Action Plumbing, HVAC, & Electric

Your Local Plumbing, HVAC, & Electric Experts

385-509-4239 Utah
623-469-3795 Arizona

Category: A/C

At Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical, we’re proud to offer several solutions for improving your home’s indoor air quality. From air cleaners and home humidifiers to duct cleaning, central AC repair and numerous other potential services, we’ll ensure you and your family always breathe clean, comfortable air.

When it comes to the safety areas associated with clean air, there are few areas more important than carbon monoxide prevention. This gas, which is virtually impossible to detect with normal human senses, can create major health risks when breathed in regularly. Let’s go over the risks and symptoms associated with carbon monoxide, plus the general areas you should be looking at to prevent this from ever becoming a concern in your home – plus how our HVAC professionals can help.

Carbon Monoxide Risks and Symptoms

As we noted above, carbon monoxide is very difficult to detect using our senses – impossible, in fact. It cannot be tasted, smelled or even seen within the standard human color spectrum, meaning it can be present in a room you’re breathing the air from without you even realizing it.

In a home situation, this can be extremely dangerous. Those who are continuously breathing in air mixed with carbon monoxide can see significant health risks, but another issue is the fact that their initial symptoms often appear very similar to a standard cold or flu: Things like headaches, dizziness or aching. People may not realize they have carbon monoxide poisoning until even more severe symptoms begin to show up, such as loss of consciousness, cardiorespiratory failure or even death in some extreme cases.

Safety Tips

There are several basic areas you can cover that will help prevent any risks of carbon monoxide poisoning to anyone in your home:

  • Detectors: Every floor in your home should have at least one functioning carbon monoxide detector, one with working batteries at all times. You should test these regularly to make sure they are working properly.
  • Inspections: One major benefit of HVAC inspections from our professionals? We’ll help you detect carbon monoxide leaks from equipment or poor previous installations.
  • Maintenance and upgrades: Keep up with standard HVAC maintenance, and consider upgrades to components as they age to prevent the risks of carbon monoxide leaks.
  • Cleaning: Regularly clean air passages like vents, chimneys, fireplaces and others so air can flow properly, including out of the home when needed.
  • Leak detected: In cases where your home’s carbon monoxide detector goes off and signals a leak in the home, evacuate everyone from the home right away, including pets. There’s no need to bring belongings with you, as they will not be damaged. Call the fire department first to inform them of the leak, then assess whether anyone from inside the home needs medical assistance. From here, call our HVAC pros to assess the issue.

For more on ensuring carbon monoxide doesn’t become an issue in your home, or to learn about any of our plumbing or HVAC services, speak to the staff at Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical today.

If you’re considering finishing your home’s basement, arranging for proper heating and air components is often among your first steps. While finished basements may or may not end up containing plumbing, depending on your precise needs and desires, virtually all of them will require basic HVAC setups to make them comfortable and livable.

At Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical, our expert team of plumbers, electricians and HVAC professionals is here to help you with any and all such services within your home. Let’s go over some basic tips on hiring the proper professionals for this kind of job, the heating and cooling areas you’ll need to consider for a finished basement, and a couple other tips to help prevent any long-term issues in the new space.

Hiring the Right Team

So why is it important to involve HVAC professionals in a basement finishing project, anyway? Well, for several reasons. One such reason is the potential need for permits, which could be the case in your area if you’re installing ductwork, getting certain pieces of new equipment or making major additions to certain parts of the system.

In addition, HVAC contractors can help with large pieces of equipment like furnaces or hot water heaters. We’ll assist you with concealing these items but not closing them off entirely, plus ensuring you meet accessibility requirements for the space.

HVAC Areas to Assess

A couple general areas to think about when it comes to a finished basement and HVAC equipment:

  • Space: Finishing a basement means adding significant extra square footage to the area of your home that requires heating and air services. This means you’ll want to take a hard look at your current equipment, such as your furnace and AC unit, to ensure they can handle this additional space. In some cases, the more efficient move will be to replace a component or upgrade the system for this reason.
  • Purpose: What will the finished basement be used for? Will it be an occasional fun space for the kids, or will someone in the home be living in the space on a daily basis? These questions will help you determine what kind of temperature control you need in the basement, including whether you might require a zoned thermostat system.

Moisture and Air Quality

Another vital area our pros will help you with is ensuring you have proper drainage, waterproofing and dehumidifying solutions present in the finished basement. Basement spaces are more prone than others in the home to moisture and condensation issues that may lead to mold or other air quality concerns, but the right simple precautions taken here will prevent these risks entirely.

For more on how our HVAC pros can help you finish your basement, or to learn about any of our plumbing or HVAC services, speak to the pros at Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical today.

When you purchase filters for your home’s HVAC system, you’ll generally be able to find basic information on how often they should be changed, whether on their packaging, online or elsewhere. Most filters need to be changed somewhere in the range of once every month or two, though there might be certain types that vary from this.

At Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric, however, our HVAC and indoor air quality professionals can tell you from experience that there are plenty of situations where you may have to diverge somewhat from the stated filter replacement guidelines. Said guidelines don’t really account for several circumstances where filters may fill up faster than usual – let’s look at several of these and identify situations where changing your filters more often is the best bet.

Renovations and Dust Presence

Have you been performing any recent renovations or construction projects in or around your house? These projects almost always come with large quantities of dust and general dirt, and much of this ends up in your furnace filter after being picked up by basic air flow.

If you’ve recently done such a project or are preparing to, take some extra care with your filters. One good visual clue here is the spaces near your vents and registers – if you notice dust building up here, it’s a clear sign that levels are higher than usual and you should change your filters more often.

Pets and Hair

Another group of homeowners that should take special care with filters is those who own pets, particularly shedding animals like cats and dogs. Their hair will be caught by filters, and it will clog them up much faster than usual. On top of brushing your pets often and performing basic cleaning tasks like sweeping and vacuuming, take care in this area.

Leak Concerns

You should also check your ducts regularly for leaks, as these can allow in many particles that will clog the filter quickly. Particularly if your leaks open the ducts up to air from the attic, this air could contain many more contaminants than other air.

HVAC / Fan Settings

Most thermostats have two fan settings: ON and AUTO. The former means the fan will run at all times, regardless of whether the HVAC system is actively heating or cooling the home, while the latter means the fan will only come on in coordination with the HVAC system.

In general, your thermostat should be set to AUTO most of the time. If you leave yours ON for longer periods, however, whether to rotate air or for another purpose, this will increase the amount of air that passes through the filter and require changing more often.

Using the Wrong HVAC Filters

Finally, you might simply be using the wrong filter if you find you have to change yours too often. Filters are defined in large part by their MERV rating, which lays out how fine a degree of particle they can capture – and while it’s great to get a high-MERV filter, there’s such thing as taking this too far and installing filters that will pick up too much, therefore clogging faster.

For more on common reasons why you might need to change furnace filters more often than recommended, or to learn about any of our plumbing or HVAC services, speak to the staff at Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electric today.

The long Utah winter has ended, and for anyone who knows this local climate well, you’re well aware that the heat of summer will soon be upon us. This means homeowners across the state are looking for ways to stay cool during the heat, and they’re attempting to do so without taking a major hike in their utility bill each month

At Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical, we’re here to help with everything from air conditioner maintenance to electrical, air quality and several other areas. One sneaky area we often remind our clients about when they’re looking to help keep the home cool during spring and summer without increasing the bill: Utilizing your landscaping in intelligent ways. Here are a few basic areas to show you what we mean.

Trees and Shade

One massive area that not enough homeowners take advantage of when it comes to cooling is shade. The sun’s heat is incredibly strong, and providing the home with respite periods and areas from this heat can go a very long way.

Generally, you want trees that are tall enough to reach to the windows and even the roof of your home. The less sun exposure your entire structure has, the cooler it will remain in general. Deciduous trees here are often a great first choice; they shade the home very well during the summer but then lose their leaves during the winter, allowing for the sun to heat the home and assist with warming areas. Our only additional tip here is to plant trees far enough away from the home that they and their roots don’t risk any structural damage when they grow.

Shrubs and Bushes

Down similar lines you can keep lower areas of the home and property shaded using the right shrubs and bushes. One important area to use these in is on sidewalks, driveways and other paved areas – particularly if there’s asphalt involved, these areas can reflect light up and onto your home, increasing its temperature slowly over the course of a day. Well-placed shrubs, however, will block this light.

Trellis or Pergola

If trees and shrubs are not an option or a preference for some reason, or if you don’t want to wait for them to grow, a trellis or a pergola can help instead. Place it on the sunnier side of your home, and consider vines or leaves to provide additional cover.

Water Features

Finally, consider a water feature in your back yard. You may not think this will have a direct impact on the indoor temperature, but you’d be surprised – a small pond or fountain can actually cool the entire yard by several degrees, and this is much of the same air that moves in and out of your home as well.

For more on how to use landscaping to your advantage when it comes to heating your home, or to learn about any of our plumbing or HVAC maintenance services speak to the staff at Action Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical today.

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