Fall Maintenance Tasks for Your Longview Home

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Fall Maintenance Tasks for Your Longview Home

October 29, 2014
Woman Cold Winter Clothes

Have you put replacing the furnace high on your list of things to do in the near future? Maybe you’re tired of shelling out money for frequent furnace repairs or you think your heating bills are too high. Replacing your old furnace with a new high efficiency system can take care of both of those problems. Before upgrading a heating system, though, take these three steps so you know you’re getting the correct system for your home.

Perform a Home Energy Audit

You can do a simple energy audit yourself to uncover sources of energy losses around your house, or you can hire a professional energy expert to do a more thorough inspection and analysis for you. With the audit report in hand, select the energy-saving projects that will cost the least and have the greatest impact on your home energy use and do them before upgrading a heating system.

Sealing air leaks and adding insulation, repairing leaky ductwork and insulating ducts are a few of the recommendations you may see in the audit report. Anything you can do to reduce your home’s heating demand will lower the upfront cost of a new system as well as reduce monthly energy bills.

Find a Qualified, Licensed HVAC Pro

Look for a licensed, NATE-certified HVAC contractor or technician to help you with the design and installation of your new heating system. An experienced professional will save you time and money by selecting the right equipment for your home’s needs and installing it correctly the first time around.

Get Load Calculations Specific to Your Home

Be sure your HVAC contractor takes your home’s unique features into account when calculating the heating load for a new system. Factors such as shading from trees or adjacent buildings, quality of insulation, and the number of windows in your home should be taken into account while the contractor is applying industry standards to your new system design.

Before upgrading a heating system in your Longview area home, contact JD’s A/C for professional advice, system design and installation.

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Longview Homeowners Choose NATE Certified HVAC Technicians

Indoor Air Quality Plays a Role in Your Family’s Health

Oct 29, 2014

When you need new or replacement HVAC/R equipment for your home or commercial facility, the quality of the equipment itself is just part of the equation. The technical knowledge, professional standards and overall trustworthiness of your contractor also plays a significant role in the transaction.[/three_fourth_last]

Industry-recognized certifications can be one of the more reliable indicators of contractor quality. Among those credentials, NATE certification is perhaps the most widely recognized and accepted. When you hire a NATE certified professional to work on your home’s furnace, air conditioner or heat pump, you’ll know that you have selected an expert with proven technical abilities and dedication to the HVAC industry’s best practices.

The Basics of NATE

North American Technician Excellence (NATE) is a nationally recognized HVAC/R training and certification organization. NATE was founded in 1997, and since then, it’s main mission has been to provide a testing and certification procedure that’s recognized and approved by the HVAC/R industry. NATE certification is accepted by some of the industry’s most prominent trade associations, business groups, and professional membership organizations, such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA).

NATE offers testing and certification in all areas of HVAC/R work, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration. NATE certification is granted when a candidate passes two exclusive examinations given by the organization. Both exams are detailed, in-depth tests of technician knowledge, practical skills, and understanding of the industry.

The first test that prospects must pass is a comprehensive test of general knowledge of the HVAC/R industry. The examination calls on technicians to demonstrate a thorough command of industry concepts and principles.

The second NATE certification exam is a specialized technical test of a technician’s specific HVAC/R knowledge. This test allows candidates to prove that they are well trained and highly skilled in specialized areas of heating, air conditioning, ventilation and refrigeration work. Technicians choose which technical exam they take, based on their own individual training, interests, and specializations. Areas covered by the specialized skills test include:

  • Air conditioning
  • Oil heating
  • Gas heating
  • Air-source heat pumps
  • Geothermal (ground-source) heat pumps
  • Air distribution
  • HVAC efficiency
  • Commercial refrigeration and cooling
  • Hydronic heating systems (gas and oil)

Why NATE Certification?

The installation, maintenance and repair of heating, cooling, ventilation and refrigeration equipment requires increasing amounts of technical knowledge and mechanical ability. Complex high-efficiency HVAC systems place higher demands on a technician’s skills and knowledge, requiring greater level of expertise and a wider range of knowledge for proper installation, maintenance and repair. The efficiency of a furnace, air conditioner or heat pump can be significantly reduced if the equipment isn’t installed properly, or even if the smallest adjustments aren’t correctly made to ensure correct function.

Some types of HVAC equipment, such as natural gas furnaces, combine a volatile fuel with an open flame, which means that accidents such as fires or explosions could occur if the equipment isn’t installed properly. Further, all fuel-burning heating equipment produces exhaust fumes and potentially dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide. Your HVAC professional must understand concepts of ventilation and air circulation to ensure that these gases are safely removed from your living environment.

With all of the factors that depend on an HVAC technician’s abilities, it pays to choose a contractor with demonstrated and certified skills. An HVAC professional with NATE certification has proven abilities, expert depth of knowledge, and the training and resources to make sure your heating and cooling equipment will operate safely, effectively, and at the level of efficiency you expect.

Benefits of Hiring a Contractor With NATE Certification

When you trust a HVAC/R job to a NATE-certified technician, you can expect to receive the highest possible customer service combined with extensive technical knowledge and professional courtesy. NATE technicians pride themselves on doing the job right the first time and avoiding the need for callbacks or additional work on systems they’ve installed. They’re thoroughly familiar with the equipment they work on, ensuring that they will fix any problems correctly or will be able to give you credible reasons why the repair can’t be made. They can also advise you on new or replacement systems for residential or commercial applications.

JD’s A/C serves residential and commercial HVAC customers in the Longview area, including the communities of Kilgore, Gladwater, White Oak, Hallsville, Gilmer, Overton and Liberty City. Contact us today for more information on the importance of NATE certification in choosing and hiring an air conditioning or heating contractor.

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