Winter Tips for your Vancouver Home.

Winter is upon us and Vancouver is quickly getting colder. Here are some quick tips on getting your Vancouver home ready for the season that will save you a bit of money and won't cost you an arm and a leg to implement.

• Probably the simplest thing you can do is bundle up and dress warmly. This is some old school advice you were probably told as a kid but it makes a lot of sense! You can save 2 percent on your heating bill for every 1°C you lower your thermostat. 
•  Make sure your Vancouver furnace filter is clean and replace it if necessary. Having a clean filter will help your furnace to heat your home more efficiently. 
• Plastic up windows and the entrance to your attic. It might look a little funny but its cheap and will help. Window kits are available at local retailers. 
• Turn your heat down at night while in bed. Lowering the thermostat setting before bedtime reduces your energy bills without affecting your comfort.
• Close heating vents going to rooms not often used. Have a guest bedroom no one ever uses, why heat the room if your not going to be spending time in it? 
• Put weather stripping around drafty doors and use silicone to seal up cracks around windows. The cost of improving the air-tightness of your Vancouver home with silicone is small compared with possible fuel savings and increased comfort.

Vancouver furnace service

The Importance of Air Circulation in your Vancouver Home

Cold air return grill

When it comes to a comfortable heating system good air circulation is essential. 

  

Unfortunately most Vancouver homes have been designed with inadequate cold air returns incorporated into their forced air heating systems. 

The cold air return is the plenum that carries air from large return grills in your home back to the furnace for reheating. If a home lacks sufficient cold air returns, air circulation will be decreased while comfort and air quality will be lessened.

A sure sign of poor air circulation is cold air pockets in the winter and hotter areas of the house in summer. As well as being important to your heating, good air circulation can help keep your home cool and comfortable in the summer when you have the furnace blower running.

The difficulty of adding more return air to your Vancouver house greatly depends on the structure of your home. That being said, if there is a will, there is a way and ducting can be added if it is truly needed.

Use Your Thermostat Wisely to Save. (Vancouver Heating)

You probably have a thermostat in your Vancouver home, but are you using it wisely?

Here are some easy facts about proper thermostat use:

Turn it down to save! When possible reduce the temperature so as not to waste energy & money. Every 1 degree Celsius you lower your thermostat you can save about 2% of the energy used to heat your house!  

Few people need to heat their home at the same temperature all day long. Most of us know to turn down our thermostat in the evening when we are in bed and during the day when at work. What's the point paying to keep our house toasty warm if no one is home to enjoy it.  

When you return home cranking your thermostat all the way up will not heat your home any faster. Pick the temperature you want and let your Vancouver furnace do its thing. 

If you are going to change your thermostat, a programmable one is the way to go!  

 A programmable thermostat makes life easy, because it can be set to reduce temperature automatically. You can have different settings for several times a day and on weekends.  When picking your thermostat try to find one that is energy star qualified. Proper use of a programmable thermostat can reduce your heating bills by 5 - 20%!

Vancouver plumbing and Heating.

Energy Saving Tips for Your Vancouver Home.

Saving energy can be easy! 
Here are a few quick Vancouver plumbing & heating tips to help you go green and save a bit of money:

Dishwasher: Fill it up before you turn it on. Avoid washing partial loads in the dishwasher. Also always make sure to air dry.  


Plumbing Fixtures: Install low flow fixtures in your home. Low flow shower heads and toilets greatly reduce amounts of wasted water. 


Clothes Washer: Use cold water to wash your cloths. You will save energy because your water heater won't have to heat the wasted water. Wash full loads of laundry and even better use an environmentally friendly front loading washer if possible.

Water Heater: Consider making the switch to a tank-less water heater. Unlike a conventional hot water tank it heats only the water you use. 

Furnace: Get annual maintenance done in the summer to keep your furnace working at peak efficiency all winter. Remember to change your filters during the heating season every couple of months. A blocked filter makes the furnace work harder. If you need a new furnace consider changing to a high efficiency furnace. Many older Vancouver Furnaces are only 60% efficient. A new 2 stage high efficiency furnace with variable speed motor is up to 95% efficient. This will turn into saving on your hydro bill and you may qualify for incentives. 

Tips when buying a new furnace (Vancouver)

Here are a few quick tips if you find yourself needing to replace the furnace in your Vancouver home. 

The heating technician installing your new furnace should do a heat loss calculation in order to properly size your furnace. An over-sized furnace will cycle on and off more and be less efficient. You will also probably end up paying more money than you need to for the larger furnace.

The higher the AFUE rating the more efficient the furnace is. Most new Vancouver furnaces are 92 - 95% efficient. Greater efficiency means bigger long term savings on your hydro bills. A two stage furnace with variable speed motor will also provide greater comfort as well as the best efficiency.

The new furnace should come with a reliable warranty. It should be a brand name with a good reputation that you can research, not some builders special discounted at the local supplier.

Make sure your furnace installer is qualified. They should have a valid gas ticket and the company should be registered with the BC Safety Authority as a licensed gas contractor. Don't hesitate to ask their credentials.

Obtain a few estimates, don't just go with the first one. There are many good Vancouver heating companies, so shop around and find the best price out there!

Vancouver plumbing & heating

High Efficiency Furnace Vancouver

Ask around Vancouver and you'll find high efficiency furnaces are very popular these days. This is chiefly because of green initiatives, government rebates, and the long-term savings you can experience.
High efficiency furnaces in Vancouver have become the only logical choice, especially with the continuing rise in gas prices. 

New high efficiency furnaces are 90 to 97 per cent efficient. Put simply, a furnace at the high end of this range converts around 97 percent of the combusted natural gas to usable energy. By comparison, many of the older homes in Vancouver have dated furnaces that are only about 60 percent efficient. This means that 40 percent of the gas you purchase from Fortis to heat our home is wasted. If your old furnace is also over sized the loses could be even greater.

A high efficiency furnace with a variable speed motor is even more efficient. It will run quieter and should make your home more cozy with its ability to maintain a more even constant temperature.
Although a high efficiency furnace is a sizable investment, the long term savings and increased comfort leave most people very satisfied in their decision to upgrade when the time comes. 

 

 

 

 

Vancouver Water Heater Trouble Shooting

Common Water Heater Problems

I install a lot of water heaters in Vancouver and for the most part, they are pretty reliable. Unfortunately, even the best tanks break down or need trouble shooting. Many Vancouver water heater service-calls I get are similar and fairly easily diagnosed. Even if you are going to call a plumber it is good to have an idea of what the problem might be.

Honeywell Thermocouple

The most common call I receive is "no hot water" due to a gas water heater's pilot light not staying lit. Although this could be indicative of a bigger issue such as a bad gas valve, usually the thermocouple is simply warn out and requires replacement. Thermocouples are cheap and readily available at home hardware stores like Home Depot for about $10. Many times, if there is a safety switch on the tank, like a temperature cut-off switch, it may need to be reset.   
Once the gas tank is lit, it is a good practice to inspect the flame. It should be bright blue with a yellow tip.

Thermostat & High Limit Switch

When an electric tank has no hot water, a good place to start is the high limit switch. The high limit is the red button found behind the cover for the upper element, it can be reset by simply pressing it. This may indicate something has gone wrong somewhere else on the tank. If the high limit has not been tripped but there is inadequate or no hot water the problem could be with one of the tank's thermostats or elements. 

Determining which of these needs replacement is a matter of testing for power at the thermostats and continuity of the elements. It is generally good practice to have a thermostat replaced along with an element.     

 Another scenario that may result in inadequate hot water is if the cold dip tube breaks inside the water heater. This results in cold water mixing with warm water near the top of the tank. The dip tube is a removable part which can be unthreaded and replaced.  

Although it is important to have an understanding of water heaters, most work should only be performed by certified technicians. Preforming repairs that are beyond one's comfort level can be potentially dangerous plus void the manufacturers warranty.  

Watermark Plumbing - Vancouver