The Non Stop Travel Blog

I used to hate the northern cold.

My husband and I complained about it all the time. The snow, ice, and severe wind chill were horrible. We would have to shovel and pre-heat our cars to go anywhere. The snow made it hard to get to work and to live comfortably. That is why we decided to move down south. We decided on Florida and then picked Tampa due to the city offering lots of jobs. We now live in a nice house in the city and just love it. We can walk to all the fancy restaurants and do all sorts of fun things. We have access to the best concert venues, musicians, comedians, shows, theaters, and games. It is the best. The weather is the only issue I have. The heat and humidity are intense. The warm season starts as early as March and doesn’t let up until after Christmas. There is very little time where you aren’t sweating to death and a bit too hot. The answer is to rely on air conditioning equipment. I don’t like to be stuck inside all day though. When you live in Florida, you kind of have to get used to it. I hate that the hat is that wet, stifling heat. We do the best we can with AC equipment and timing things right, but it is awful. I spend a lot of time in the pool or really early morning or late in the evening projects. You gotta beat the heat of the day. I am worried about my two-year -old son dealing with the Tampa summer season.

Tampa Florida Air conditioning expert

My husband and I are debating on putting an addition onto our home.

We bought a house in Birmingham, AL and it does the job good. We have one son so far and everyone gets a room. My husband and I don’t sleep well together. Also my husband and I each work from home and need our own space. Additionally one person can have the monitor while the other sleeps. Having our own room is a must have. Our son has a room, we have a small laundry space, and then the rest is kitchenaid living room. I am pregnant with our second child and it is a bit stressful. Do I put baby two in the laundry room? I can move the washer and dryer to my outdoor shed. The issue is that I would hate carrying heavy laundry in and out of the house during a hot, Birmingham day. The AC is beeping constantly due to the heat. We also live where it is sandy. I would need to wear shoes and leave them outside. I can’t really ask my baby to share a washer and dryer. The space is too small with it in there too. I think an addition is going to be necessary. The sad part is that our current HVAC unit will not be functional anymore. So we will need to buy an addition, pay for larger HVAC, upgrade the electrical panel, most likely do plumbing, and so many more jobs. This addition will cost us a fortune but I don’t see any other way.

Birmingham Alabama multi split air conditioning

The wrong part is another thing altogether.

I hate how loud my AC system is. I am a super light sleeper and my AC wakes me up a lot. It clicks on and makes a loud whirring noise. It sounds kind of like grinding and screeching. I just dealt with it for a long time. I even bought a sound machine to drown it out. Then a friend of mine came over and commented on my noisy AC. She said that something must be up. Well I never thought that loud operational sounds were warning signs. So I did some googling and I found a Fort Worth, Texas air conditioning business that specializes in all types of cooling. I got them to come and take a peek at my system. They checked it all over and determined two things wrong with it. First I needed to add more coolant inside of the system. I also needed to have the fan motor belt lubrication. The lack of liquids in my system caused grinding and screeching. If I wouldn’t have gotten this done my system would have started to wear away on parts. The AC service in Texas was quite cheap since adding a little bit of coolant and lubricant was easy. The wrong part is another thing altogether. Now that everything’s all squared away, my AC runs like a dream. It isn’t silent, but compared to what it was, it is amazingly quiet. I love that I hardly hear it operating anymore. I sleep so much better at night and my AC seems to be doing a lot better.

 

Fort Worth Texas Cooling specialist

I had been living with an oil furnace for years. My house came with an oil furnace and I just started getting in on it. I found a Sioux Falls heating dealership that did oil furnace maintenance. I also found oil deliveries. I then just did the normal maintenance to keep it afloat. For years I handled that oil heater. One day it occurred to me, I hate my system. I hated doing oil deliveries and worrying about running out during a storm. I hated that large on site oil tank that was ugly and took up so much room. I hated how the furnace looked, operated, and existed. I then decided to look at my options. What could I do about it? Thankfully my South Dakota heating dealership does oil to gas conversions. If you have an oil furnace and want to change to a gas furnace, they are on it. It is a different set up all together. No more on site oil tanks. Instead you need hookups and a flue system installed. You need to remove pieces and put new ones in. It was quite an involved project. It was time consuming, a bit expensive, and I worried it wouldn’t do the job as good as the old one. Well I was wrong. I now have a well working gas furnace instead. It operates smoothly, near silently, and is way easier to handle. Gas is a much nier resource than oil. I love that the gas isn’t as large and dependent on deliveries. It is a more common heating system too. So if I ever have a heater repair and more normal business can’t do it, basically any heating dealer in Sioux Falls could handle it.

Sioux Falls South Dakota Heating device

I don’t know how Minneapolis people deal with it

I used to live in Minneapolis, MN when I was a kid. I got familiar with the ice, snow, cold, and severe wind. I used to go for super long walks in the severe winter. I walked no matter the temperature. I would just bundle up and ignore all the chill. I was a hardcore winter person. I rarely used my home heater. I would just deal with the chilly air and go to sleep in pants and a sweatshirt. I then moved down south and have lived there three years. The heat and humidity have now become the norm. I am used to wearing a swimsuit and no shirt for most of the time. Recently I visited Minneapolis in April. I figured it would be warm enough for me to get some things done around the house. I would help my mother with the gardens, pack up my old stuff, and enjoy my walks again. That wasn’t possible. The cold really got to me. I wanted to have the home heater running at all times. I wore a jacket in the house and slept in it. I complained to my parents the entire time. Now that I have concluded my stay there, I know I won’t go there again until the summer. No way would I chance getting into the snow and severe cold that I was used to. I don’t know how Minneapolis people deal with it. The cold must be a typical thing and their heating systems must be hardcore. My parents hardly even run it though!

boiler installation in Minneapolis Minnesota

I love living in Florida.

I left a location that snowed 70% of the year.

We would get temperatures below freezing, severe windchill, ice, and hail. I then decided enough is enough. There are locations that just don’t get snow. I moved down south and eventually settled in St. Petersburg, Florida. I really enjoy the fact that the majority of the year isn’t winter. I used to own three heating systems. Now I get by with a heat pump. A heat pump never could have been used up north. With this device it is energy smart, green, and cheap to use. You can only operate it when the temperatures are 40 degrees and above. The reason is the system uses existing heat energy in the air to warm a home. So colder locations are out of luck. Having a heat pump saves me so much money. Very rarely does the temperature get cold enough that my emergency heat kicks on. The winter season is so short too that it doesn’t bother me. What I do is mainly use the cooling function of the heat pump. It keeps me comfortable most of the year and costs hardly anything to run. It isn’t set up to do ductwork so I don’t have a whole home temperature control. I had to get multiple indoor air handlers with individual thermostats. This means I can have zone control if I so desire. I can’t imagine getting any other device. A heat pump is the right kind of device for those living in hot locations like southern Florida.

St. Petersburg Florida Quality heating and air

When my husband and I bought our home in Springfield, Missouri, we were delighted by the location.

The property is quite large and private. The home was built in the late 1800’s and features the original hardwood floors, doors and moldings. There is a wide front porch, high ceilings, big windows and a truly gorgeous staircase with a carved banister. After moving in, our biggest complaint with the house was the difficulties with heating and cooling. Springfield sees temperatures from the teens into the high eighties. Temperature control is extremely important. The former owners of the home got by with an assortment of window air conditioners, box fans and electric baseboard heaters. They were not sufficient to provide ideal comfort, looked horrible and cost a fortune to operate. Because the house was not outfitted with a conventional duct system, there seemed to be no way to install a centralized heating/cooling setup. I did some research and consulted with a local HVAC company in Springfield. The contractor suggested that we retrofit a high-velocity heating/cooling unit. This innovation is designed specifically for historical homes and features mini-ducts. The ducts are only two inches in diameter and flexible. They were able to be snaked through existing walls and around plumbing and electric wires without causing disruption. The vents are only six inches in diameter and blend unobtrusively into the decor. The high-velocity system uses a process called aspiration, delivering heated or cooled air into the rooms at a very high rate of speed. It creates a gentle suction that effectively mixes old and new air and quickly raises or lowers room temperature. The shorter run times, smaller ducts and insulated ducts keep monthly costs quite low.

 

 

Springfield Missouri Ductless multi split

Winters in South Bend, Indiana, are especially long.

The cold weather arrives sometime in October and typically lasts until the end of May.

We frequently experience temperatures in the teens and even well below zero. My heating bills are always a concern. The furnace blasts at maximum capacity round-the-clock for months at a time. I have invested into a top-of-the-line, Energy Star rated furnace, hoping to reduce utility bills. I chose a heating system with a 96% AFUE rating that features both adaptable-speed technology and zone control. It cost me a small fortune but is steadily paying for itself. The adaptable-speed operation allows the heater to automatically adjust output and supply only the exact amount of heat necessary to maintain perfect comfort. This avoids temperature swings, and the energy waste of a system continually starting up and shutting down. Zone control is especially helpful because I can customize thermostat settings room-by-room. I’m not forced to maintain perfect comfort in empty spaces. I can cater to the specific requirements of the room as well as personal preferences. It’s possible to keep bedrooms cooler than the living room. I can set a lower temperature in the kitchen when I’m running the oven. Although I am very happy with the new furnace, I continue to look for ways to trim energy usage. I make sure to open the blinds during the afternoon to take advantage of warmth from the sun. I’ve added insulation to the attic, caulked around the windows and installed weatherstripping on exterior doors. The weather in South Bend means relying on the furnace for around eight months, which is expensive.

 

South Bend Indiana HVAC service