The Homeowner's Guide to Heating, Cooling & Air Quality

PLEASANTON — Attic insulation is a key component of an energy-efficient home. By keeping hot and cold outside air from entering the home, a well-insulated attic can go a long way toward minimizing your heating and air conditioning bills. However, simply having attic insulation isn’t enough—you also need an adequate amount of it. Otherwise, you won’t achieve the optimum level of energy-efficient performance. Fortunately, it’s easy to determine whether you have enough attic insulation—all you really need is a tape measure. Simply stick your tape measure down into your insulation and measure its thickness. The minimum recommended level of attic insulation is R38, which is between 13 and 14 inches thick. So, if your attic insulation is at least 13 inches thick, Read more

EL CERRITO — Some people think air filters are all the same, but this is far from the case. While the heating and cooling systems in many homes have standard, one-inch fiberglass filters, the reality is that these do little to improve indoor air quality—they’re only good for filtering out very large airborne particles. To get better filtration for your HVAC system, consider upgrading to a MERV 13 air filter. This four-inch pleated filter removes particles down to the level of viruses and bacterium, which makes it at least 60 times more effective than a standard filter. In addition to the quality of the filter you choose, another consideration is how often you replace it. Read more

FREMONT — When purchasing an air filter for your HVAC system, you have a lot of options to choose from. One important thing to know about is the Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) rating scale, which is used to assess filter effectiveness. With MERV, filters are rated on a scale of 1 to 20, with 1 being the least effective and 20 being the most effective. For example, a MERV 3 filter can capture 70 to 75 percent of basic airborne particles like pollen, dust mites and pet dander, whereas a MERV 8 filter can capture more than 90 percent. Filters rated MERV 9 to 11 are also able to capture mold spores, Read more

VALLEJO — California has established a goal of relying entirely on zero-emission energy sources for electricity by the year 2045. A likely byproduct of this goal is that gas prices will skyrocket over the next 25 years. For this reason, you should think twice about investing in gas-powered furnaces, water heaters and other appliances. Even if they’re less expensive up front, the long-term cost of running them will likely result in a higher overall expenditure. Rather than buying gas-powered appliances, consider going all-electric. Electric heat pump technology has come a long way over the last decade, and today there are high-efficiency heat pump systems that use a fraction of the energy that older systems used. Read more

SAN JOSE — If your air conditioning system doesn’t seem to be functioning properly, your first inclination may be to call a professional. However, in many instances, you may be able to identify and fix the issue yourself, which will save you the cost of an unnecessary service call. When an air conditioner doesn’t seem to be operating at full strength or effectively cooling your home, you might assume it needs to be repaired. However, it’s possible that you’ve simply forgotten to set the thermostat to the “cool” setting or to a low enough temperature. Another factor that may affect the performance of your air conditioning unit is dirty or clogged components such as the filter or evaporator coil. Read more