Plumbing Tips

As soon as spring arrives in your area, it is time for you to prepare a home for the hot summer months in order to remain comfortable without wasting money. With global warming, summer can become unbearably hot, and without adequate climate control equipment, you can suffer from dehydration or a heat stroke in your own home.

Our company recommends taking steps immediately to avoid needing to make an emergency telephone call to us on the hottest day of the year. In addition, if last year’s utility bills were too expensive, then it is time to have a high efficiency air conditioner installed.

One: Prepare a Home’s Air Conditioner

If our customers have a window air conditioner, then we suggest taking off its protective cover to verify it is in good condition.

Dust off the coils, check the electrical cord and test the device to verify it is working correctly. After turning off the device, change or clean its air filter to help it work optimally.

For our customers who have a central air conditioner, we recommend checking the outdoor portion to make sure that nothing is covering the unit and that no surrounding plants are interfering with the fan’s blades. Inside a home, our customers must change an air conditioner’s filter and dust off the components.

Avoid touching any wires during the process, and put the cover back on the air conditioner before turning on the thermostat to verify that it is still functional. When a window or central air conditioner is making strange noises or will not start, call our company’s technicians for a repair immediately.

Two: Check a Home’s Venting System

The venting system inside our customers’ homes is as important in the summer as it is in the winter, and we suggest using dust cloths and vacuum cleaners to remove debris from the vents to help cool air enter into each room.

Verify that vent covers are not closed to ensure climate-controlled air can flow adequately, and avoid placing these items over vents:

• Rugs
• Furniture
• Appliances
• Storage boxes
• Clothing

When vents are blocked, it makes an air conditioner work harder to keep a home cool because the ductwork is designed to maintain a building’s air circulation.

Homeowners will notice that there are hot or cool spots inside their home, and this leads to feeling uncomfortable while paying more for electricity.

Don’t make the mistake of adjusting the thermostat frequently to cope with cold or hot spots in a home because it wastes valuable energy and causes problems for an air conditioner’s mechanisms.

Three: Inspect a Home’s Windows and Doors

It is a good idea to open a home’s windows and doors in the spring to permit fresh air to enter and to enjoy cool breezes, but as the temperature outside increases, our customers want to turn on an air conditioner. While our clients may have added caulking and roll-on insulation around doors and windows in the autumn, the materials degrade during the winter.

To prevent loss of cool climate-controlled air in the summer, make sure to close and lock all windows to seal the devices securely. Add roll-on foam insulation or inject liquid caulking around windows and doors. Go outside your home to find holes and crevices in a building’s foundation or siding that require filling to prevent drafts. If your home has single-pane windows, then it is time to upgrade to new triple-pane windows that are made to keep climate-controlled air inside a building.

Spring is also an excellent time to add batting insulation to attics, crawl spaces and basements to reduce your electric bills each month. This is also the perfect season to have a home’s siding and roof replaced with newer materials that have better insulating properties.

Four: Additional Ways to Prepare for Summer

When your home has a higher humidity level in the summer, it makes the entire building hotter, but our customers can use dehumidifying equipment to reduce the moisture in the air. It is possible to install a centralized dehumidifier to suction moisture from the incoming air, or a homeowner can use large freestanding or small portable dehumidifiers.

Using a dehumidifier in a home also helps to prevent mold growth in wall spaces, basements or attics. When our customers install dehumidifiers, they must make sure to empty the tanks of the smaller devices and change the filters to keep the devices in good condition.

If air circulation inside a home is an issue despite cleaning the venting systems, then consider installing ceiling fans or using portable fans to augment the air conditioner’s cool air. During the hottest part of the day, homeowners should close window blinds and drapes to keep rooms cooler.

When using a hot shower in the bathroom, make sure to use the exhaust fan for a few minutes to remove humidity that can increase an entire home’s temperature level. Homes that still feel too warm during the hot summer months need to have a modern high efficiency air conditioner installed to reduce the temperature.

To learn more about how to keep a home cooler in the summer in  Grand Junction, CO call Peterson Plumbing at (970) 399-7063 today.

Fall is arriving and the leaves will soon be changing from lush greens to gorgeous golds and reds. People are swapping their flip-flops for boots, and exchanging their tank tops for cozy sweaters. Speaking of being cozy… As the days grow cooler we tend to spend more time indoors. Here are some simple ways you can instantly make your home feel warm and cozy during the fall season.

#1. Create a simmer pot. Here’s an easy way to fill your home with warm, fragrant, relaxing scents. To create a simmer pot you simply simmer fresh herbs and ingredients like cinnamon, cloves, anise, vanilla, cranberries, and apples. Cover your ingredients of choice with water and simmer them on your stove on low for as long as you wish. Be sure you don’t leave it unattended or it could be a fire hazard! Set a timer to remind you to turn off the pot.

#2. Fresh wreaths and garlands. It doesn’t have to be a holiday to decorate your home with the beautiful bounties of fall. Spend a Sunday afternoon creating some gorgeous evergreen wreaths and garlands; add splashes of color with cranberries and oranges, even fragrant cinnamon sticks and cloves. Pinterest.com is a great resource for ideas and templates on how to do this.

#3. Swap out your living room pillows and throws. What else says cozy like an inviting sofa scattered with pillows and blankets? There are so many great fall-themed pillows and throws available at home furnishings stores, or you can support small commerce and get something truly unique and handmade from www.Etsy.com

#4. Fill your living space with the warm glow of candles. I’m not talking about scented candles, although if you prefer them, no judgment from me, it’s just many people are sensitive to them. But did you know beeswax candles are non-toxic and actually clean your air? That’s right, they give off negatively charged ions that actually help reduce the indoor air pollution in your home. Plus, they make your home feel cozy and warm. Just be sure you don’t leave them burning unattended or they can be a fire hazard!

When you think plumbing, technology probably doesn’t come to mind. However, the reality is technology is at the center of the industry. Technology is constantly changing allowing us to provide you with better products that can also save you money in the end.

Many of the technological advances are “green based”. They’re not only good for your wallet, but they’re also good for the environment. For example, there are now dishwashers that recycle rinse water for the wash water. They’ve been predicted to save the average family roughly 700 gallons of water per year.

Lastly, have you heard about sprinkler systems that automatically shut off based on the weather report? There’s no reason to water your lawn on a rainy day. Let Mother Nature save you a few bucks!