D'Spain Sales and Service Blog : Posts Tagged ‘Bandera’

How Heat Pumps Provide Both Heating and Cooling

Thursday, December 11th, 2014

Heat pumps are popular systems for cooling homes, but they can also heat, too. It may seem confusing that a system that doesn’t generate heat like a boiler or furnace can offer heating, but this is one of the ingenious aspects of heat pumps systems, as well as one of the benefits.

So how does a heat pump heat your home? Let’s take a look.

Heat in the Air

Believe it or not, there is always heat in the air, even when it’s cold outside. Your heat pump uses this latent heat to help heat your home – but there is a process. As we stated above, heat pumps don’t generate heat; instead, they transfer heat from one location to another. To help facilitate this transfer, refrigerant is used. During the winter, the outdoor unit of your heat pump system absorbs the heat in the surrounding air; the heat pump concentrates this heat to intensify it, then distributes the heat to your living spaces.

The Reversing Valve

So what enables a heat pump to provide both heating and cooling? A component called the reversing valve. The reversing valve changes the direction of how the refrigerant flows, which allows the heat pump to work in two modes: heating or cooling. A reversing valve has two settings within it: one is excited, the other is relaxed. The valve manufacturer sets which state stands for heating and which stands for cooling, so there can be variations between valves. What doesn’t change is that once a state is set for a specific operation – either heating or cooling – the other state setting is always going to be the other operation. But as the homeowner, you have it much easier: simply press a button on your dual-mode thermostat to change from heating to cooling and back again.

Heat pumps can be complex components, so if you are experiencing issues with your heat pump in Bandera, call D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc.

Our trained and certified heating experts can help with any heat pump issue you may have, so call us today!

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Is Ductless Heating in Bandera a Good Choice?

Wednesday, November 19th, 2014

That all depends on what you’re looking for. There was a time, not too long ago, when ductless units were almost exclusively used in apartments and other living spaces that could not afford central heating. That time is long past, and now more and more people are using ductless units as their main method of heating their home. Let’s examine why you might want to choose a ductless heating system for your home.

What is a Ductless Heating System?

A ductless heating system is comprised of a single heater with two parts, an interior and an exterior. The interior part of the unit is installed inside the room that needs to be heated, usually on the wall or ceiling. The exterior section is installed on the outside of the house, usually on the other side of the wall from the interior unit. When the heat is turned on, the exterior unit siphons thermal energy from the air and sends it to the interior unit, where it is used to warm and circulate air in the room.

There are two main differences between this kind of heating and more traditional heating systems. The first is that, as the name implies, the unit eschews ducts completely. This means that a ductless unit can only heat the room in which it is installed. The second difference is that the ductless heater does not utilize combustion to generate heat, instead operating more like a heat pump to move heat from outside the home inside.

Advantages of Ductless Systems

So, why would you want to install a ductless system to heat your home? Well, ductless systems are a very energy efficient choice for heating. They don’t lose any of their heat to duct leaks, like other systems do, and they don’t burn fuel to create their heat. All they need is electricity to operate. This can save you a great deal of money on your heating bills. They also provide a lot of control over the climate in your home. Since each ductless system is installed with its own thermostat, multiple units throughout the house can allow each person to set the temperature however he or she wants.

If you’re thinking of installing a ductless heating system, call D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. to set up a service appointment today. We provide quality heating service in the Bandera, TX area.

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Why You Need a Whole House Surge Protector

Wednesday, October 1st, 2014

When people think of power surges (also known as voltage spikes), they usually imagine a lightning bolt striking an electrical cable, causing all the lights in a home to suddenly glow bright white and then go to black. This is a realistic scenario…but it is also not one of the more common causes for power surges in a home.

The voltage spikes that are more likely to affect your house on a routine basis are the smaller ones that happen because of power fluctuations along the electrical lines that occur when a large appliance (a refrigerator, air conditioner, heating system, etc.) make an increased demand on the power supply. The voltage imbalance causes a sudden increase in power flow to one or more of the outlets. This may not cause a light to burn out or a circuit breaker to trip, but it can damage precision appliances over time.

The best way to defend against both small and catastrophic power surges is with a whole-house surge protector installed into the electrical panel. You can contact D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. in Bandera, TX for electrical services that will hook up your home for comprehensive surge protection.

What Whole-House Surge Protection Does

You might wonder why you need a whole-house surge protector at all when you already have power strips on the outlets. Power strip are an effective level of defense against surges: they serve as a fuse that cuts off the power from an outlet when it rises above 120 volts, and this helps protect high-end devices like computer hard drives and entertainment systems that contain microprocessors susceptible to high voltage.

However, point-of-use power strips are rarely enough. To protect all of the appliances in your home, you would need power strips for every single outlet, and it would still not be enough since many appliances are hard-wired directly into the electrical system. Power strips are also insufficient defense against massive surges that can come from lightning strikes or utility company errors; these simply overwhelm the power strip and reach the appliance anyway. A whole-house surge protector can defend against these massive voltage spikes because it redirects the energy from the surge down into the grounding of the home.

Having a whole-house surge protector installed doesn’t mean you should throw away the power strips you use for computers and other equipment with microprocessors. It’s always wise to have added layers of protection for valuable appliances…just don’t depend on the power strips alone.

Only professional electricians should install a whole-house surge protector. The device must be wired into the electrical panel, and it must be the proper size for the electrical system. Call D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. when you need surge protection that goes beyond power strips: we are a leading provider in Bandera, TX of electrical services, and we offer quality surge protection throughout the Texas Hill Country area.

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