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

The Differences between Furnaces and Ductless Heating Systems

Tuesday, February 16th, 2016

Although Boerne, TX is known for its heat, there are still plenty of chilly nights left here this winter. As we near the end of the season, this is a good time to consider if your heating system is right for your needs. When it comes to choosing a heater, you want to keep in mind a few factors: upfront cost, efficiency, and the space available in your home. Below, we look at both centralized heating and ductless heating, reviewing the pros and cons of each system.

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Upgrades to Help Your Heating System

Monday, February 15th, 2016

Winter continues here in Boerne, TX, with cold temperatures and snow continuing to predominate. That means higher heating bills, which can pinch you in your pocketbook even if they provide much-needed comfort from the cold. Thankfully, you can do something to cut those bills down to size. There are numerous ancillary products that can be installed by a trained professional, which will help your heater perform more efficiently. Not only does that cut down on your monthly bills, but it can help your heater last longer, as well as providing a number of additional benefits to your home. Here’s a list of upgrades to help your heating system.

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Why You Should Reconsider Using a Space Heater

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

At this time of year, and even throughout our fairly mild winters, it can be tempting to supplement a cool room’s heating with a space heater. On the surface they appear to do the job, but the truth is that a space heater may be more trouble than it is worth. If you are having trouble getting adequate heating to a room or particular area of your home, there is a cause for this, and the heating experts from D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc., are here to help you resolve that problem. All you have to do is give us a call and schedule an appointment for heating services in Boerne, TX.

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Some End of Season Heating Services

Friday, March 13th, 2015

As we move through March, we are approaching the end of the heating season: the cooler period of the year when we use our home’s heaters the most. Soon, our furnaces will turn off or our heat pumps will switch over to cooling mode, and we will once more be concerned with staying cool during the heavy Texas heat.

In these waning days of cooler weather, there are some services you can take care of for your heating system that will help make sure you will encounter as few troubles as possible before you switch entirely to air conditioning, and also to ensure the heater will work when heating season returns at the end of the year.

Call on D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. for any professional assistance you may need for heating in Helotes, TX and the surrounding areas.

Make sure the heater receives regular maintenance

The mild winters in Texas have an unfortunate side effect of making it easy for homeowners to forget to arrange for regular heating maintenance during the fall. If you didn’t schedule a maintenance visit last fall, you shouldn’t decide to just skip it for a year: it’s never too late to call up our technicians and arrange for your routine maintenance visit. Each year a heater misses maintenance will result in it losing efficiency and costing more to run.

Change the air filter (or clean it)

You should change the air filter for your forced-air heater an average of once a month when it runs on a regular basis. (If you use a permanent filter, you should clean it.) Since your air conditioning system will likely use the same filter, make sure you have it changed/cleaned before the end of the heating season to get rid of any debris that might still be caught in it; that way you enter the cooling season without obstructions blocking the AC’s airflow.

Have any necessary repairs done

This is crucial: if you heater has started to indicate that it is having performance troubles, don’t ignore them since the summer weather is approaching. You should never let a potential repair issue go without attention, since it could mean a heater that fails to come on many months later when you actually need it. The sooner you have a repair done, the less likely it will increase and turn into a bigger repair down the road—or even a full breakdown.

To schedule maintenance or repairs for your heater at the end of the season, contact the Helotes, TX heating professionals at D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. We offer emergency service for your convenience.

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How Ductless Heating Works

Wednesday, February 25th, 2015

People usually associate home heating with a network of ducts that are responsible for distributing the conditioned air from the heater throughout the rooms. However, this is not the only way to have central heating for a home. If you are interested in a heating installation for your home that doesn’t require ductwork, call D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. today and ask about our services for ductless heating in Boerne, TX and the surrounding areas.

What exactly is ductless heating?

Ductless heating is a type of heat pump that operates through individual air handlers rather than a single central indoor unit connected to ductwork. A heat pump works in a manner similar to an air conditioner: it uses electricity to circulate refrigerant between indoor and outdoor coils, absorbing heat from one location and then releasing it in another. In a ductless heat pump (also known as a ductless mini split heat pump), the heat absorbed from the outdoor cabinet travels to the individual air handlers that are mounted in rooms throughout the house. Each air handler contains its own coil and blower fan, and they send the conditioned air directly into the rooms.

What are the advantages to a system like this?

Ductless heating is an excellent idea if you are planning on new home construction or major remodeling, since you don’t need to expend space on ductwork. You only have to plan on air handler placement. Ductless heating also works well for older homes that lack the room for ducts.

There are other benefits to going ductless as well. These systems are more energy-efficient because they do not suffer from any heat loss as the air travels along the ducts, and you won’t have to worry about duct repairs and regular duct cleaning. Ductless heat pumps will also help improve indoor air quality because they do not pick up the dust and debris that often collects inside ventilation systems. Since you can control the air handlers separately from one another, you can shut off heat to rooms that are unoccupied instead of heating the whole house at once, which will contribute to significant energy savings.

Finally, like all heat pumps, ductless heating also works as ductless cooling. You can switch a heat pump from heating mode to cooling mode and receive quality air conditioning during the summer. You have both your comfort concerns taken care of with one installation.

Call us to find out more about ductless heating

If you think that going ductless sounds like the right option for your home heating in Boerne, TX, you only have to give D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. a call. We install, repair, and maintain a variety of ductless mini split heat pumps for the area. You can arrange for service with us today.

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How a Thermostat Upgrade Will Help Your Heating

Friday, January 30th, 2015

It may not seem all that powerful compared to the size of your heater, but without it, your heater doesn’t start. What are we talking about? Your home’s thermostat. And if you are using an outdated one, you and your heating system may be missing out some important benefits. Today’s thermostats have come a long way since the dial or slide types, and can offer much more to you and your home than ever before. Professional installation ensures that your new thermostat will benefit your heating, so if you’ve held on to your current thermostat a little too long, call the experts at D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. in Boerne, TX today.

Thermostat Options

There are four types of thermostat upgrades for your home:

Digital – a digital thermostat is the most basic of newer thermostats, but don’t think because they are basic that they aren’t effective. Unlike slide or dial thermostats, you can set a precise temperature with a digital thermostat, and they also have easy-to-use, intuitive buttons.

Programmable – a programmable thermostat is a digital thermostat that you can program for up to 7 days. You can set up to 4 program settings per day, which allows you to program for times of low- or no occupancy. If you have a set routine, you can loop your 7-day program indefinitely.

Wireless – a wireless thermostat is more of a system as it comes with a main receiver that takes the place of your wired thermostat, and this receiver communicates and works with the 3-4 wireless thermostats you can place anywhere in your home.

Smart – smart thermostat are the most advanced, offering you programmability, monitoring and tracking of your energy usage, all of which can be accessed remotely via a smart device.

Why Upgrade?

Better energy efficiency – with a thermostat that can offer precision and/or programming, you will have better control over your temperature settings and as a result, energy usage.

More convenient – with a programmable thermostat, there’s no more running back and forth to set and re-set the temperature; simply program it according to your needs and that’s it.

Less stress on your system – with your thermostat working more effectively, so does your heating system.

A thermostat upgrade is a fairly simple, straightforward way to improve the efficiency and operation of your heating. If you are ready to upgrade your home’s thermostat, call D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc. and schedule an appointment for our heating service in Boerne, TX today!

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Are Heat Pumps a Good Choice for Winter Heating?

Wednesday, December 17th, 2014

It’s a good question, but the answer depends entirely on the climate in which you live. Heat pumps are a unique form of heating system, with their own advantages and operation prerequisites. They can certainly serve a home well during winter (why install a heating system that can’t heat during the coldest time of year?) but there are a couple of things about which you should be aware. Let’s take a look at the inner workings of a heat pump, and what it can do for you.

How Heat Pumps Work

A heat pump has two main components, an indoor unit and an outdoor unit. Each unit contains a coil, and is connected by a refrigerant line that runs between them. As the names suggest, the indoor unit is installed inside the house, while the outdoor unit can be installed up to 100ft away.

When the heat is turned on, the outdoor unit uses the coil inside it to evaporate refrigerant into gas. This process leeches heat from the air surrounding the unit into the coil. The gaseous refrigerant is then pumped inside to the indoor unit, which condenses it back into a liquid state. This releases the thermal energy from the refrigerant, where it can be used to heat the home.

This kind of heating has a lot of advantages. It’s energy efficient, safer than combustion systems, and pays for itself in savings on your heating bill. However, there is one big thing you need to think about before installing one:

Climate

As discussed above, heat pumps rely entirely on the surrounding air to provide thermal energy. This is a good thing in some ways, because it allows the heat pump to work without wasting resources on combustion like many heating systems do. Unfortunately, it also means that very cold climates can severely hamper a heat pump’s effectiveness. The colder the air, the less thermal energy will be available for the heat pump to use. This is only a real issue in areas that routinely sink under 0 degrees Fahrenheit. In those areas, however, you might want to consult a professional to see if having a heat pump would be worth it.

If you’d like to know more, call D’Spain Sales & Service, Inc or you can schedule a service appointment with us. We provide heating services in the Helotes area.

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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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