FAQ

A clean furnace offers a number of benefits to your home, including:

• Improved energy efficiency: When your furnace isn't working properly, it consumes excess power and raises your energy bills. Cleaning out your furnace will help it run efficiently.

• Improved system performance: Due to nearly constant usage, your furnace's efficiency decreases over time, but by cleaning the different parts of your furnace you can improve your system's performance.

• Less risk of costly repair services: Leaving dirt and other debris inside your furnace unit can lead to costly problems and repairs, but by cleaning your furnace you can avoid such issues.

• More consistent temperatures: With a cleaned furnace, your home will have a constant flow of temperature that will keep your family comfortable and your energy bill consistent.

• An extended life span for your heating system: Cleaning your furnace on a regular schedule will also help you extend the life of your heating system. Just like your teeth or car, the cleaner they are the longer they'll last.

Yes! And here is why:

• Improved energy efficiency: When your air conditioner isn't working properly, it consumes excess power and raises your energy bills. Cleaning out your air conditioner's coils will help it run efficiently.

• Improved system performance: Due to nearly constant usage in the hot humid summer, your air conditioner's efficiency decreases over time, but by cleaning the different parts of your air conditioner you can improve your system's performance.

• Less risk of costly repair services: Leaving dirt and other debris inside your air conditioner's outdoor unit and indoor (coils) can lead to costly problems and repairs, but by cleaning your air conditioner's coils you can avoid such Issues.

• More consistent temperatures: With a cleaned outdoor unit and indoor coil, your home will have a constant flow of temperature that will keep your family comfortable and your energy bill

• An extended life span for your cooling system: Cleaning your air conditioner on a regular schedule will also help you extend the life of your cooling system. Just like your teeth or car, the cleaner they are the longer they’ll last.

Depending on the type of air conditioner you have and the age of your furnace, you will need to get furnace cleaning at different times.

• Older than 10 years: Older air conditioners have many moving parts that are exposed to debris within the system. It is recommended that you get your older air conditioners cleaned once per year to ensure larger problems won't develop.

• Newer than 10 years: Newer air conditioners have better technology running them; they often require less frequent maintenance than older units. We recommend cleaning your newer air conditioner at least every 2 years to ensure it's running at peak efficiency.

Duct Cleaning is very important! Duct cleaning reduces the occurrence of:

• Asthma

• Allergies

• Headaches

• Flu

• Pneumonia

• Infectious dust particles

• Dust on furniture

No matter where you live, air quality is always a concern, especially in areas bustling with cars and industry.

Unfortunately, air ducts often go unattended for far too long. Accumulating dust, dirt and other contaminants can severely reduce the quality of air in your home and increase heating and cooling costs by forcing your system to work harder than it needs to. Clean air means it's easier for everyone in the family to breathe, especially any children in the home. Children are more likely than adults to be affected by polluted indoor air. They breathe faster, inhaling more air per unit of body weight. They are also closer to the ground, where concentrations of contaminants are higher. Air duct cleaning is one meaningful way to care for the air quality of your home and the important people who live there.

Duct cleaning is an ideal way to reduce your heating costs and minimize possible fire hazards. Cleaner heating and condenser coils mean your system does not have to work as hard to heat or cool your home. They also make sure that your equipment warranties remain active.

While a proper air duct cleaning comes with many benefits, most people don't know what signs to look for from their HVAC system when they need an air duct cleaning. These signs can often be overlooked, and over time they lead to a buildup of materials that can harm your air quality. Here are some signs:

• A recent home renovation:When you renovate a home, it kicks up an enormous amount of dust that gets into your HVAC system. It's an even bigger reason if you had asbestos abatement or lead paint removed.

• Animals: If you see visible signs of an animal infestation, it is time for a cleaning!

• Mould: Visible mould is a tell-tale sign that you need an air duct cleaning!

• Is anyone in your family sick?: If someone in your family is suffering from an allergy-related illness, having your ducts cleaned may offer some relief.

Sanitizers are antimicrobial chemicals designed to control microbial contamination. Before sanitizers are applied to the interior surface of an air duct, the system must be thoroughly cleaned. All antimicrobial treatments must be registered with the EPA as intended for use in HVAC systems.

To make certain of this, ask to see the chemical's Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). Read more.

Condenser coils play one of the biggest roles in an air conditioner’s cooling process. But because those coils are located outside, they are susceptible to dirt build up over time. If you don’t do anything to keep your coils clean, your air conditioner can encounter some very serious problems. Today we’re going to talk about what happens when your air conditioner has dirty condenser coils and what you can do to keep your coils clean!

Before we talk about what happens when your condenser coils are dirty, let’s take a second to explain what exactly condenser coils are. Condenser coils are located in your air conditioner’s outdoor unit. Refrigerant, which carries heat from inside your home, travels through the condenser coils. As your outdoor unit blows air over the condenser coils, the heat from the refrigerant is transferred to the air outside, effectively removing the heat from your home.

Because condenser coils are located outside, they are exposed to the dirt, debris and other elements from the environment outdoors. Dirt naturally builds up on the condenser coils over time as your air conditioner operates, and that buildup can get severe if you don’t do anything to remove it.

• Your home won’t cool properly. When dirt builds up on your condenser coils, it produces a layer on the coils that acts as a barrier between the air that’s blown over the coils and the heat inside the refrigerant that flows through them. This makes it harder for heat to transfer from the coils to the air outside, which means that heat will not be adequately removed from your home. If your home is not staying as cool as you’d like, dirty condenser coils might be to blame.

• Your energy bills will be high. Because dirty condenser coils make it difficult for your air conditioner to cool your home, your system will have to work much harder and longer to try and compensate. This leads to high cooling bills because your system will have to consume much more energy than usual.

• Your system might break down. Any time that your air conditioner has to work harder than normal, the chances of it breaking down greatly increase. Given how hot it gets here in the Valley, anything that inhibits the cooling process can quickly lead to performance issues.

The best way to keep your condenser coils clean is to schedule an air conditioner tune-up every year with A.D.W. During your tune-up, we’ll perform a full-system cleaning, which includes a thorough cleaning of your condenser coils. These coils are hard to access, which is why this is a job that’s best left to a professional.

If you have any questions about dirty condenser coils, or if you’d like a cooling system serviced or installed in your home, contact A.D.W MAINLAND HEAT & AIR CONDITIONING INC.

An electric heat pump is a heating and cooling system. It is fully reversible, meaning that it can both heat and cool

your home.

An electric heat pump uses less energy to heat and cool the space in your home than traditional equipment does and is an excellent choice for both new homes and retrofits of existing heating and cooling systems.

Gas hybrid systems typically consist of an electric heat pump and a gas furnace. Depending on the outdoor temperature and current electricity rates (or both), the system will automatically use smart switching controls to alternate between using the heat pump and the gas furnace to provide the most efficient heating possible. They can also be switched manually.

During the cooler months, a heat pump extracts heat from the outside air, using electricity to increase the temperature of the heat and transfer it inside your home. The heat pump’s advanced technology enables it, even during Canada’s cold winter days, to extract heat from the outside air to heat your home. Although heat pumps are best known for heating, they also provide cooling by transferring warm indoor air to the outside. In fact, if you have an air conditioner at home, you are already familiar with heat pump technology – they work in the same way.

Heat pumps transfer heat rather than generate heat, making them energy-efficient while they provide comfortable temperatures for your home year-round. In fact, a heat pump can heat when temperatures go down to -30°C and can cool when temperatures exceed 40°C.

ASHPs and ccASHPs can be ducted or ductless. (Ductless heat pumps are also known as mini-splits or multi-splits.) The most common hybrid systems are combined with ASHPs and ccASHPs by connecting to either existing ductwork in a central system or connecting them in a multi-split configuration.

• Ducted: Heating and cooling are provided to the entire home via ductwork (similar to a central gas furnace).

• Ductless

o Mini-split: Provide heating and cooling to localized areas within the home, typically a single room

o Multi-split: Provide heating and cooling to localized areas within the home, typically multiple rooms