R-22 Phase Out

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Hammond Air is currently running a special for a complete system tune-up and inspection for $59.00.

 Many people understand refrigerant is what produces the cool or warm air from your heating and cooling equipment. Most do not have the complete story on this refrigerant and how laws developed over a decade ago will start affecting them.

First, we’ll go over R-22 refrigerant; the most common refrigerant for residential and light commercial heating and cooling equipment. R-22 is a Hydrochloroflurocarbon in well over 95% of the equipment installed before the middle part of the last decade. A slow progression toward a new type of refrigerant began a few years ago and escalated after 2010. It is safe to assume that if your equipment was installed before 2007 you will have R-22 refrigerant. While R-22 provides great heat transfer properties necessary for efficient heating and cooling, it has also been found to cause damage to our ozone layer. Because of this, a gradual phase out began many years ago leading to a complete lock out of new production by 2020.

All is not lost, however. As we leave an older product we can welcome in a newer product, R-410A refrigerant, which has better heat transfer properties than R-22 and is more environmentally sound. We get a more efficient refrigerant that is better for the environment with 8 years left to make the complete transition. However, as of January 1st, 2012, the EPA decided to further reduce the allotted amount of R-22 refrigerant for 2012. As of the date of this article, they have completely shut down all new distribution of R-22 until a determination or interpretation of what the law states and how they will enforce it can be made. As it has been for a decade, the allotted amount of R-22 allowed for 2012 was 90 million units. The EPA plans to reduce this, in one year, to 50 million units. The new 50 million unit quota will be further reduced over the next several years at an increased pace.

So, what does this mean to you? PRICE
The price you pay for the refrigerant in your equipment is going to go up and go up fast. Over the last week, we have seen a 300% increase in the wholesale price with notices of price increases coming in faster than we can process them. As of this article, most people in the industry are scratching their heads as to how something like this can happen and are very concerned about how this will affect the customers that depend on our services. As with all change I would imagine things will settle down and a new status quo will develop, wherever that may be. One thing is for sure, it will be at a much higher price than before. To give the average customer an idea of the difference they can expect to see … A service call one month ago with 2lbs of refrigerant plus trip charge generally ranged around $140.00. As of today, that same service call would cost over $300.00. As you can see this will make quite a difference and in many instances the cost could exceed $1,000.00 just for the refrigerant.

Fortunately we have some great tips to help you ward off the potential extra expense posed from refrigerant issues.

  1. Make sure weeds and leaves do not sit around the base of your outside condenser. This allows moisture to sit against equipment components increasing the rate of deterioration. Over 90% of the leaks we encounter after the first year of installation are from deterioration.
  2. Make sure your condensate drain is cleaned regularly and treated for biological growth. If your drain is not flowing correctly excess moisture will sit inside your indoor air handler increasing the rate of deterioration on the evaporator coil.
  3. Bi-annual equipment tune-ups and inspections can help keep the equipment in good working order and catch small refrigerant leaks before they become large leaks. It is much better to repair a small leak and only have to replace 1 or 2 pounds of lost refrigerant as opposed to waiting and having to fix a large leak and have to replace the entire refrigerant charge. This could easily exceed 15lbs or, as of today’s prices, $1,000.00 of refrigerant. Hammond Air is currently running a special for a complete system tune-up and inspection for $59.00. This is a 50% savings over normal cost and a huge savings compared to the alternative. The inspection will also cover tips 1 and 2 as most of us have better things to do than worry over HVAC maintenance.
  4. If your equipment is over 10 years old, consider upgrading. There are outstanding, highly efficient equipment on the market now that carry the new R-410a refrigerant. All new equipment comes with a standard 10 year parts warranties and have a 10 year complete labor package as an option. Great financing plans are available staring as low as $54.00 a month with a 5.9 APR (WAC). In addition, the spring season always has the best rebate programs from the manufacturers ranging from $500 to over $1,000 on select models. Utility companies have joined the game offering up to $350.00 dollar rebates for high efficiency equipment. Add this to the energy savings you gain from new equipment, and upgrading your HVAC equipment becomes an outstanding investment option.
Call Hammond Air Conditioning today at (904) 398-6488. 

Duct Work Problems and Solutions

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Recently a very sweet but determined customer called wanting to purchase a brand new American Standard 20 SEER heat pump system with variable speed fan motor and dual compressors and she wanted Hammond Air Conditioning to install it. This system is the Mercedes of the air conditioning market. You simply cannot buy a better or more efficient piece of equipment for residential application. I set up an appointment to meet her. This was quite an exciting estimate because very seldom do I have a customer that knows exactly what they want and who they want to buy from. I inspected the existing equipment and had a brief discussion on exactly what she was looking to gain from her purchase. She was well versed on efficiency savings and the benefits a high SEER multi-speed unit could offer. This was great! Before writing the contract, I inspected the duct work. Her home’s duct work was in awful condition. The original installing contractor had undersized the duct. The equipment required would need 1,200 cubic feet of air per minute capacity, but the current duct work was only sized to carry 800 cubic feet per minute. To make the situation worse, the installed duct was metal and was never properly sealed. All the joints were leaking and there were a few spots that were completely crushed due to people crawling over it. There was no way to fix or patch what was there, it had to be replaced. I crawled out of the attic and prepared to give the bad news. The news was not taken well, but we sat down and discussed her options. Our potential customer had researched the equipment and studied our company, she had budgeted a number within $250 of what was going to be our quoted price. She did not anticipate the extra money to replace her duct work and was certainly not prepared to sign off on it. The problem was if we installed the equipment she wanted on the existing duct system it simply wouldn’t work. She needed to stay at her budgeted number, so I offered to install a lower seer system with new ductwork. I tried to explain the lower end system on new duct work would operate better and more efficiently than the high seer system on existing duct work. She politely listened to me but I could tell she was waiting for me to leave. I try to conduct my business with the thought that the customer is always right, but in this case I had a responsibility as a professional in the HVAC industry not to install the job as requested. So, I put some numbers together with new duct work included, thanked her for the opportunity and asked to follow up in a few days on her decision.

The follow up call was as expected. Our competition had quoted her the same 20 SEER system and already installed it on her existing duct system. I thanked her for the opportunity again and left it at that. A few months later we received a call from this nice lady wanting some advice. It seems the new high SEER equipment had never worked right and the installing company had been out several times trying to fix it with no success. As you can imagine my first question was concerning her duct work – did the other company do anything to improve it?  Her answer was no that they had not improved the existing duct work. The next week, Hammond Air Conditioning installed a complete new duct system for our new customer solving all the problems she was having. During this installation, she signed up on our yearly maintenance program. We saw her a few months later during the fall tune-up and she was elated by how much our changes, coupled with the new equipment, had lowered her electric bill.

The point of this long story is not to brag about Hammond Air Conditioning (well maybe just a bit), but try and allow some perspective on what we face daily, as Air Conditioning contractors, when speaking to customers about replacing their heating and cooling systems. So much emphasis is placed on the equipment, but the duct work is as crucial, if not more so, than the type of brand, SEER or manufacturer selected. If the equipment is the heart of your home comfort system, then the duct work lines are the arteries. And most of us past middle age know what can happen with clogged arteries. In every case, without exception, an entry level air conditioning system with good duct work will out perform, last longer and provide superior indoor air quality when compared to a new high efficiency air conditioner hooked up to leaky and undersized duct system. A well installed and sized duct system allows your equipment to run less, lowers stress on refrigerant related components and improves indoor air quality.

Air quality is another problem with duct leakage I will touch on in a future article. The basics of air quality and duct leakage are:

  • If your duct work is leaking, you are directly circulating attic air into your home for your family to breathe.
  • At the very least, this air is filled with fiberglass from attic insulation but many times there is bacterial growth, mildew, rodent poison or droppings and many other harmful pollutants.
  • Making sure your duct work is sealed will eliminate air quality concerns such as this.

Hammond Air Conditioning is currently offering a complete system tune-up, cleaning and inspection, which includes your duct work for $59.00. This is normally a $125.00 service available now over 50% off. Call Hammond Air Conditioning today to set your appointment at (904) 398-6488.

Ultra Violet Lights for your air conditioning and heating system

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Hammond Air Conditioning has received quite a few questions from customers lately concerning Ultra Violet lights (also known as UV light) and the suggested applications available.  So we would like to provide a bit of information on how Ultra Violet lights work along with our knowledge and experience on what we have found to be the best application for your heating and air conditioning system in the Jacksonville, Florida area.

Ultra Violet lights have been around for years primarily used in the treatment of water systems and tanks.  Over the last decade, the air conditioning industry has realized the benefit Ultra Violet light systems can provide in both indoor air quality and heating and air conditioning performance.  The technology is based on electromagnetic energy, the same as visible light.  UV light, however, is not visible, falling just out of the range of humans.  The light is split into three wavelength ranges: UV-A, UV-B and UV-C.  The UV-C range is where germicidal wavelengths are located, to be more specific we are looking for the wavelengths at 254 nanometers.  UV lights generate a range of frequencies but the majority of light emitted from a quality ultra violet system is focused at 254 nanometers.

Ultra Violet light provides improvements in indoor air quality through its ability to physically penetrate microorganisms.  The energy in the UV-C wavelengths permanently alters the structure and molecular bonds of microorganisms.  The results include bacteria or viruses that have no ability to initiate cell division or reproduction rendering them harmless.  This process is happening everyday outside through sunlight.  It is indoors, especially in areas that see little to no sunlight, that we begin to experience problems with colonies and reproduction of microorganisms.

Ultra Violet lights have another use which, in our opinion, is more important than the above mentioned air cleaning application.   Your heating and air conditioning system’s Air Handler is the perfect breeding ground for microorganisms, or more concerning–mold.  During the summer months your Air Handler is dark and damp 24 hours a day.  These conditions allow a bio-film to develop across the equipment coils and interior components. Bio-film acts as an insulator and as the coils are enveloped by this growth.  As a result, it compromises performance of your heating and air conditioning system increasingly so over time.  This causes stress on equipment components and severely limits efficiency.  Even worse, you have bacteria and mold growing inside the one piece of equipment responsible for circulating the air you and your family breathe.  Installing a UV light inside the air handler greatly reduces the possibility of biological growth occurring.  By keeping the air handler clean, you are improving your indoor air quality, improving heating and air conditioning equipment efficiency and decreasing stress on system components.  We have heard so much lately about the dangers of mold growth in our homes.   Most people don’t realize that your heating and air conditioning system’s air handler can be the starting point of this growth.  Ultra Violet lights greatly reduce the possibility of mold gaining a foot hold.  The major problem we have once heavy biological growth has begun is removing the growth without spreading spores throughout your home.   This is a time consuming and expensive process that needs not happen.

What to do – how to solve this issue?

An Apco Fresh-Aire Ultra Violet system installed by Hammond Air Conditioning is designed to help reduce odors, toxic chemical vapors, germs and mold in your home.   A Hammond Air installed Apco system will come with two Ultra Violet lights.   The first UV light is installed inside your heating and air conditioning system’s air handler to treat and help prevent any biological growth from developing.  The second UV light is installed in your heating and air conditioning system’s duct work to both clean the air and remove odors.  The Apco Fresh Aire UV was a 2011 Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Exposition winner for new products providing the best value and impact per application.

While we would like to prevent this growth from ever starting sometimes that is not possible. In this situation, Hammond Air Conditioning offers a professional cleaning and remediation of your air conditioning and heating system’s air handler and duct work.   Once your equipment is restored we can install the Apco Fresh Aire UV system to keep your homes air clean and crisp.

To schedule an appointment with Hammond Air Conditioning, call us at 904-398-6488 or contact us online at http://www.hammondair.com/request.html.

Hammond Air Conditioning proudly serves the Jacksonville, Florida area.   We’ve being Jacksonville’s top heating  and air conditioning company since 1957.

Service Territories include:   Jacksonville, Florida and surrounding cities of Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Orange Park

Duval County: Mandarin, Southside, San Jose, Avondale, Ortega, Arlington

St. Johns County: Fruit Cove, World Golf Village, Ponte Vedra, Palm Valley

Clay County: Fleming Island, Orange Park, Argyle

Hammond Air Conditioning Maintenance Program

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Seasonal maintenance of your home’s heating and cooling system is essential to ensure your equipment continues to operate efficiently and provides year-round dependable performance.  As the economy has slowed, we have seen many customers looking to cut their expenses.  Unfortunately, customers are choosing to cut out their seasonal air conditioning and heating maintenance.

Years ago, the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and Louisiana State University teamed with Gulf States Power to identify what benefits, if any, were provided by having your air conditioning and heating systems serviced.  A series of homes were heavily instrumented, data was collected over time, tune-ups were performed, and data was collected again.  The results of this landmark study were impressive.  The researchers found that tune-ups (maintenance of heating and air conditioning systems) saved energy and restored lost capacity.

 How Much Savings?

Average Monthly Savings from a Tune-Up————————–$32.76

Average Cooling Capacity Restored————————————0.79 Tons

 The researchers concluded that:

Air conditioning and heating maintenance benefits the consumer
by lowering their operating costs, increasing their
comfort control capacity, and is believed to extend equipment life.

The above referenced studies were conducted years ago on equipment with very low efficiency ratings compared to modern comfort systems.  Modern equipment (less than 10 years old) is even more dependent on detailed cleaning and performance enhancing practices to continue and run at such high efficiencies.  If the above studies were performed today, the savings and restored capacity measures would be even stronger.  In addition, most all manufacturers require routine heating and air conditioning equipment maintenance to be performed or warranty becomes void.

Hammond Air Conditioning has developed an outstanding program to handle your home or business heating and air conditioning system maintenance.   Our program consists of a detailed 20 point system tune-up/cleaning and inspection performed in the spring and fall.  Some of the maintenance items include cleaning indoor and outdoor coils, testing and adjusting equipment refrigerant charge, adjusting and lubricating motors and checking equipment voltage and amperage loads.  After each heating and air conditioning inspection, Hammond’s maintenance technician presents a detailed report on all work completed and any performance concerns found.   In addition to the equipment tune-up, Hammond Air Conditioning offer discounted service calls, 15% off all repairs, guaranteed response time and no overtime charges if you sign up under our yearly maintenance program.   All of this maintenance and inspection of your heating and air conditioning system is offered at a low rate of $156.00 dollars per year.  In most cases the energy savings provided through the tune-ups completely pays for the cost of the maintenance program of your heating and air conditioning system.

To sign up for Hammond Air Conditioning’s yearly heating and air conditioning maintenance program, call us at 904-398-6488 or contact us online at http://www.hammondair.com/request.html.

Hammond Air Conditioning proudly serves the Jacksonville, Florida area.   We’ve being Jacksonville’s top heating  and air conditioning company since 1957.

Service Territories include:   Jacksonville, Florida and surrounding cities of Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Orange Park

Duval County: Mandarin, Southside, San Jose, Avondale, Ortega, Arlington

St. Johns County: Fruit Cove, World Golf Village, Ponte Vedra, Palm Valley

Clay County: Fleming Island, Orange Park, Argyle

Welcome to our New Blog

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Welcome to Hammond Air Conditioning’s New Blog!  We plan to use this blog to give your valuable advice as it relates to your home’s heating & air conditioning system.

Hammond Air Conditioning originally began in 1957. We are located in Jacksonville, Florida. Our company’s goal is to be the best service company in North Florida. Our focus is to provide superior service and products to our customers. We have a long standing tradition of providing the best Customer Service in the industry.

Key aspects to our business philosophy include honesty, integrity, dependability, superior quality, and installations and repairs completed right the first time. We back this philosophy with our guarantee when choosing Hammond Air Conditioning:

” Hammond Air Conditioning offers a One Year 100% Guarantee on equipment, workmanship and performance. If at any time during the first (1st) year of installation you are not completely satisfied, Hammond Air Conditioning will perform any (all) necessary repairs or modifications to installed equipment free of charge. In addition to our 100% guarantee, we offer a complimentary one-year system performance program designed to keep your equipment running at the top efficiencies and capacities in which it was designed. As part of this program, you will receive two complete system tune-ups and cleanings free of charge.”

These key aspects of our business philosophy is why Hammond Air Conditioning continues growing with more satisfied customers each and every year. Give us a call at (904) 398-6488 for your service and installation needs.