How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Have you ever wondered how to reduce your carbon footprint? That is one of the questions our air conditioning professionals get asked all the time. When you make a change to #geothermal heating or cooling, you are reducing your carbon footprint because you’re not using any fossil fuels to heat and cool your home.
Geothermal energy is energy that is pulled from the heat of the earth and it’s being generated in a way that is detrimental to the environment. It’s efficient and it’s a way to heat and cool your home in a way that also helps pay you back for the investment you’ve made in the system.
Today though, let’s talk about ways to be more efficient in:
- Heating
- Cooling
- Using appliances in your home
The more efficient you can be when you heat and cool and use appliances in the house or your commercial building the better off the environment is and the more money you will save with your heating and cooling bills. That is a win-win.
There are standards set by the Department of Energy that help the HVAC industry work with homeowners and business owners to heat and cool their homes and offices and use energy in the most efficient way possible.
One thing our HVAC and geothermal energy professionals discuss is that bigger is not better when it comes to an HVAC unit — the unit needs to be sized to the amount of space it will be heating and cooling. If you get a unit that is too large or too small it will have to work harder to perform its task and that will cost you more than you have to pay and that also increases your carbon footprint.
How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Here are a few terms you may hear an HVAC professional mention when you meet with him or her.
- Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) will let you know how much cooling you will get for every dollar you spend on electricity. The EER rating is determined on the season’s hottest day of the year.
- Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) this rating is the one given following an average of an entire heating and cooling system. SEER ranges from 13-22 (22 is the highest efficiency rating)
- Energy Star rating. Chances are when you purchase an appliance — stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer you will see the Energy Star rating on the item. This designation is set by the Environmental Protection Agency and makes note of appliances that either meet or exceed the guidelines set for high energy efficiency. You may pay more for an Energy Star rated appliance, BUT the money you save in the long run will pay for itself in savings.
- The heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) is how the efficiency of the heat pump component is rated. These units range in efficiency, but one that is 7.5 HSPF or higher is more energy-efficient than a lower-rated one.
- MERV — the minimum efficiency reporting value is something we’ve written about before and is a rating given to the efficiency of a filter used in an HVAC unit. MERV ratings range from 1 to 16 (one is the lowest, 16 the highest) Bear in mind that using the highest MERV rated filter may sound ideal, but may not be the best for your needs — ask us what you should use and why.
If you have questions about updating and upgrading your equipment or if you want to schedule an inspection and cleaning, give us a call.
Our goal is to educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For information about zoning systems and other HVAC topics,download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
Considering an upgrade or update to your commercial HVAC unit? Give our air conditioning service technicians a call today.
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Don't miss out! Like us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS Feed on Feed Burner and get our latest posts. Our symbiontairconditioning.com blog includes posts about topics related to air conditioning and our company. Posts about additional topics can be found on our main company blog at symbiontservice.com/blog/.