Real Change Systems Changes Name to Better Reflect Their Services
Frederick, MD …Real Change Systems, a 12-year-old Jefferson heating and air conditioning company owned by local residents Carl and Debbie Harris, recently changed their name to Real Comfort Systems Heating and Cooling. “We felt the new name better reflects our goal of providing a comfortable, efficient, safe and clean indoor environment year-round,” said Harris.

Real Comfort Systems, which serves Jefferson, Brunswick and the surrounding Frederick County areas, offers a full range of residential and light commercial air conditioning, heating, duct cleaning and air quality (HVAC) products and services.

“No matter what the season, we look at providing total home solutions for our clients,” explained Harris. Real Comfort Systems is one of a handful of HVAC companies that are performing Home Performance testing and are certified by the Building Performance Institute.

“Oftentimes we find that a homes’ HVAC system is much less efficient than it should be due to missing insulation in critical areas such as in the attic around the duct work. Or, the duct system may be leaking or clogged and contaminated with dirt, construction materials and mold. There can also be carbon monoxide and fire hazards. Homeowners don’t even know about these issues because they don’t see them. So, to announce our name change, we’re offering a 42-point efficiency/safety check-up for just $19.95 through the end of March,” said Harris.

‘”This is a great time for homeowners to ‘test drive’ our services. They can spend a little to potentially save a lot on their heating and air-conditioning bills for the rest of the year. And when local homeowners experience the thoroughness and quality of our services, we’re confident they’ll become lifelong customers,” he added.

Owners Attend HVAC “Bootcamp”
“During this unusually warm winter, we have taken some time to invest in our business,” said Harris. “My business partner and wife, Debbie, and I attended a three-day seminar in Baltimore offered by Goodman Air Conditioning and Heating. We took the time away from our three five-year-old sons and went to a boot camp for HVAC company owners to learn new ways of providing excellent service to our customers,” he explained.

Real Comfort Systems offers continuous training sessions to its service technicians weekly. We want to be the best “Customer Service Fanatics” possible and want you to be comfortable using our services. For more information, call 301-662-3661or visit them at www.realcomfortsystems.com and on Facebook.

For more information, Contact:

Mary Ellen Mitchell
Marketing@ Work
301.524.5040
mem21@comcast.net

How the HVAC industry is reacting to warm weather.

Does Warm Weather Cool Business?

Frederick, MD …The internet is full of stories about how the warming trend the past four weeks is affecting winter business. Towing trucks, gas companies and snow plow operators are challenged because the force of nature that drives sales is not behaving in its normal pattern.

At Real Comfort Systems in Jefferson, the story is the same. “Usually in January and February we are providing 24-hour emergency service to customers who are desperate to get the heat back on in their homes,” said company owner Carl Harris.” In the 12 years I have been in business, this season’s weather is one of  the most challenging after the blizzard two years ago,” he added.

The Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA),  a non-profit association serving more than 60,000 professionals, surveys its membership each month as to the state of business. According to the January, 2012 Contractor Comfort Index (CCI), contractors are continuing to have a cautiously optimistic outlook when it comes to short-term growth. The CCI is calculated based on a survey of the association’s contractor members, who are asked how positive they feel about new business prospects, existing business activity, and expected staffing decisions in the short-term future. A score of 50 or above indicates anticipated growth in the market.

How does a company that depends on cold weather survive?

“We have taken this time to invest in our business,” said Harris. “My business partner and wife, Debbie, and I attended a three-day seminar in Baltimore offered by Goodman Air Conditioning and Heating. We took the time away from our three five-year-old sons and went to a boot camp for HVAC company owners to re-energize their commitment to providing excellence to their customers.”

Much like the big box stores and retail establishments, one strategy for weather-related companies is to offer a classic winter sale. Consumers are used to getting deep discounts in retail after the holidays. “At Real Change Systems, we embraced the notion of a limited time discount and are offering a 42-point efficiency check up for just $19.95,” said Harris.” This is a great time for homeowners to “test drive our services.”  They can spend a little to potentially save a lot on their heating and air-conditioning bills for the rest of the year. And when homeowners experience the thoroughness and quality of our services, we’re confident they’ll become lifelong customers,” he added.

Real Comfort Systems (formerly called Real Change Systems), is a family-owned heating and cooling company in Jefferson, Maryland. For more information, call 301-662-3661or visit them at www.realcomfortsystems.com and on Facebook.

These simple tips can slash your cooling costs by hundreds of dollars.

1. COMPLETE SYSTEM MAINTENANCE

Have a yearly safety check and tune-up. Each season, a licensed heating and air conditioning technician should service your system. It’s a small investment considering that you may spend as much as $500 on your home in just one season.

For safety, the technician should inspect and test Controls and Disconnects. In addition to a heating & cooling system inspection, have the gas piping and the furnace’s heat exchanger checked for leaks. Consult your owner’s manual and have any additional recommended work performed. Get any safety problems fixed before running the equipment.

A tune-up consists of Inspecting the refrigeration coils, straightening the coil fins, oiling the blower fan and checking the air flow and refrigerant level. If the refrigerant is low, there is probably a leak.

Your Real Change technician can handle all aspects of refrigerant sand leak repairs.

2. THE OUTSIDE UNIT

Clear away weeds, debris and snow. If air can’t circulate freely around your outside unit, the equipment will work harder resulting in higher bills and service calls. Never cover it with a shed or a deck.

3. THE INSIDE UNIT

Replace or clean air filters every month. Dirty air filters are the #1 cause of air conditioning service calls.

But filters are easy to replace, and you can do it yourself. Put in a new one every month during the summer and winter months.Be sure all hardware is replaced and securely reattached.

You may want to consider a permanent filter that you wash clean instead of replacing. Some permanent filters restrict air flow too much for some units. Consult Real Change Systems for more information for the best type of filter to meet your needs.

4. DUCT WORK

Inspect for disconnected ductwork. Disconnected ductwork is a common and very costly problem.

If a supply duct has worked loose from a vent or a connecting duct, the air from your heating and cooling system never reaches the rooms in your house. It spills into your home’s attic or crawl spaces and eventually leaks outside. So in effect, you’re paying to cool the outdoors.

In addition, if a return duct in your attic is disconnected, you’re drawing heated attic air – up to 140 degrees – into your system. This forces your system to work even harder, and may cause system failures.

To check for disconnected ductwork, examine the ducts in your basement, attic and crawl spaces.

Remember to keep safety in mind when climbing ladders or crawling in attics. Remove the vent grills in each room and make sure the ductwork is securely attached and sealed to the floor or wall. Rooms in your home that never seem to be conditioned properly may be a sign of disconnected ductwork.

Check for Crushed Ducts. Crushed ductwork is another reason some rooms never are comfortable. You can check your ductwork yourself by looking in the attic and crawl spaces, but you may want to have damaged sections replaced by a professional.

Seal Leaks. Leaky ductwork is a common problem. As a matter of fact, about 25% of every dollar spent on cooling can be lost through leaky ducts. Examine your ductwork for cracks, splits or bad connections. Turn on your system and feel for escaping air. Look for tell-tale black marks on the duct’s insulation, especially around the joints. These are caused by dirt collecting around air leaks. Be sure to seal leaks carefully with mastic-type sealant, duct tape, which will not deteriorate over time.

If your furnace is in the garage, make sure that all possible leaks in the return-air path are sealed. Otherwise, unwanted fumes can be sucked into the house through those openings. Some furnaces sit on a raised platform in the garage, and extra care is needed to seal this type of return-air path.

Ask a Real Change Systems technician to check your system if you have any concerns.

Insulate ducts. Most ducts are accessible – look for them in crawl spaces and attics. Duct work exposed to extreme conditions such as attic & crawl spaces must be insulated using R-4  or higher insulated duct wrap or duct liner. Real Change Systems can inspect and advise you of any deficiencies with your ductwork. We build and design all types of duct systems. Most duct repairs can be easily repaired at the time of service.

5. THE THERMOSTAT

After tuning up your system and correcting any problems, the next step in cutting your cooling costs is to adopt some simple energy-Save habits. For instance, you can cut your system’s operating costs or more simply by setting your thermostat. Find a thermostat setting your comfortable with and just leave it. Moving the thermostat up & down waste energy and make the equipment work harder.

There are many different electronic thermostats on the market that move the temp during unoccupied times to higher settings. Consult Real Change Systems for which thermostat is best for your system.

Shut it off when you’re not home. Don’t waste money by cooling your house while you’re away at work or on vacation. If you keep shades and curtains drawn it usually won’t take much energy to cool your house down when you return. However, if you turn the air conditioner off on the very hottest days and turn it on when you return from work, it may run constantly without cooling down your home very fast. One solution is to use a programmable thermostat to keep the temperature warmer while you’re away, then automatically return the temperature back to the desired temperature an hour or so before you return.

Don’t overcompensate with your thermostat setting – remember, thermostats are merely on-off switches. Setting the control to 60° won’t cool your house any faster and it will waste additional energy if you forget and leave it running at the low setting. The best setting typically for winter or summertime is whatever your comfortable with and maintain that temperature without moving the thermostat up or down.

6. VENTILATION

Consider a whole-house fan. Because some nights are cool, but have no breeze, you may benefit from using a whole-house fan to force cool air through your home. A whole-house fan is permanently installed in your attic and draws cooler air into your home and forces warmer air out through your attic vents. Make sure there are enough vent openings so the fan can work properly. The fan will need to meet building and electrical codes, and it should have a safety device to turn it off in case of a fire. If the attic has blown-in insulation, you’ll also need certain measures installed to ensure that the fan won’t produce a blizzard of flying insulation!

Ventilate your attic. Your attic can reach temperatures exceeding 140+ degrees. You can save up to 20% on your cooling bills by installing vents in the roof eaves and along the ridge. Vents must be equal to each other in overall size for the air to flow freely. In combination with a whole-house fan which exhausts air into the attic, this will help remove heat that has built up during the day in your home.

7. Shading

Install shade devices. Shade screens and tints on windows and glass doors, as well as window and wall awnings, are very effective forms of passive cooling. Shading windows and walls on the sunny sides of your home can cut your cooling needs considerably.

Other Cool Ideas

What to look for in a new system If you’re in the market for a new air conditioning system, you can save yourself hundreds of dollars in energy bills.

HERE’S HOW

Buy a unit with the highest Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) rating you can afford. Use the  SEER to compare different air-conditioning units. SEERs for air conditioners range from 10 to 17. The higher the SEER, the more electricity you’ll save. For example, going from a SEER of 6 to a SEER of 12 could cut your cooling bill in half.

Don’t buy an oversized unit. A unit that’s too big for your needs will waste energy and money. When replacing a unit, the existing size may be too large if you’ve improved your homes insulation or upgrade your windows. Ask your Real Change technician for an exact heat-gain calculation that shows the proper size of unit to buy for your climate, house size, insulation level and number of windows. Do not count on rule-of-thumb estimates as they tend to be inaccurate, and may end up costing you money. Locate the outside unit properly. Keep the unit away from other objects. For example, don’t enclose the unit with a deck or shrubbery – it needs room to breathe.

WEATHERIZE YOUR HOME

Make sure your home is properly weatherized. While proper ventilation that you control is necessary to allow enough fresh air into your home, you should eliminate all unnecessary leaks. Seal any cracks, holes or gaps, especially around plumbing and other penetrations through your ceilings, walls and floors. Caulk around windows and doors, and keep your fireplace damper closed when the fireplace is not in use. It’s especially important that your ceilings, walls and floors should be adequately insulated. Insulation is rated by R-value – the higher the R-value, the more effective the insulation. At a minimum, your ceiling should be insulated to R-30, your walls to R-11 and your floors to R-19. Some types of attic insulation settle over time or may be unevenly distributed and need to be upgraded to achieve at least R-30.

TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR WINDOWS

If you’re thinking of getting new windows, consider installing double-paned windows. They insulate as effectively as an inch of foam insulation and shade as well as tinted windows, yet look clear. These types of windows are available from many manufacturers.

USE LIGHT COLORS ON EXTERIORS

Painting walls or re-roofing with light colors will help keep interiors cooler. A white wall, for example, reflects 80% of the light that strikes it, greatly reducing heat gain and the resulting higher temperatures in your home.

Save Money

Chances are you’re spending more on air conditioning than you need to because your cooling system is out of tune. It’s probably wasting money and adding to the strain on the environment. The good news is that it’s probably an easy problem to fix. Consult your Real Change Systems technician for more details.

SAVE MONEY – AND IMPROVE YOUR COMFORT

Air conditioning is a major energy consumer – accounting for as much as half of summer energy bills. By simply making sure that your cooling system is running efficiently, you could save yourself hundreds of dollars a year. Best of all, you don’t have to sacrifice comfort to save on your cooling bills. In fact, you may actually be more comfortable once your system is working efficiently.

SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT

In addition to Save money, an efficient cooling system conserves natural resources and reduces air emissions. If you’re concerned about our environment, keeping your cooling system tuned-up is something you can do to help.

TAKE ACTION NOW

The sooner you begin improving the efficiency of your cooling system, the sooner you’ll start Save energy and money. Take a moment to read through the simple energy-Save tips inside. There’s a chance that your cooling system may be too old and needs replacing. If so, be sure to read the section on choosing a new system titled “What to Look for in a New System”. Most importantly, before you buy, call Real Change Systems at             301-662-3661       for the information that may help you save energy and money.

Home Cooling Energy Save Checklist

DAILY

• Don’t jiggle  your thermostat.
• Turn your air conditioner off or to a warmer temperature when you aren’t home for long periods
• Close curtains, draperies or shades.
• Use room fans to increase comfort.
• Avoid baking and other indoor heat-producing activities on hot days.
• Ventilate when it’s cooler outside than inside.
• MONTHLY
• Change filters or clean permanent filters.
• Clear weeds, snow and other debris away from the outside condensing unit.

EVERY SEASON, HAVE A QUALIFIED, LICENSED HEATING & COOLING PROFESSIONAL

• Check system safety devices for proper functioning.
• Check system air flow.

Inspect inside evaporator coils and drains.

• Clean and straighten the outside coil fins.
• Check for refrigerant leaks, and repair and recharge the system.
• Clean and oil the fan motors and service other components.
• Inspect ductwork and repair any damage and seal any leaks.
• Check the total system for proper and efficient operation.

How your cooling system works:

Save money and energy by making sure each component of your system is running efficiently. Air conditioners work a lot like your refrigerator. A fan blows air across a cold evaporator coil and then sends this cool air into your house through the supply ducts. Warm air is drawn into the return ducts and is sent back into the system to be cooled. A refrigerant takes the heat to the outside unit, where it is dissipated to the outdoors.

BTU – British Thermal Unit. In scientific terms, it represents the amount of energy required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. One BTU is the equivalent of the heat given off by a single wooden kitchen match. For your home, it represents the measure of heat given off when fuel is burned for heating or the measure of heat extracted from your home for cooling.

CFM – A standard of airflow measurement. Cubic feet per minute. A typical system produces 400 CFM per ton of air conditioning.

Capacity – The output or producing ability of a piece of cooling or heating equipment. Cooling and heating capacity are normally referred to in BTUs.

Compressor – The heart of an air conditioning or heat pump system. It is part of the outdoor unit that pumps refrigerant. The compressor maintains adequate pressure to cause refrigerant to flow in sufficient quantities to meet the cooling requirements of the system.

Condenser Coil or Outdoor Coil – Located in the outdoor unit, the coil dissipates heat from the refrigerant, changing the refrigerant from vapor to liquid. In American Standard units, the coil is either Spine Fin^TM or Plate Fin.

Damper – Found in duct work, this movable plate opens and closes to control airflow. Dampers are used effectively in zoning to regulate airflow to certain rooms.

Downflow Furnace – A furnace that pulls in return air from the top and expels warm air at the bottom

Ductwork – Pipes or channels that carry air throughout your home.

Evaporator Coil – The coil that is inside your house in a split system. In the evaporator, refrigerant evaporates and absorbs heat from air passed over the coil.

Heat Exchanger – A device for the transfer of heat energy from the source to the conveying medium.

Humidifier – A device that produces water vapor into heated air as the air is expelled from the furnace.

Humidity – The amount of moisture in the air. Air conditioners remove moisture for added comfort.

HSPF – Heating Seasonal Performance Factor, a rating used in measuring the heating efficiency of a heat pump. The higher the number, the more efficient the unit.

HVAC – Heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

ICM – Integrally Controlled Motor. A specially engineered, variable-speed motor used in American Standard’s top-of-the-line indoor units. ICM motors are more than 90% efficient versus 60% efficiency for conventional motors. Continuous comfort, whisper-quiet operation and ultimate system efficiency are the benefits of the indoor products graced with the ICM motor.

Package System – A piece of air conditioning and heating equipment where all components are located in one cabinet. Used occasionally in residential applications, the package unit is installed either beside or on top of the home.

Refrigerant – A substance that produces a refrigerating effect while expanding or vaporizing.

Refrigerant Lines – Set of two copper lines connecting the outdoor unit and the indoor unit.

SEER – Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, a rating that measures the cooling efficiency of a heat pump or air conditioner. The higher the number, the more efficient the unit.

Switchover Valve – A device in a heat pump that reverses the flow of refrigerant as the system is switched from cooling to heating. Also called a reversing valve or four-way valve.

Thermostat – A temperature control device, typically found on a wall inside the home, that consists of a series of sensors and relays that monitor and control the functions of a heating and cooling system. American Standard’s programmable thermostats allow you to program different levels of comfort for different times of the day.

Ton – A unit of measurement used for determining cooling capacity. One ton is the equivalent of 12,000 BTUs per hour.

Upflow Furnace – A furnace that pulls return air in from the bottom and expels warm air from the top.

Zoning – A method of dividing a home into zones and enabling you to control the amount of comfort provided to each.