They were actually invented to remove the humidity from rooms where paper was stored. It was only after they’d been in use in industry a while that anyone thought to use them for cooling.

There’s not much to these devices. Essentially you’ve got an outdoor condenser unit that works like a giant heat sink to carry heat collected from indoor air to the outside. Ultimately, the cooler that outside unit is, the more heat it can remove and the more efficiently the whole system works.

Reduce the Strain on Your A/C, Stretch Those A/C Dollars

There are plenty of ways to help your air conditioner work more efficiently short of replacing the whole system. That will increase your efficiency, but you’re going to put a lot of money into a system upgrade that may not be needed just yet.

Before you do anything rash, give these a try:

Change your filter when it’s dirty. Dirty air filters are a huge drag on efficiency. After all, the more air that can be pulled into the system at once, the faster the air in your house will cool and the less time your A/C will spend running. You’ll know your paper air filters are dirty when they change color from white to gray or brown. That’s dust and other tiny particles clogging the pores.

Another way to tackle this would be to buy an electrostatic filter. These are reusable and washable, saving lots of money on filters, as well as energy (if you keep them pretty clean).

Clean your air conditioner condenser. That outside unit is too often neglected to the point that it can affect your energy efficiency. The fins get clogged with dirt, vegetation grows around the bottom of the unit and things like blowing leaves or plastic bags get caught in and around the unit.

Throw away any trash that’s clinging to the condenser, even if it’s inside. Just make sure the unit’s off before you stick your arm in. Next, remove vegetation that’s threatening to grow into the unit, treat it with weed killer if it’s particularly aggressive. Last, get your garden hose and spray the whole condenser down using minimal pressure. Crank up the water pressure and go over it again, slowly, working from the top to the bottom. Work in sections, moving to the next one when the water coming off the condenser runs clear. You may be surprised how much dirt was hiding in those fins.

Shade your unit. Plant a tree or install a solar shade over your A/C condenser to help keep it cool on those hot summer days. The less heat already being carried by the system, the easier to expel heat from your home. Blocking direct sunlight can make a huge difference, just be sure to allow at least two feet around the unit on all sides so your condenser has plenty of air circulating around it.

Install ceiling fans. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, using properly sized ceiling fans in conjunction with your air conditioner can make 78 degrees feel just as cool as 74 degrees. Those four degrees can add up to serious cash, too. The reason this works is that ceiling fans cool people using a wind chill effect. It doesn’t change the actual temperature in the room, but it does change how it feels to you.

Hang heavy drapes. If your house has any windows that get particularly hot during the summer, you need to insulate them right away. The easiest way to do this is with heavy drapes, and the heavier the better. Make sure those curtains are closed during the hottest part of the day to prevent heat radiating into the rest of the house. To further help those windows stay cool, you can add Low-E film into the equation. When used together, heavy drapes and Low-E film will make a noticeable impact on your indoor temperatures.

Need Help Keeping Your Cool This Summer?

Saving money on your cooling bills can be serious work. Don’t worry, your HomeKeepr community is ready to help! Just log in and ask your Realtor for a recommendation. They’ll set you up with the right people to get your home ready for the summer, whether that means adding insulation, sealing all those air gaps or giving your condenser a well-deserved bath.

Spring cleaning...your A/C?

Spring is a time of beginnings. You get a chance to start over, to try something new and to get your air conditioner ready for the hot summer to come. It might not be as romantic as the budding of trees and blooming of flowers, but having your air conditioner in tip-top shape is arguably far more useful.

When you start your spring clean, don’t forget your air conditioner. In just a few minutes, you can improve its efficiency while helping it continue to run well for years to come.

First, A Basic Explanation of Air Conditioning Technology

Your air conditioner isn’t magic, but it’s pretty close. These devices were actually invented in the early 1900s as a way to reduce indoor humidity in paper plants. It just so happened they have a side effect that we rely on even today.

Air conditioning systems depend on the expansion and contraction of gasses to pull moisture out of the air by cooling it down. This is basic physics at work — warm air holds more water, cool air holds less.

When air is pulled into your air handler (for many, this is a furnace) through your warm air return, it’s forced over a tent-shaped coil that uses refrigerant to cool the air as it passes. A blower then blows that cooled air back into the house.

So What Does the Outside Condenser Do?

The air conditioning condenser that most people consider to be “the air conditioner” is actually a giant heatsink. See, when the air is cooled inside your air handler, the refrigerant is what’s absorbing most of the heat. It then gets pumped to the condenser, where the heat collected inside your house is released to the environment.

It’s really a pretty simple idea that has made a huge change to how we live, play and work.

Your Air Conditioner Spring Cleaning Checklist

There’s no time like spring to do a little air conditioner tune-up. A lot of the heavy lifting will have to be performed by HVAC professionals, but there are things you can do to keep your system running longer as a homeowner. Generally, these items should be done at least once in the spring before you start using the A/C and again in the fall when you’re ready to put it away for the year.

Change your furnace filter. Whether it’s on the ceiling, on the floor or inside your furnace or air handler, a clean filter is a filter that can let the most air through for cooling. And the easier it is for the system to pull air in and cool it, the more comfortable you’ll be with the least amount of cost. Investing in an electrostatic filter that you can wash and reuse is a smart move for the long term.

Flush your condensation line. There’s a pipe or tube that comes out of your furnace or air handler and runs to a drain somewhere. This is the condensation line. All the moisture your system is pulling out of that warm air has to go somewhere, you know? That somewhere is a pan that empties via this tube. Just open it up from the top (which tube it is should be obvious, but if you can’t find it, ask your HVAC professional), slowly pour in about a cup of vinegar or bleach. If the liquid moves, you’re gold. If not, you may need to spend some time investigating the issue. More often than not, it’s algae growth in the tube or mineral deposits, both things you can flush out, but require some patience to remove.

Clean your a-coil. That tent shaped coil mentioned above is called the “evaporator coil” or the “a-coil.” It can get dirty, which makes it a lot less efficient at removing moisture and cooling the air. If you feel brave, and you’re careful, you can wipe the coils clean or use a shop vac. They’re very similar to the coils on the back of your refrigerator, treat them the exact same way.

Comb the fins on the condenser. If you look closely at your outside condenser, you’ll notice that the part that’s inside the cage is made up of a whole bunch of teeny fins. These little guys can get damaged by accident, causing them to be less efficient because they’re not really in an optimal configuration anymore. All you need to fix this is a fin comb. This simple device lets you straighten bent fins, restoring your unit to its former glory.

Spray the condenser down. Last, but far from least, you’ll want to spray your air conditioner’s condenser down with a hose. Start by wetting all the fins with a garden sprayer, then go back around and spend some time slowly flushing out the dirt, one section at a time, working top to bottom.

Ready For An A/C Tune-Up?

If spring cleaning your air conditioner isn’t getting the results you’re looking for, it may be time to get an HVAC pro out to give it a once-over. But where can you find one that you can really trust, though? Look no further than your HomeKeepr community. Your real estate agent has already recommended their favorite home pros, all you need to do is long in and learn who makes the grade.

What is a ductless mini-split A/C system??

It’s almost spring in much of North America, which means it’s time once again to tune up your air conditioner or send it to the big home improvement store in the sky. Even an older A/C unit that’s still functional may need to be replaced simply because of how inefficiently it’s running.

Before you shell out for a new central air system for some or all of your living space, it might be time to look at your options. Here are five good reasons to switch to a ductless mini-split air conditioning system.

What Is Ductless Mini-Split System?

Like all air conditioners, ductless mini-split systems rely on the expansion and contraction of refrigerant moving through a closed system to affect the temperature of a room. But instead of pushing cold air through long networks of ducts and vents, mini-splits cool the air right where it’s needed. This means that air never has to travel through ducts and complicated installations aren’t necessary.

These systems are incredibly popular in parts of Asia, especially where small living spaces are the norm. They are slowly catching on in the US as an alternative to both central heat and air systems and older forms of non-ducted climate control.

The Big Secret of Mini-Splits and Five Other Reasons to Own Them

The neat thing about most ductless mini-splits is that they’re actually heat pumps, rather than air conditioners. A heat pump is nearly identical to an air conditioner, but it has a switching valve that can change whether it’s pushing hot air into a room or pulling it out, giving you more climate control options.

Pretty cool, huh?

But that’s not all there is to these tiny wonders. Oh no. These are other great reasons to install a mini-split system this spring:

You can finally afford to cool spaces that weren’t built into your home’s original ductwork. Because mini-splits are inexpensive to acquire and need very little in the way of installation, your garage, workshop, added-on rec room, attic conversion and so many other spaces can finally be appropriately climate controlled. The small size of the units and tiny holes that are required to connect the indoor unit to the outdoor one make them good for almost any room.

Every room in your home can be custom climate controlled. Yes, you heard it here first. Because each indoor mini-split unit is essentially its own system, you can set each one to a different temperature and expect that the room will actually reach the target temp. No more trying to balance your 80 degree office with your 70 degree living room, they can both cruise at a comfortable 72 degrees all the time.

You’ll save money and use less energy. They do tend to go hand-in-hand. Since you’re not having to produce enough cold air to push through ductwork that is likely both a bit leaky and also just inefficient due to a lack of insulation, your ductless mini-splits are already hugely more efficient than their central cooling counterparts. According to Fujitsu, just one manufacturer of these units, homeowners generally see a savings of up to 24 percent on their utility bills when they make the switch.

They’re so smart! Smart home technology isn’t anything new, but it has yet to gain wide acceptance in the heating and air space. Ductless mini-splits are often fully loaded with WiFi controls that you can access from anywhere without adding any additional equipment like a smart thermostat, which can run you a couple hundred dollars extra per room.

And super reliable. Because they have so few moving parts and no ductwork to speak of, mini-splits rarely suffer significant breakdowns. They’re easy to maintain and they only need a little bit of attention throughout the year.
Ready to Get Super Efficient?

If you’re looking for a heating or air conditioning solution for your spare room or your whole house, a ductless mini-split may be the right answer. You’ll need a good installer, though, to make it a completely painless process. This is where your HomeKeepr community can help! Just log in and ask your favorite home pros for a recommendation for the best mini-split installer in your area. You can be certain they’re super qualified because those home pros are staking their own reputation on it!