Some more 5 Star comments about Casteel Heating and Cooling!

First impression was great

Technician was very professional, respectful and thorough during a service call. He exceeded my expectations. Nice Job!

by Brian25 – Posted 08/31/2010

Excellent work!

“I have used Casteel several times after they were recommended by two of my friends. Over the last few years and they have done an excellent job servicing my home A/C. I had a problem with mywith my furnace and they properly diagnosed the problem the first time. The service personnel have been polite and knowledgeable.

Give them a try.

by MartinB – Posted 08/24/2010

A  recent column in the Washington Post said that Americans rely far too much on air-conditioning. Except for health reasons during severe heat waves, it said, we should open some windows, let kids play outside, get to know the neighbors and enjoy much lower energy bills, all while helping the environment. Could you live without air-conditioning?

JODI NIX

JODI NIX, Beavercreek: “No, because I’m a middle-aged woman about to go through menopause, and I’d be grumpy.”

TRACY VOGEL

TRACY VOGEL, Bellbrook: “I hate air-conditioning, because I’m always cold. I’d rather have the windows open, even in the heat and humidity, and just turn on fans. As long as air is moving, I’m fine.”

BRANDON NELSON

BRANDON NELSON, Beavercreek: “Capital N-O. Mainly because no breeze runs through my apartment, only hot, steaming air. Air-conditioning is the only way I don’t sweat myself to sleep.”

JIM COPPERSMITH

JIM COPPERSMITH, Dayton: “No, I can’t. Once you’ve had it, you’re pretty much spoiled, and it’s hard to go back. And that’s what I do for a living — installing and repairing air-conditioning — so it pays my bills.”

BEN HAWS

BEN HAWS, Dayton: “I could live without it, but I work with a lot of seniors, and they have to have the air-conditioning for health reasons.”

JOANIE RAUCH

JOANIE RAUCH, Bellbrook: “I couldn’t live without air-conditioning, but I do try to be a good steward. I can take heat, but not the humidity. When it’s humid, that’s when I turn the air-conditioner on.”

Article cited: http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/chatterbox/entries/2010/07/22/could_you_live_without_aircond.html

Air conditioner runs but doesn’t cool at all

If the airflow is good and the air coming out is not cold, your home air conditioning problem may be a temporary problem – your coils may have frozen. Turn the unit off for an hour to let them thaw, then try again. If cold air is now present, freezing coils were the problem; if the problem recurs soon after turning on, you may need to replace the coils. Again, call a pro. If you have ceiling vents in upstairs rooms and the air flowing from them is consistently warm, you probably have leaky or poorly insulated ductwork in your attic.

Another likely home air conditioning problem if you have good airflow but no cooling is that the breaker to the outside unit is shut off, which, depending on the installation, can either cause the air conditioning system to not run at all, or to appear to be running but not provide any cooling. If you can hear the compressor fan running outside, the breaker is on, but if the outside unit is silent the outside breaker may be off. If switching it on does not solve the problem, look for the high pressure cut out on the condenser and try resetting that.

Article cited: http://www.green-energy-efficient-homes.com/home-air-conditioning-problems.html

Air conditioner runs constantly but doesn’t cool well

A common home air conditioning problem is the always-on air conditioner. This can indicate an undersized air conditioner, which is simply unable to cool the house; it can also indicate an extreme difference in temperature between the outdoor and indoor air. If your air conditioner is running constantly and there’s an extreme heat wave, don’t be too surprised. It’s better to be uncomfortable a few days a year with an air conditioning unit that is correctly sized for typical conditions, than to install an oversized air conditioner that can handle the extremes, but have the unit short cycle and wear itself out on more moderate days.

One easy test is to see if the air conditioner is producing cool air, or any air at all.

For a central air unit, can you feel cold air blowing out the vents? If the unit is running constantly but airflow is weak, you may have a problem with your ventilator fan, your ductwork (excessive air leakage in the ducts, excessive dust or debris buildup, damaged ducts), the AC or furnace filter, or something as simple as a duct baffle that has not been switched from the winter to the summer position. Check for each of these as possible causes.

If you have not had your ducts cleaned in more than a year and dust is visible when you remove heating registers, it is probably time to have your ducts cleaned again. If your ducts are leaking or damaged, you should have them repaired; this will save you much of the electricity your air conditioner now uses.

Check the ducts around your furnace and look for a baffle lever with ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ or ‘heat’ and ‘air’ indicators – sometimes just written in permanent marker on the ductwork. Make sure the baffle is in the summer position. If that doesn’t solve the airflow problem, call a technician for a professional assessment.

If the airflow is good and cold air is coming through the vents, the probable cause of this home air conditining problem is poor insulation or air leakage in the rooms being cooled. The air conditioner is working as designed but too much heat is flowing in from the outside, giving the air conditioner an impossible task

The location of your compressor (outside unit) may be a factor in how efficiently a central air conditioner, or indeed a window air conditioner, cools your air conditioned space. If your central AC is buried underneath a porch so that air flow is severely restricted, you will get little to no cooling out of it. (This may sound like an impossible scenario – but it’s how my own AC system came when I bought the house, because they installed the compressor unit in the garden, and later built a back deck over it!) Hire an HVAC company to move the compressor unit out into the yard where it has better air flow.

Article sited: http://www.green-energy-efficient-homes.com/home-air-conditioning-problems.html

Air conditioner cycles on and off frequently (short cycles)

A unit that cycles on and off frequently (also called ‘short cycling’) can be an indication of a unit that is oversized for the cooling work it needs to do, or an indication that the thermostat is being directly cooled by the unit or by a cooling register.

If your unit has always cycled frequently, oversizing is likely the cause of this home air conditioning problem. An oversized air conditioner cools the air conditioned space rapidly, so that the thermostat shuts the unit off quickly. The air conditioned space may warm slowly or more quickly depending on insulation, outdoor temperature and other factors, but typically an oversized system will cycle on and off with short periods where the compressor runs, and longer periods where it does not.

If the unit started cycling frequently in the last few days, there are three possibilities: you are cooling less space than you used to (and have thereby made the unit ‘oversized’ for the work it’s now doing); there is poor air circulation around the coils and so they are icing up, causing the unit to shut down until the ice thaws; or there is a problem with the refrigerant.

A space can suddenly become oversized if you have closed off a portion of the space. For example, if you have a central air conditioner and you decided to close off the registers in rooms that aren’t used (such as spare bedrooms), the air conditioner may be short cycling because it is cooling the remaining rooms too quickly. If you have a room air conditioner that you moved from one room to a smaller room, or you used to use the unit with the room door open and now the room door is kept closed, you have essentially made the unit cool a smaller space and it may be oversized for that space.

Rapid cycling can also be caused by refrigerant problems such as low levels of refrigerant (which usually means a leak), too high a level of refrigerant (which usually means it was overcharged when the system was installed or last serviced); or the wrong type of refrigerant. If you are unable to determine another cause for short cycling, you should consult a professional for further advice. You may need to get a technician onsite to have your unit’s refrigerant level checked and potentially replenished, or you may be able to get expert advice specific to your problem.

Other possible causes of short cycling are clogged or dirty coils, dirty or damaged fins on the condenser unit, or damage to the condenser unit motor or blade. If you’re reasonably competent with do it yourself maintenance you can try to investigate each of these possibilities, but don’t take any chances if you’re not sure what you’re doing. The pros often get called in for home air conditioning problems the homeowner has made worse by trying to solve themselves! Again, call in a technican, or consult a specialist.

You’ll find the common home air conditioning problems I describe below both easy to troubleshoot and often easy to solve.

Remember that, especially for a central air conditioning unit, you should have your system serviced annually by a qualified HVAC technician, and you should use such a technician to resolve any home air conditioning problems where the cause and solution are not both obvious.

One of the biggest home energy wasters is an air conditioner that isn’t working properly. By helping you diagnose some of the simplest home air conditioning problems – and urging you to go to the pros when there isn’t an easy diagnosis or solution – I can help you save energy and money, because you’ll save energy if your current system works properly, and you’ll save money by not ruining a perfectly good system when you try to solve home air conditioning problems you’re not qualified to solve. This bears repeating: Do not try to fix home air conditioning problems if you aren’t sure you understand the cause, or the solution.

Air conditioner won’t turn on

 

First check this…
Photo by jcarter, via FLICKR

Let’s look first at home air conditioning problems with central air conditioners, then room units.

Air conditioner won’t turn on – central air

For a central air conditioning system, the key things to look for are problems with power, fan, thermostat, noise, coolant pressure, condensate drainage, and startup time. Also, you may have a PeakSaver or similar energy saving device installed and not realize that it’s working properly!

Power: Most central AC systems are on a separate circuit breaker, often a double switch. Many people flip this circuit breaker off at the start of the heating season, to prevent someone from accidentally starting the AC unit at a time when cooling is never needed. So check that this circuit breaker is turned on. If it is turned on, turn it off then back on (sometimes the switch has tripped but is close enough to the on position that it seems to be on already). This is one of the most common home air conditioning problems according to technicians I’ve spoken to – so check your circuit breaker!

In many jurisdictions, a breaker may be required within a short distance from the outdoor compressor unit. If you still can’t get power to the compressor, check for this circuit breaker either inside your house near where the wiring exits the house, or on the outside of the house near the compressor unit. Try flicking that breaker off and back on as well.

If either the panel breaker or the compressor breaker circuit trips off after you try using the AC again, don’t flip it back on – call a qualified technician. There may be a serious electrical problem that needs to be looked at by a pro.

If you have a combined central AC and forced air furnace system, the circuit that feeds your furnace should also be on, as the furnace fan needs to run to circulate the cooled air. Check this circuit as well, using the same process of turning the breaker off and back on. The furnace circuit could be controlled both by a circuit breaker on your breaker panel, and possibly by a wall switch in the furnace room. Check both. I have such a wall switch and use tape to keep it in the correct position (on during heating/cooling season, off in spring and fall), to prevent someone from mistaking it for a light switch and accidentally turning it off during the heating/cooling season.

Another thing to check is that the fan is running. If you set the fan setting on your thermostat to “on” instead of “auto”, you should hear the furnace fan start to run even if the air conditioner doesn’t turn on. If the fan doesn’t turn on, this is an indication no current is getting to your furnace.

 

Try setting the thermostat as low as it can go (remember to turn it back afterwards!). It’s possible that the thermostat controls are not working properly. One of the home air conditioning problems I had to deal with was where the only way to get the AC on was to turn the thermostat down to 49F (9C)!

If your thermostat is a programmable thermostat such as the one pictured at right, check that it shows some indication of being on! If you can’t see anything on the LCD display, there may not be any power getting to the thermostat. This could be because the DC line powering the thermostat is off, or because the furnace is switched off.

Remember that when you are running the AC your windows and doors tend to be (and should be!) closed. Make sure your home air conditioning problems aren’t just caused by closed doors or windows stopping you from hearing the noise of the compressor running.

In some central air units, the compressor (outdoor) unit has a high pressure cut out, which stops the unit if the coolant pressure gets too high. This is a button that sticks out of the cabinet, near the coolant lines. Press this button in to reset it. If the button pops back out soon after the unit starts up, call a technician to have the refrigerant level checked – for home air conditioning problems like this, you should try to solve the problem yourself.

Then get out the gloves…
Photo by prettywar-stl via FLICKR

The evaporator unit in a central air conditioning system needs to drain condensed water that collects on the coils. Two common home air conditioning problems here are that the condensate drain may be blocked, or, if the system uses a condensate pump, the pump is not working. If condensate is not properly draining, check that the condensate drain is clear and that water can flow freely down it, and if the system has a condensate pump check that it is plugged in and working. The unit will not run until this home air conditioning problem with condensate draining is fixed.

PeakSaver: In some areas (such as my home town of Toronto) you can get a modest rebate from your utility if you allow them to install a device called a PeakSaver on your air conditioner. This may be the cause of an air conditioner not turning on. Imagine what happens during a heat wave, when everyone’s AC unit is churning away at full blast – this causes huge spikes in demand which can sometimes stretch the electrical grid to the limit. (It can also mean more of the electricity gets generated from dirty sources like coal, instead of clean sources like hydroelectric or wind.) Utilities have started offering these free (or incentivized) devices to homeowners to reduce this stress on the grid. Essentially, a PeakSaver or similar energy saving device will periodically shut off your compressor during peak demand periods, so that everyone’s air conditioner is not running at the same time. In most cases this won’t affect your indoor comfort level over the space of a day, but it can be disconcerting when you turn on your AC upon getting home, and it doesn’t kick in for a while. (Typically a PeakSaver will not cycle your air conditioner off for more than 15 minutes.)

Finally, be patient. Sometimes it can take a minute or two for the compressor to start up. If the system routinely takes a long time to start up, have your unit serviced.

If none of these tips solve your home air conditioning problems, call a technician. Don’t try to solve a home air conditioning problem yourself if the cause is not obvious. You could cause a lot of damage to your AC system, or risk electrocuting or otherwise injuring yourself, by tinkering further than what’s suggested above.

Next Part- Air conditioner cycles on and off frequently (short cycles)

Article cited: http://www.green-energy-efficient-homes.com/home-air-conditioning-problems.html

Super Pro’s

I recently had a problem with my AC unit not working right during this heat wave. When I called on Monday afternoon I could of had an appt. on Wednesday but due to prior commitments on my part they came on Thursday. Our Tech Thai was great he diagnosed the problem quickly,did service on both units 1 being in the hot attic, and both needed freon. He was very prompt and polite. Prices were very reasonable for parts and diagnostics and with service plan no charge for freon. Great expierence would call again!

Goes Beyond

At a most challenging time in my life Casteel went above and beyond the call…Christian all the way.

Replacing an outdated central air-conditioning unit not only will save you money on your energy bill, but it also will affect your tax bill. The government has increased a tax-credit program to encourage homeowners to invest in energy-saving products. Tax credits are a particularly valuable tax benefit, because they directly reduce your tax bill rather than merely being deducted from your income.

Windows and doors are just as important to your HVAC as the system itself. If you don’t have sealed or proper fitting windows and doors, dollars could be flying out of them every day and forcing your HAVC to work harder and less efficiently.

ACCA is an association of over 4,000 air conditioning contractors founded in 1968 who work together to improve our industry, promote good practices, and keep homes and buildings safe, clean and comfortable.

We share one goal: to make the HVACR industry, and every professional contracting business, more successful.

So when you want quality, professionalism and success businesses, Look for an ACCA member!