The type and maintenance of air filters in your Twin Cities area home’s HVAC system can have a big impact on the quality of your indoor air, as well as heating and cooling performance. Selecting an appropriate air filter type, ensuring that it has been properly sized and fitted, and keeping it well maintained (either through routine maintenance or regular replacement) will improve your indoor air quality, while also improving your HVAC system’s longevity, performance and operating efficiency.

Three pollutants in your Twin Cities metro area home can compromise your indoor air quality and pose a serious health concern to you and your family. Mold, carbon monoxide, and radon are three potentially dangerous pollutants that may be lurking in your home without your knowledge. Fortunately, homeowners can take steps to prevent and/or detect these three pollutants with proper testing and precautions.

A forced air furnace is the norm for homes and businesses in the Twin Cities and much of North America. This is because they work so well at providing comfortable heating to entire homes or buildings, and do it relatively economically. 

A relatively new innovation in home heating, the two-stage furnace, is making an appearance around the country. These appliances deliver on-paper energy savings, but their real-world performance is largely determined by climate. A little research is needed to determine whether a two-stage furnace is a good idea in the Twin Cities. 

Most people don’t call a repair technician for their heating or cooling system until something has already gone wrong, and what might have been a minor problem before is now a big problem. Did you know that you can schedule regular checkups for your heating and/or air conditioning systems? There are quite a few reasons why more and more Twin Cities homeowners are signing up for planned maintenance.

Before you invest in a new heating system, make sure that your HVAC contractor commits to do the furnace sizing carefully. Failing to do so could land you with a system that’s the wrong size. Considering how long winters last in Minnesota, a properly sized furnace will perform better, lower energy bills and have a longer life span than one that’s the wrong size. 

When you have a problem with your home’s heating or cooling system, and go online or to the phonebook to find a professional HVAC contractor to address your issue, you’ll want to avoid just picking out the first name you see. Also, you’ll want to be wary of contractors soliciting work in your Twin Cities neighborhood, offering suspiciously low prices and quick work. If you need work done on your home heating or cooling system, take the following factors into account:

With the arrival of winter, temperatures plummet in the Twin Cities area. Although there are many things that you can do to keep your winter heating bills low, now’s the time to take action if you suspect your home is losing heat to the outdoors. Here are seven simple tips for reducing heat loss:

A condensing gas furnace recovers energy normally lost by conventional  furnaces. In the standard forced-air gas furnace, some of the heat energy produced by burning natural gas goes up the exhaust vent with hot combustion gases. That’s the reason standard gas furnaces have always been limited to an AFUE (annual fuel utilization efficiency) rating below 90 percent. A condensing gas furnace incorporates an extra heat exchanger to extract heat released when combustion gases condense. Condensing models break through that efficiency ceiling and offer AFUE ratings of 90-98 percent. However, efficiency ratings, household comfort and even safety assume an installation performed according to industry standards. Here’s what to watch for in the installation of a condensing furnace: