energy savings

WiFi Connected Thermostats for Your Home

March 4, 2014 By chris

WiFi Connected Thermostats Offer Greater Control

In today’s world everything is becoming connected, so why would your thermostat be any different? WiFi connected thermostats for your home allow you to monitor and control your heating and cooling system from anywhere in the world. Free apps from thermostat manufacturers have allowed you to transform your iPad, iPhone, or Android device into a control center for your comfort. You can adjust the set point on your thermostat, set up programming, adjust your fan settings, as well as monitoring energy usage. There are a number of different WiFi connected thermostats to choose from, and that number is sure to grow.

The Nest

Certainly the thermostat with the biggest amount of buzz surrounding it, the Nest is a great option as a connected thermostat. The Nest has built in WiFi, and has a very user friendly set up, and programming feature. The Nest learns your patterns for temperature adjustments, and develops a schedule based on that pattern. It is also equipped with a motion sensor, which kicks in an Auto Away feature when no motion is detected for a period of time. The temperature it reverts to in Auto Away mode is adjustable, and this can be an easy way to save money on heating and cooling costs. My favorite feature on the Nest is the Energy History display on the app. You simply click the Energy History button, and it shows a bar graph of the hours of run time for your heating and cooling system each day. It shows you each day back about a week and a half. This enables you to see how changes you make to operation can affect your energy costs. The Nest is also a cool looking, smaller thermostat, and the simple turn dial to adjust temperature is a very natural feel. The Nest Protect is an additional accessory that can be added to your Nest thermostat. It is a Carbon Monoxide/Smoke Detector that is wireless. They also have a hard wired version as well. Nest Protect is also connected, so you can get an alert on your phone if the unfortunate strikes your home while you’re away. Nest is capable of controlling gas furnaces, heat pumps, air conditioners, oil heat, and electric.

Honeywell

Honeywell has been making thermostats for nearly 130 years, so they kind of have it down. They offer a full line of connected thermostats, some with WiFi built in, and some that can be connected through a wireless Internet Gateway that connects to your modem. Honeywell thermostats haven’t gotten the publicity that the Nest has recently, but in many cases they can be better suited for a particular heating and cooling system. Honeywell offers better control options for tying in indoor air quality products, such as humidifiers and ventilation systems. Honeywell also has sensors that can be mounted on the supply and return sides of your duct system to monitor incoming and outgoing temperatures. The difference between these temps (Delta T) is monitored to make sure the system maintains an accepted performance. If the Delta T dips, the thermostat will alert you that there is an issue with the system. You can have up to 5 email addresses tied in for these alerts, so you can know there is an issue, as well as your trusted heating contractor, if you set it up that way. Honeywell has multiple wireless accessories that can tie into their thermostats, including a Portable Comfort Controller, which can be moved throughout the home to control and sense temperatures from different rooms. They also have wireless outdoor temperature sensors, which not only display outdoor temps on your thermostat, but can also aid in the efficient operation of a heat pump system w/ a back up heat source.

Honeywell Prestige IAQ

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WiFi connected thermostats are a great way to help you maximize the efficiency of your heating and cooling system, as well as making sure that you are comfortable when you want it most. These thermostats are a great addition to any home. If you would like any additional information on any of these thermostat products, please email us using one of the Contact Us forms on our site, or you can always feel free to give us a call.

Ductless Heat Pump – How’s it Going to Look?

May 24, 2013 By chris

What will the indoor unit on my ductless heat pump system look like on my living room wall?

I talk to many homeowners about a ductless heat pump as a solution to their heating and cooling needs. They are extremely efficient systems, that do a great job of heating and cooling a home. One question, and I would say the most frequent concern regarding ductless systems, is how is that thing going to look mounted on my wall? Manufacturer’s have conducted studies that show the average homeowner doesn’t notice the unit after 3 weeks of having it installed. It’s hard to convince someone that is the case, just by mentioning a study. After all, our heating systems here in the United States have traditionally been tucked away in a garage, basement, attic, or closet, not introduced as a focal point of our living room. I have seen how much people benefit from ductless heating systems, and the amount of money they can save, so I look at it from a different perspective. If you can hang something from the wall of your home, and it will pay you money every month, is it not worth it? A friend of mine, in conversation about ductless systems, said they are like an ATM in your house. What a perfect analogy! When you consider the amount of savings people are achieving on their heating costs, and you compare that to what the monthly payments typically work out to on a financed system, they really do pay you to be mounted there. In fact, it’s like having a low profile ATM that produces money for you, that doesn’t come from your bank account. Who wouldn’t want that? I will wrap this up by saying, what did people think about microwaves when they first started making their way into our kitchens? Kitchen counter top real estate is usually less abundant than wall space, but yet who doesn’t have a microwave sitting on their counter top now days? Why is this? Because it’s great technology that makes are lives better, and more convenient. If you would like to learn more about ductless heat pumps, and how they can save you money, and provide cooling for you during the summer, then contact us for a free consultation.

Are Ductless Heat Pumps Really That Efficient?

March 1, 2013 By chris

The short answer is yes, they are. For a more detailed demonstration on the efficiency of ductless heat pump systems, I point you to a case study we started over a year ago. Muddy Creek Charter School is a small elementary school on the outskirts of Corvallis, Oregon. They were suffering through winters at the school with their heating system, which was an oil boiler with air handlers that served the classrooms, library, office, and gym areas. Not only was this heating system very inefficient, but it also provided little to no ventilation for the school, and they had no air conditioning when the warmer weather would set in. We installed Mitsubishi ductless heat pump systems for each of the 7 classrooms and the library. For the gym, we installed a Rheem roof top package heat pump system to heat and cool, and provide fresh air ventilation. For the classrooms we also installed an Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) to provide very efficient fresh air, making the classrooms a much healthier environment.

Recently I met with Mr. Hayes, the Principal at Muddy Creek, and he shared with me his utility cost savings over the previous year. Comparing 2011 to 2012, the electric bill for the school actually went down a nominal amount. The kicker here is the savings they are realizing by not having to purchase heating oil. The school was budgeting a whopping $12,000 to $16,000 per year for heating oil, and now that burden is lifted. As you can imagine this will do great things for the school in terms of their budgeting for the future; and they now have a healthier, more comfortable environment for the children to learn in.

As a disclosure, the roof top heat pump system for the gym was not running during the comparison period, and we have not yet installed the ductless units to feed the office area. I can assure you though, that these variables will not make that much of a dent in their savings. The school plans on hopefully finishing up the project around the end of the school year.

This is an example of what ductless heat pump systems can do on a larger scale. Ductless heat pumps, also known as mini splits, are great heating and cooling systems for residential applications as well. There are also some great incentives from utilities and tax credits that are available for residential applications. If you would like to learn more about how a ductless heat pump system could save you money on your heating and cooling costs, then please give Clean Energy Comfort a call, and let us show you. Additionally, Mr. Hayes gave his blessing on this article, and added that he would be happy to speak with anyone who would like to hear more about their story.

Cool Products For Your Heating and Cooling System

March 2, 2012 By chris

Most people aren’t aware of just how many different accessory products are available for a heating and cooling system, whether it be related to safety and health, comfort, energy savings, or just ease of operation. Let’s touch on a few of these products.

Health & Safety Products

Carbon monoxide detectors are becoming more and more popular. On April 1 of 2011 in Oregon, ORS 476.725 went into effect stating that carbon monoxide detectors must be installed in any home that contains a Carbon Monoxide (CO) producing appliance, or that has an attached garage where CO may enter the home from a car running in the garage. What appliances produce CO? Pretty much any gas or oil burning appliance, a furnace, water heater, gas range, or even a wood burning fireplace. The law states that single family residences are required to have a working CO detector in, or within 15′ of any bedroom at the time of sale or rental. Unintentional CO exposure accounts for an estimated 15,000 ER visits, and approximately 500 deaths each year in the US. – Center for Disease Control. This is a very important product to help keep your family safe from this silent killer.

Duct mounted smoke detectors can be easily installed on your ductwork, and include a tube that enters the duct, and will sense smoke being pulled through the ductwork. Once smoke is sensed by the detector, it will turn your furnace off to avoid circulating the smoke throughout the entire home. You can incorporate an alarm into this setup, but the biggest benefit of this product is the avoided smoke damage that even the smallest of kitchen fires could cause if allowed to be circulated through the ductwork with the force of the furnace fan.

Ultra violet light can be installed on your heating and cooling system, and is very effective at maintaining healthy air in the home. There are many good air filtration systems available, but the downfall with most of them is their inability to kill the particles they trap, and therefore those particles may be disbursed into the duct system again. The UV light will kill mold spores and bacteria, and stop them from reproducing. Ductwork is a breeding ground for these organisms, and the UV light will keep your lungs from taking the abuse.

Energy Savings and Comfort

Now that we’re through all the boring safety stuff, we can focus on the cool gadgets that are available. The most exciting control system available right now is the Prestige HD thermostat from Honeywell. Honeywell has developed a thermostat that will open eyes, and broaden your abilities to control your heating and cooling system. This thermostat has a full color display, and when equipped with the optional wireless outdoor temperature sensor, will also display outdoor temperature and humidity. The stat incorporates an interview based programming method, and will ask you questions about your schedule for each day of the week, to determine optimum programming settings for increased comfort and energy savings. Filter change and maintenance reminders can also be easily set up, so that you don’t let that all too easy to forget, and yet so important, furnace be neglected. That is the basic operation of the stat, but the really cool part is the options available.

There is an optional Portable Comfort Control, which is a remote that you can take with you anywhere in the house, and you can not only control the system from there, but if you want, you can even have the temperature sensed from there. For example, if you are spending the day in a TV room watching movies, and you want that room to maintain 70 degrees, you simply take the remote with you, push the button to sense from the remote, and your heating and cooling system will work to achieve 70 degrees in that room.

If being able to control your system from any room in your home isn’t enough, what about being able to control it from anywhere in the world? The Internet Gateway from Honeywell plugs into your wireless router, and can wirelessly communicate between your laptop, desktop, phone, or iPad. You can control the temperature manually, set up a new program, and also monitor the system. Honeywell monitors the system as well, with no monthly fees. Sensors get installed in the ductwork that read temperature on the supply and return side of your heating and cooling system. If the difference between the two sensors increases or decreases indicating a problem with the heating and cooling system, then emails will get sent to up to 5 emails of your choice. If you have your email in the system along with the email of your heating contractor, then if there is a problem, your heating contractor can be arranging a service call, and contacting you, whereas before you would have to come home to a cold house, and probably pay after hours rates to have it fixed. The Internet Gateway can be especially useful in a vacation home. How nice would it be to bump up the heat when you or a renter are on your way to the home, and oh, if you got half way back home and it clicked with you that you forgot to turn down the thermostat, no problem. Just hop online.

These are just a few of the many products available that can be added to any heating and cooling system at anytime. If you have any questions on these or any other products of interest, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help.

Salem:

503-304-1320

Portland:

503-982-6082