Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I maintain my equipment?

As in the case of your furnace or air handler, Central Heating and Air Conditioning recommends that you have a 20-point precision tune-up performed at least every other year. This will include among other things a check of all safety controls, routine cleaning, and filter inspection. Filters themselves however should be changed at least every 90 days and in most cases more often. Learn More About Filters

Your air conditioning system is a bit more fragile and quite honestly more expensive to run and fix. We recommend that you get your air conditioner serviced annually which includes among other things cleaning your outdoor coil, checking the charge of the unit, checking the condition of the indoor coil, and inspecting the system filter. Cleaning of the outdoor coil should not be taken lightly.

For humidification systems we recommend that you open and close your water valve at two points of the year. If this valve is left open we often find that it no longer works when we try to close it. Additionally you will find that the manufacturers recommendation is that you replace the pad annually. Central Heating and Air Conditioning can sell and ship most humidifier pad replacements.

What is a load or sizing calculation?

A load calculation can come in many forms: a whole house calculation or Manual J, a duct sizing calculation or Manual D, or a commercial space calculation or Manual N, and so on.

The purpose of a load calculation is to take into account not only the square footage of a space but also many other factors. Some of the main factors are

• The R-values of the insulation in the walls, floors, and ceilings.
• The size of the windows, which way they face, the amount of panes, and what materials they are constructed from.
• The appliances or equipment giving off heat.
• The amount of people in the space.
• The volume of the home.
• The air exchange rate.

At Central Heating and Air Conditioning we know from being connected to Trane dealers world wide that it is only a matter of time before Ohio, like many other states already are doing, will be required to run load calculations in order to obtain permits for installation. To bridge that gap to the future, provide peace of mind to you, and to insure we are installing the best system possible we perform load calculations along with every estimate standard at no charge!

How do I light my standing pilot?

Often times we get calls from customers saying that their furnace is not heating the house. Many times it is simply and unlit pilot light. Lighting your pilot (if applicable) is a very simple thing to do and can save you the hardship of paying for a qualified service tech to perform something you can easily do on your own. The first thing we typically ask a customer is whether their pilot is electronic or a standing gas flame. First lets define the difference here.

Standing pilots have the following characteristics

• There will be both a 1/4" thick silver line and an 1/8" thick copper line going from your gas valve to the burner section of your furnace
• The 1/4" thick silver line is your pilots gas feed which should terminate with an open hole and is typically shielded by some sort of flame deflection
• The 1/8" thick copper line is your thermocouple. The purpose of the thermocouple is to sense flame. If it has become too corroded it will not sense flame and the pilot will keep going out. If this is the case call us immediately to remedy the situation.

Electronic pilots will have the following characteristics

• Instead of a gas line going to the burner area there will be (2) wires: a neutral and a hot feed.
• Electronic pilots will be either of the spark type that rapidly ticks until flame is achieved or a silicone type that glows hot orange.

If your electronic pilot is out, do not attempt to remedy the situation yourself. However, if your standing pilot is out and your thermocouple is in good shape follow the steps below to light your pilot:

1. Turn off the power to the furnace.
2. Turn the knob on your furnace's gas valve to off and wait 5 minutes.
3. Now turn the knob to pilot and depress it.
4. While you have the knob depressed use a lighter or match to light the end of the gas feed in front of the burners.
5. The flame should sprout almost immediately, if it does not call a service technician, if it does continue to step 6.
6. You must continue to depress the knob on the gas valve for 60 seconds so that the thermocouple has a chance to warm up and the gas valve knows that there is flame.
7. After 60 seconds release the knob and the flame should stay lit, if it does not start back on step 1.
8. If after reaching step 7 more than 2 times and no flame is achieved call a service technician.
9. If the pilot stays successfully lit turn the gas knob to on.
10. Turn power to the furnace back on.

What is combustion air?

There are three elements to creating fire: oxygen, spark, and fuel. Since your furnace continually burns fuel (I.E. natural gas, oil, propane) it requires oxygen to keep aflame. Combustion air is a requirement from city ordinance (code may very from municipality to municipality) that states in most cases that you must supply at least one square inch of outside air per 5,000 BTUs of heat burned in your home. Additionally this air must be brought into your mechanical room and terminate twice no more than 4' from your appliance: once at 12" below the top of the space and once 12" above the bottom of the space.

How to calculate need

• Input BTU of water heater = 40k
• Input BTU of furnace = 100k
• Total BTU input of mechanical room = 140k
• 140k/5k = 28 square inches of combustion air needed both high and low

In most cases you will see (2) 6" pipes in your basement, one high and one low. Would 6" be adequate for this application? Lets see:

The formula for the area of a circle is Pi*Radius squared, so

• (6/2) squared = 9
• 9 x 3.14 = 31.26 square inches

Since we only needed 28 square inches the combustion air would be adequate.

Beyond a simple city ordinance combustion air is a safety to you and your family. Especially today as the homes built get of tighter and tighter construction a house must breath. If the house cannot pull combustion air from a properly vented mechanical room it will get air whatever way it can. Without the installation of combustion air you could possibly be pulling air down your flue pipe that is filled with carbon monoxide. Worse yet, gas-burning appliances depend on fresh air to burn fuel, if they do not get it the safety rating of the machine and its ability to hold carbon monoxide within the cabinet goes down. There have been many reports of people in tightly constructed homes with no fresh air inlets suffering from carbon monoxide headaches.

What is SEER?

SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. Put simply it is a comparison between how efficiently a refrigeration system can remove or provide heat to the electrical demand. The higher the SEER rating of your machine, the lower the electrical demand will be. The factory SEER rating on your machine is based on a brand new clean unit. As it becomes dirty, damaged, or neglected your SEER rating goes down, and your energy bill goes up.

What is the difference between R22 and R410A refrigerants?

There are actually a lot of differences between the two refrigerants. However, to simplify things we will compare how it affects the average homeowner. First R22 is a CFC or Chlorofluorocarbon, and R410A is a HFC or Hydro fluorocarbon. This doesn't mean much to the average consumer but the reality is R410A is safer for our environment. Why? HFCs are less stable than CFCs, therefore as they escape into the atmosphere HFCs are prone to break apart before reaching the ozone layer, whereas CFCs will not break apart and can cause damage to the ozone layer.

Additionally, as part of the Montreal Clean Air Act the production of R22 will be banned and therefore only recycled and reused R22 will be available as of 2010. Only three short years ago (2004) R22 was selling on the retail end for $9 a pound with R410A at $45 a pound. Today (2007) R22 retails around $18 a pound and R410A retails around $30 a pound. As you can see R22 will become more expensive, especially after January 2010, and R410A will become more practical. For the savvy home owner selecting a system with R410A refrigerant will guard them against more costly air conditioning repairs in the future.