Is Ductless the Right Choice for Your Home? Here are 5 Reasons it Could Be.

ductless-air-conditioning-300x250If you’re considering air conditioning options for your home, you might have heard about ductless cooling. While ductless is not necessarily the right option for all applications, there are many times when it is a great choice. To understand if ductless AC might be ideal for your Capital District home, it’s best to first know exactly what ductless air conditioning is, and how it differs from a traditional air conditioning system.

Ductless air conditioning systems are high efficiency cooling systems that allow you to keep spaces with no ductwork as comfortable as those that do. They mount directly on your wall or ceiling, and blend well with virtually any décor. They are compact and very quiet, making them ideal for rooms like bedrooms and home theaters. They can be installed quickly, and require minimal construction so you won’t have a mess.

Ductless air conditioning could be right for you if:

Ductwork in your space is impossible. Sometimes, adding ductwork to a space like a new addition is impossible. Conversely, if you have an older home, adding new ductwork can entail a large, costly remodeling job. Adding a ductless system in a space like this does not require extensive demolition and remodeling.

Ductwork in your home is impractical. While it may be possible to add needed ductwork for a traditional air conditioning system in your home, it might be completely impractical. For instance, if you have a historical home, adding additional ductwork can have a negative impact on architectural integrity.

You have window units. If you have a room in your home that you want to cool, you may be using window units. These keep your space cool, but they’re often noisy, obstruct your view, and aren’t necessarily very energy efficient. Ductless is much less obtrusive than a window unit, quieter, and highly efficient.

You have hot or cold spots. Ductless systems can help alleviate or eliminate hot or cold spots in your home. By evening out the temperature in spaces where it may be an issue, your traditional cooling or heating systems will operate better and much more efficiently – and that can help you save on your utility bills.

You’ve converted your attic or basement into a living space. If you don’t already have ductwork installed in these areas, then a ductless cooling system is a great choice. They’ll provide you with greater comfort and flexibility in these spaces than a window unit would, and help you add AC to those areas easily.

In all actuality, any living space that is without ductwork is probably a good space for ductless air conditioning. To learn more about how Family Danz can help you decide if ductless cooling is right for you, give us a call at (518) 427-8685 and we will be happy to help you.

What Lurks Inside Your Ductwork?

Summer is now just a memory for residents of Saratoga, N.Y. and the Capital District of New York State, and that means soon they will start preparing to button down for the long, cold winter months around the corner.

That will mean furnaces that have been resting for several months will soon come back to life. But what has been going on inside your heating ductwork even as it lay dormant through the spring and summer?

At Family Danz Heating & Cooling, we recommend a thorough, professional cleaning of heating ductwork well before turning your system on for the first time in the fall. Just about everyone has experienced that blast of nasty, dirty air coming through their registers the first time the furnace is turned on in the fall, as the debris trapped in the ducts and accumulating over the summer starts to work loose and fly out into the room.

Just think about what could be inside there — unclean heating ducts can have a buildup of dirt, dust, mold, mites, bugs and bug droppings, rodent remnants, and other flotsam that isn‘t easy on the human lungs. And if you think you are OK because you always keep a clean furnace filter installed, you are wrong — that filter only cleans the air going into the furnace, leaving the air coming out unfiltered, delivering all of those pesky particles right into the air you breathe.

You know it‘s inevitable that the cold weather will soon return, so why not make sure your entire heating system is up to all of the challenges the winter will be throwing at it this season? Give Family Danz a call today for an expert cleaning and inspection of your heating apparatus, and rest easy knowing you are ready for whatever the cold months send your way. Well, except for the snow shoveling part — you are on your own there.

Family Danz Heating & Cooling is a full-service heating and air conditioning contractor, offering sales and service in Saratoga, N.Y. and throughout the Capital District of New York State. If you would like more information on any of our services, call us at 518-427-8685.

Breaking the Mold

It’s been a wet fall so far, and as homes are now sealed up for the winter months the combination of dampness and lack of ventilation can lead to the unsightly — and potentially health threatening – growth of mold in the cool, moist, and dark recesses of the house.

Mold can penetrate wood and cause it to rot. It can bubble off paint and peel off wallpaper. It can hide inside walls and under carpets. Mold often grows in out-of-the-way parts of the home like attics and basements where there isn’t a lot of ventilation, so it isn‘t always spotted right away.

It isn’t always black, but can grow in a rainbow of colors, and varies from benign to toxic. Even more importantly and depending on an exposed person’s sensitivity, the proximity to mold can cause reactions from minor reactions like sneezing to more severe respiratory attacks.

There may not be any home cleanup as disgusting as mold removal. In minor cases, mold can be removed with a simple combination of bleach and water. But, if the mold has penetrated the surface, any mold-infected materials need to be cut out and removed. Be sure to wear a mask and goggles when clearing away moldy substances so you don’t inhale the spores or get particles in your eye, and open all nearby doors and windows for maximum ventilation.

Of course, the best way to avoid that unsightly and unhealthy mold is to prevent it before it appears. Keep the humidity down in all areas of the home, and maximize ventilation with plenty of fresh air running constantly. A moisture-free environment is the most mold-free, and remember that warm air is more likely to encourage mold growth than cold air.

Ducts running through unheated or un-cooled areas of the home should be properly insulated to prevent any condensation that can prompt mold growth. In homes with forced air heating and cooling, a high quality air filter should be used. Where there is a high potential for mold, or for families with members who have allergies, a whole house electronic air cleaner might be the solution.

Mold is one unwanted visitor you can prevent from visiting your home during the holidays. For expert information on any mold-related concerns, call Family Danz at .

To Clean… or Not to Clean… Your Air Ducts

Have you been eyeballing those household air ducts and wondering what’s going on inside of them? Thinking maybe your spring-cleaning should have included getting someone inside of those ducts to give them a serious, professional scrubbing?

Your air ducts could be accumulating all kinds of dirt, mold, mildew, spider webs, pollen, pet hair and bacteria that can make you and members of your family ill. The clutter can also hinder the operation of the HVAC equipment. That can lead to an increase in your utility bills and even early breakdowns in the machinery if the foreign matter in the ducts is not properly removed.

It’s actually rather simple to tell if your air ducts need to be cleaned, and the experts on all things clean-air conscious – the United States Environmental Protection Agency — offer easy guidelines to tell if it’s time to go to the cleaners.

Check around the ducts and peek inside any exhausts to look for any visible mold growth. A substantial amount of the moldy residue likely means a need for a cleansing, but mold is not always readily identifiable and might need a professional assessment to make a positive identification. And if there is mold inside you‘ll need to eliminate the cause of the problem, most likely moisture inside the ducts. If those ducts are insulated and the insulation gets wet and moldy, the material should be replaced because it will never adequately dry on its own and will become a breeding ground for even more mold.

If mold isn’t bad enough, dirty ducts can also become the home for unwanted visitors like rodents and insects. Once again, if these are found call the cleaner.

One of the most obvious ways to tell if there are foreign particles in the air ducts is to check the exhausts and registers. If you see dust and debris coming from them, the ducts are filling up with clutter.

The EPA says the proper cleaning of the air ducts will have no detrimental effect on any of the equipment. And, once they are clean the best way to keep them that way is to prevent water and dirt from entering them.

For professional and expert duct cleaning services in the Albany area, call Family Danz at .