We weren’t as far south as the Magical Kingdom and that’s the only place in the south that I had visited during the Winter. Yea, I need to get out more but my vacation budget hasn’t exactly been well funded. Instead, I’m trying to keep 3 kids in college. But I remember that it was warm there even in February. And my dad even put on the air conditioning back at the motel one evening it was that warm in the room. It was one of those big, wall unit air conditioning systems and it was loud. It sure did belt out the cooling comfort though as the room became a fridge by the time I woke up the next morning. So this was all I had to go on as I faced my first Winter down here with just a heat pump for heating. This was the first Winter season that I had not had a gas furnace inspected and serviced by an HVAC professional. But in order to keep paying those tuition bills, I went for a promotion and got it. That promotion came with a move to the south where there aren’t gas furnaces. I knew it was going to be warmer here but I wasn’t expecting quite what we got. For sure, I was able to get outside every day of the Winter that it wasn’t raining. So I loved that. And we did get a couple of cold snaps that required me moving the thermostat over to heating. The heat pump was way more than I needed when it came to heating a house. And I loved that too. Now, I’m counting on that same heat pump for lots of air conditioning as I face my first Summer down here.
Upgrade air filter and upgrade your air
Don’t you wish thing were just easy? That might be the biggest wish I have.
I don’t necessarily need to win the lottery or anything like that.
But I sure could handle life maybe easing up on me a bit. I’m sure most people feel the same way. Just maintaining our house, paying for heating and cooling and keeping us fed is a big deal. It’s what keeps me inside the zone controlled HVAC of a downtown office for far more hours than I would prefer. And now with the financial pinch that seems to have just been compounding itself over the past three years. Life just feels hard. But I did get a win when it comes to the indoor air quality of my home. That’s because I found that improving the indoor air quality of my home was a whole lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I learned about the connection between good respiratory health and good indoor air quality. So I really wanted to upgrade that situation. But I was sort of stunned by the price of air purifiers. They were just not at all in my budget. And I felt like, here we go again as just cleaning up my air had to be difficult. However, after talking with my HVAC company, it was suggested that I start cleaning my air with an air filter meant to clean the air. The HVAC professionals suggested that I install a HEPA filter instead of the cheap ones I’d been using all these years. And it was an HVAC equipment upgrade that I could afford. So I now have HEPA filters trapping and removing more than 99 percent of the airborne contaminants that are suspended in our air.
HVAC is now cleaning the air
So I had it all wrong. How could I be an adult, a homeowner and a fairly bright person and not understand anything about indoor air quality? Now that I have a more complete understanding of indoor air pollution, it’s sources and the ways in which I can mitigate it, I’m shocked I missed all that. But I sure did. Until the pandemic was raging, I had it all wrong when it came to indoor air quality. For one, I though since I was living in a rural area, there couldn’t be indoor air pollution since the outside air was so clean. But there are many, many pollutants inside the central air conditioning of our homes. There are chemicals being leached from carpets, furniture and other synthetic surfaces. And don’t get me started on pet fur and pet dander. Then throw pollen and people in the mix and there’s a stew of stuff present inside the central air conditioning of a home. So that’s just the start of me being wrong. I also was under the distinct impression that the HVAC equipment was actually cleaning the air. I’d even pat myself on the back when I changed the air filter and saw all the dust and stuff on it. But that air filter was the cheapest I could find and it wasn’t cleaning anything but stuff big enough to harm the HVAC equipment. All of this information led me to the fact that I wanted my HVAC equipment to be cleaning my air. And now it is. I had the HVAC professionals install a whole home air purification system. This thing fits inside the HVAC unit and actively cleans the air using high intensity ultra violet light.
Thankful for all the benefits from heat pump
When we moved down here, I knew there were going to be a lot of changes.
It’s quite a different environment in almost every way from where we came from.
Both my wife and I grew up and lived in a northern city. That meant that we lived in apartment all of our lives. The Winters were dominated by the cold but we had pretty good radiant heating in our apartment. The Summer could get warm but nothing a couple of window air conditioning units couldn’t handle. This was all turned on it’s head when we moved south. First, we became homeowners for the very first time. And we have central air conditioning for the first time as well. All of our heating and cooling comes from the heat pump. We replaced all of the heating and cooling equipment when we bought this place. We’re also lucky that we both work inside offices with great commercial HVAC. That’s a must with Summer temperatures like we’re now dealing with. I can’t imagine having to wear a coat and tie to work without some pretty stellar air conditioning in the office. But I think the biggest challenge for me anyway is the humidity. I’ve never felt anything like it. Sure, the temperatures stick in the mid to upper 90’s all Summer. However, it’s that dang humidity that really knocks me out. Thankfully, the heat pump is there to help with that as well. Not only does the heat pump provide the cooling comfort that I need, it’s balancing the humidity level as well. I love walking into my home at any point to be met with crips, cooling comfort and low humidity from the central air conditioning.