We are only halfway through December and we've already installed a full winter's budget of Aprilaire humidifiers. It looks like static and dryness have settled in for the winter. Perfect timing for a quick refresher course on home humidification.


The true source of dryness -
It's a common myth that a forced-air furnace scorches or dries out your air, but that's not exactly accurate. Your home dries out because of cold air leaks (we call it infiltration). Gaps around windows and doors let in cold, dry air from outside. Exhaust fans in your bathroom and kitchen remove warm moist air and replace it with cold and dry air. Your furnace only warms the air, it doesn't remove humidity. The warmer air is capable of holding more moisture, so the relative humidity reading is lower even though the actual moisture content has not changed. In our Miami Valley climate, summer air contains much more humidity than cold winter air. So air leaks in our homes lower the humidity in the winter and raise it in the summer.

Your body needs humidity -
Proper humidity levels (between 35% and 55%) are important for your health for several reasons. In addition to drying out your skin, low humidity also dries out your nasal passages making you and your family more susceptible to viruses and sinus infections. Low humidity can also lead to more dust mites and other allergens.

Your home needs humidity -
Dry air leads to cracking and splitting for wood furniture, floors, and trim. Proper humidity is especially important for musical instruments such as pianos, violins, or guitars. Low humidity can also cause increased house dust, requiring more cleaning and dusting. Protect your valuable antiques, woodwork, and instruments with a humidifier! The Piano Technicians Guild

The cure for dryness -
To achieve optimum humidity levels, we must add moisture with an evaporative humidifier in the winter, and remove excess summer humidity with an air conditioner. A humidifier simply trickles water over a wicking pad while warm air from the furnace passes over the pad. A good automatic control brings it all together by maximizing home humidity without building excess moisture on the windows. Whole-house humidifiers mounted on your central heating system can add about 12 gallons of water to your air per day! This would be impractical and expensive to do with stand-alone vaporizers. Our technicians can add a humidifier to your existing system for about $600 depending on the application and model. The job takes only two hours, and your new humidifier should only need simple maintenance once per year. Feel free to give us a call if you have further questions.

For last few years, the heating industry has waged a “warranty war” with the various furnace brands offering longer and longer parts warranties. We have seen the standard five year warranty become seven then ten then twelve. Some have even resorted to gimmicks such as a "lifetime warranty" or a "money-back guarantee." It has become increasingly difficult for the consumer to know how much weight to give the parts warranty when choosing a new system. Here are two major warranty issues to consider when researching for an hvac investment.


Does a homeowner save money by having a parts warranty?
Many costs incurred by the contractor are not covered by the factory. The contractor must file time-consuming claim paperwork, pay all shipping & handling charges, pay for return freight for the defective parts, and sometimes even a warranty processing fee to the parts distributor. In many cases, these overhead costs are more than the price of the part. For the contractor to stay in business, these costs must be passed on to the homeowner in addition to normal labor for the repair. In the end, small repairs are more expensive if a parts warranty is filed. Of course, a warranty comes in handy when you need to replace a compressor or evaporator coil.

Can you find a servicer to honor the parts warranty?
Some of the lower quality brands have a long warranty, but a very difficult claim process. Unless dealers are desperate for work, they may refuse to service these warranties. The best hvac brands have online claim processing that is smooth and efficient. We've found the most dealer-friendly warranty processing to be with Trane and Lennox with their rapid online claim systems. The ease of warranty handling with other brands is determined by the local distributors.


My advice is to pay more attention to the quality of the product and installation than to the parts warranty. Most all brands on the market today have long warranties. The difference between a ten year and twelve year warranty is very little. Most “lifetime” warranties or "satisfaction guarantees" have so many catches that the factory will rarely be forced to honor them. Find a high quality brand and a reputable dealer and you won't need a gimmicky warranty. Good hvac contractors will always stand behind their work because their reputation depends on satisfied customers.

With the timechange, local news stations always recommend changing the batteries in your smoke detector. Furnace guys would extend that reminder to carbon monoxide detectors as well.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that poisons our lungs and suffocates in very small quantities. For more info on carbon monoxide poisoning, check out this FAQ sheet from the CDC. CO gas is a natural product of combustion. When your furnace or water heater is operating correctly, all the carbon monoxide goes up the chimney. A malfunction in the furnace or incorrect installation of the venting can draw the poison gas into your home.

The best defense against CO poisoning is threefold. Have your heating system installed by a licensed professional to insure that building codes are followed. Secondly, get a safety check and tune-up for your furnace every year. A good heating technician can verify proper venting and check the heat exchange for cracks. The third step is to install a CO detector on each level of the house.

I have personally been on a call where a good CO detector saved lives. A family was awakened at 3am by their co detector, and they were all able to safely evacuate the home. The CO level in the home was nearly 100ppm and the family was already suffering headaches and nausea. Had their CO detector not been working, the entire family would have tragically died in their sleep. I found that the furnace was not installed to code and had drawn flue gas directly into the living space.

Anyone with a natural gas or propane appliance in the home should have at least one CO detector. Even if you have a new furnace, deadly venting failures could still put your family at risk. We recommend replacing the batteries and testing the CO detector and smoke detector at the same time that you change your clocks. It's also good to replace CO detectors every 2-6 years (depending on the model) because the sensors wear out and loose sensitivity over time. Some newer CO detectors also have five year batteries. Check with the manufacturer to be sure.

If you still have questions or need an appointment for a furnace safety check, just give us a call.

As autumn comes and the leaves fall, we receive many inquiries about protective covers for air conditioners. A/C covers are intended to prevent leaves and snow from accumulating in the cabinet. Are these covers necessary? What are the pros & cons? Should every homeowner use them?

First of all, air conditioners are designed for the outdoors. Some a/c designs collect leaves more than others, but snow and ice will not harm an a/c. The main downside is that some covers retain moisture and can cause the entire cabinet to rust. We have also seen major damage occur when an a/c is accidentally started before the cover has been removed.

Most homeowners do not use a/c covers and their units fail due to old age or lack of maintenance long before rust or leaves would cause any problems. If you must cover your a/c, my advice is to do so only during the fall and only when the air conditioner is located under trees. Use only a breathable cover. Never cover a heat pump. All manufacturers recommend annual maintenance, which returns the unit to its peak efficiency and includes removal of leaves and other debris. This eliminates the need for a cover.

Also note that Trane XL air conditioners and heat pumps are designed with WeatherGuard tops to keep out the leaves and composite basepans and powder coat finishes to resist corrosion.

In the Miami Valley there are three utility companies offering rebates. The purpose of the rebates is to drive higher efficiency across the region which in turn will reduce the load on our power plants and distributions lines. The rebates available to you depend on where you live and who supplies your power.


For the Dayton area (including parts of Springboro and Waynesville):
DP&L provides a rebate for a new air conditioner if your old a/c is still working or is easily repairable (similar to a trade-in). If your current a/c is not operational and is more than 20 years old, the following rebates are reduced by half.

$600 for 16 SEER air conditioner or heat pump
$400 for 14 SEER air conditioner or heat pump

This rebate is provided instantly as a discount on your invoice, and is refunded to the HVAC contractor within a couple weeks.
(For an explanation of SEER, see our FAQs)


Vectren’s rebate applies to gas appliances.

$200 for a 92% AFUE gas furnace
$500 for a 90% AFUE gas boiler

This is a mail-in rebate (we supply the forms), and takes 4-6 weeks to receive a check.



For the area south of Dayton from Springboro through Cincinnati:
Duke Energy provides both natural gas and electricity to many homeowners in this region.

$200 for a 14 SEER air conditioner if it includes an ECM blower motor
$200 for a 95% AFUE gas furnace

This rebate is filed by our office. Our customers typically receive their rebate check within 10 days.
The Duke rebate is not available to customers who buy their electricity from the City of Lebanon.


Our people are trained to get you the maximum rebate available, and we take care of all the paperwork so that it’s a seamless process. If you have any questions, please call us.

I am sitting in a class today getting some continuing education for my Ohio master license. Today’s course is a review on R-410a (Puron), the new refrigerant replacing R-22 (Freon) in home air conditioners. It’s hard to believe, but my first class on R-410a was ten years ago. R-410a was introduced in response to evidence that Freon was destroying the Ozone Layer. While still a greenhouse gas, R-410a does not damage the Ozone Layer. We were one of the first companies in our area to have our employees trained and certified to use this new refrigerant. We installed our first R-410a heat pump in April 2000 and immediately began offering an R-410a option to our customers whenever possible. Since then, the ratio of R-410a systems that we install each year has increased to more than 95% over the past few years. In comparison, our industry as a whole used R-410a only 35% on the time in 2008. This is the last year the manufacturers are allowed to use Freon 22 in new systems. In 2010 all new air conditioners will be made with R-410a, and Freon production (to service existing units) will be cut dramatically. It will be interesting to watch the learning curve of inexperienced companies who are forced to use R-410a because their beloved Freon is no longer available. Because of the production cap on R-22 in 2010, the price for recharging existing systems will no doubt skyrocket. Fortunately, we purchased a large supply of R-22 at a great price several years ago. Because so many of our customers have been hurt by the recession, we have decided to maintain our old pricing for R-22 for as long as our supply holds out. That’s our commitment to fair pricing.

This morning, we found a bad ECM fan control module on an older Trane heat pump. These modules are programmed at the factory to fit each unit. There are so many software versions that our local vendors stock only the most common. That's why, unlike our competitors or our suppliers, we invested in the same programming equipment used by the factory. We were able to pull a new control module off the shelf, upload the correct software program to fit the furnace, and tonight our customers will have a warm home.