Walking Sticks of Terror

A couple of weeks ago, Tom The Cool Man was working outside in the yard. When he was finished with his chores for the day, he decided to enter the house through the garage. As he was preparing to put the garage door down, he noticed that some sort of large strange insect was directly in the path of the garage door and would most certainly be squashed if he put the door down. He went over to the insect for closer inspection, and realized that is was not one, but two walking sticks, joined together in a romantic interlude.

The Cool Man slid a piece of paper under them so that he could move them into the bushes. They climbed onto the paper, and since they were very interesting and something he had never seen before, The Cool Man was looking at them closely. The female walking stick did not appreciate his curiosity, and she sprayed him twice in the eyes and face. Tom cried out and his wife, Peggy, ran over to see what was wrong. It was very painful, and he was temporarily blinded, so Peggy had to guide him inside to the bathroom where he washed his face and eyes with water for a long time to get the poison off.

After some internet research, it was determined that The Cool Man would not require a trip to the hospital because his eyesight would return within a couple of hours and the pain would eventually stop without medical attention. In this case, vengeance was the best medicine. These particular walking sticks no longer walk our earth.

A Cool Man Seminar (with Massey Services) in The Villages!

Fantastic news Cool Man followers in The Villages! You can attend a free lunch seminar with Massey Services and Pro-Tech Air Conditioning on Friday, September 25 from 12:00 to 1:30. Come out to the American Legion Post 347 (corner of 466 and Rolling Acres Road) and let the experts teach you how to save water, money and energy. Attendees will receive great FREE gifts from Pro-Tech and Massey Services, and will be eligible for a chance to win a night out in The Villages for two, including dinner and a movie. You don’t want to miss this event!

The Cool Man Shaves his Moustache! (and other updates)

Shocking news—you can now see Tom The Cool Man’s upper lip! It’s quite the novelty, since the last time he was without a mustache was 1986—and even then he just shaved it for his sister’s wedding and grew it right back. Tom’s 1973 wedding pictures show a bare upper lip, but it’s been hidden since…oh wait—here’s the perfect opportunity for a contest! In what year did Tom the Cool Man first start wearing a mustache? E-mail us your answer (iceadvice@protechac.com; include your contact information) and we’ll send a free 1” filter and a $25 Pro-Tech gift card to the winner (if numerous people get the year right, we’ll draw from the correct answers). Check out after photo here and go to the About page to see the before—what a difference!

You may remember our Container Gardening article back in May. Check out this photo of Sara and Chris’ most recent harvest. The carrot probably wasn’t ready to come up yet, but they were so pleased with it that they couldn’t help it. The lettuce is a heat resistant variety, so it’s not quite as soft and delicious as the varieties they had tried previously.

There are more members taking advantage of Pro-Tech’s Comfort Club that ever before. And now Dave Ramsey is promoting our Club! He’s the creator of Financial Peace University and you can hear him weekdays on 540AM from 3:00-6:00 PM.

Remember, send us your answer to the mustache question for a chance to win a free 1” filter and a $25 Pro-Tech gift card! iceadvice@protechac.com

The Great Ceiling Fan Debate

It’s a common question that stems from a common misconception. I am often asked “should I leave the ceiling fan on when I’m not in the room?” The answer is generally no—basically, ceiling fans cool people, not rooms. The benefit of a fan comes from its ability to create a “wind chill” effect, which makes us feel cooler because it accelerates the evaporation of moisture on our skin. That being said, it does not lower the temperature of the room. That’s why you should turn the fan off when you leave the room.

You can use a ceiling fan in conjunction with your air conditioner and realize electric bill savings by setting the thermostat at a higher temperature and running the ceiling fan in the room you are in. This is effective because the air conditioner uses a lot more energy than the ceiling fan. A ceiling fan generally uses about the same amount of energy as a 100-watt light bulb—practically nothing when you consider that the average air conditioner accounts for about 70% of the electric bill in Central Florida. Try setting the thermostat a few degrees higher than usual, and running the ceiling fan on medium or high. You can then make adjustments from there in order to suit your personal comfort zone.

Now a very important part of this is which direction your fan blades are turning. During the summer, for the energy savings discussed above, you want the blades to be running counterclockwise on almost all fans. How can you tell if it’s running counterclockwise? Stand beneath the fan and turn it on. If you immediately feel a breeze from the fan, then it’s set on counterclockwise. Otherwise, turn off the fan and look at the base for a little button or switch that changes the direction.

Another interesting note, though less relevant in Florida, is that ceiling fans can lower energy consumption in winter as well. Generally, air near the ceiling is warmer than air near the floor. The ceiling fan can push warmer air back down into the room, and the heating system doesn’t have to work as hard to try and create an even temperature. For this purpose, the ceiling fan should be run in a clockwise direction in order to even out the air without creating the cooling wind chill effect.

You may also want to consider adding fans to a covered porch. This can give you a breeze on still days, and can also keep bugs at bay.

What is the heat index anyway?

We all know that it’s both extremely hot and extremely humid in Florida. Summer can be less than pleasant, but think of it this way—If you live up north you have to deal with 6 months of cold. If you live in the south, you have to deal with 6 months of heat. Either way, you’re going to be uncomfortable part of the year. At least in Florida you can wear flip-flops on Christmas!

You hear about the heat index in weather reports and we understand that there are 2 temperatures—the one that it is, and the one that it feels like. But what is the heat index exactly? Is it like the opposite of the wind chill? Does it explain why ypu can be comfortable in 100° weather in Las Vegas, but miserable in 100° weather in Florida? To get some answers, we turned to the internet, namely Wikipedia. A summary is below, but if you want all the details, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_index.

The heat index is derived from work carried out by Robert G. Steadman, and like the wind chill index, it makes assumptions about the human body mass and height, clothing and the wind speed. Obviously, if there are big variations from what’s considered to be standard in these cases, the index will not be accurate, but let’s just assume that most of the time it’s spot on.

The heat index combines air temperature and relative humidity in order to determine the human-perceived equivalent temperature. They call this the “felt air temperature.” Clever, right? The human body normally cools itself by perspiration, or sweating, which evaporates and carries heat away from the body. However, when the relative humidity is high, the evaporation rate is reduced, so heat is removed from the body at a lower rate causing it to retain more heat than it would in dry air. (Ah ha! That is why we’re more comfortable in the desert!)

Measurements have been taken based on subjective descriptions of how hot subjects feel for a given temperature and humidity, allowing an index to be made which corresponds a temperature and humidity combination to a higher temperature in drier air. The heat index is only calculated if the actual temperature is above 68 °F.

The heat index is based on temperature measurements taken in the shade and not the sun, so extra care must be taken while in the sun. This is because outdoors in open conditions, as relative humidity increases, first haze and ultimately thicker cloud cover develops, reducing the amount of direct sunlight reaching the surface; thus there is an inverse relationship between maximum potential temperature and maximum potential relative humidity. Because of this factor, it was once believed that the highest heat index reading actually attainable anywhere on Earth is approximately 160 °F. However, in Saudi Arabia in July of 2003, the dew point was 95 °F while the temperature was 108 °F. The heat index at that time was 172 °F. Imagine!

Ah, and a bit of trivia—in Canada they use the humidex instead of the heat index. And if you want to talk about the heat index and the wind chill Index together, you can refer to them in the collective as either “apparent temperature” or “relative outdoor temperature.” See if you can work this into a conversation today.

And there you have it. Hope that made sense! Next week we’ll talk about controlling the humidity in the home for better comfort and electric bill savings.

From Broken TV Tray to Useful Bathroom Shelf

Living in a historic house, as Sara and Chris do, can be extremely charming. It can also be extremely frustrating. Rooms, windows and doors are odd sizes, and nothing is straight—not even the floors. Spaces are not as conducive to modern-day living as one would like, and you have to make do with things being not exactly how you’d like them to be. In the case of the master bathroom at their house, this meant having almost no counter space, and just making due with the small space around the sink. The sinks are only 13” apart, so buying something to fit in between was not really an option, plus they didn’t want to spend the money.

Sara’s husband Chris is a master at taking things that no longer serve any purpose and turning them into something wonderful that you always wanted. In this case, he took a broken wooden TV tray and turned it into a shelf for their bathroom. Materials needed:

• Broken TV tray (or other no-longer-useful piece of wood)
• Tape measure
• Pencil to mark measurements
• Circular saw
• Spray paint in your chosen color
• Brackets
• Screwdriver and/or drill

Chris removed the legs and brackets from the broken TV tray, so that he had the top only, with no metal pieces still attached. He then used a tape measure to determine the exact size he need the top of the TV tray to be in order to transform it into a shelf. He marked out the size on the TV tray with a pencil, and then used a circular saw to cut it. He took this piece into the bathroom to make sure his measurements were correct and it would fit. After making some sizing adjustments, he painted it with flat black spray paint. The cabinets under the sinks are a dark brown, and since he knew he would not be able to match it, Chris decided that flat black would blend in best. In this case, it took the entire can. After allowing it to dry, he brought it back to the bathroom and, using some very inexpensive brackets purchased at the hardware store, mounted it in between the sinks to make more counter space. He could have used larger brackets and placed them in the wall instead of in the sink cabinets, but they plan to add another shelf beneath this one (just waiting for another TV tray to break) so they didn’t want to waste the space on larger brackets.

Sara and Chris are thrilled with the results of this project. What do you have that is broken and no longer serving its intended purpose? How can you make it into something useful? Have you done this in the past? Share your projects with us! We’d love to hear about them.

A Pro-Tech photo shoot!

Pro-Tech hired Elisabeth Nixon, from Elisabeth Nixon Photography, for a company photo shoot. This is the second time we have used Elisabeth for our photos, and she did a wonderful job. Her area of expertise is usually individuals, families, children and weddings, but we like to use her for our company images because she is great at capturing the true nature of her subjects. We value our co-workers, and have some fantastic individuals on our team—Elisabeth gets this and makes it come across beautifully in her images. Hope you enjoy the slide show…

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Pro-Tech’s Comfort Club

So people all over town want to know: What is Pro-Tech’s Comfort Club? What do you get as a member? And how do you become a member? You’ve heard Tom talk about it on the radio shows, heard us mention it in our commercials, and likely even heard some of your neighbors talking about it. Here’s a brief description of our program, the benefits our members get and details about how you can get involved.

Take a moment to think about your car—if you don’t get the oil changed regularly, the car’s performance suffers, gas mileage decreases and the car wears out faster. Considering the cost of gas and the expense of buying a new automobile these days, it’s wise to make the one you have last as long as possible, while running as efficiently as possible.

It’s basically the same with your air conditioner. Like your car, it’s a mechanical piece of equipment that can become extremely inefficient and wear down quickly if not cared for properly. You can think of regular air conditioning maintenance like getting the oil changed in your car—vital to the proper functioning and longevity of the system.

The key component of the Comfort Club is semi-annual maintenance on your air conditioning system. We come out twice per year and do a top to bottom inspection of the system, checking levels and connections, cleaning components and changing the filters, among other things. Regular system maintenance like this can save you up to 37% on the cooling portion of your electric bill—and considering that the cooling portion is around 70% of the bill in Central Florida, that’s a fairly substantial savings. Basically, these savings will more than cover the cost of membership.

In addition to protecting your home comfort investment with regular maintenance, Comfort Club gives you an unparalleled level of service:

• A 15% discount on any repairs
• No overtime charges
• A free 1” high grade filter at each maintenance and up to 1 lb refrigerant annually
• Priority scheduling
• Extended equipment life
• Fewer repairs
• Improved cooling and safety
• Maintained to factory specifications, required by the manufacturer to keep warranty valid
• 24-hour emergency service

You can avoid costly break-downs and make sure that your system is ready to take on summer heat by allowing us to perform your first maintenance now. Contact our Service Hotline at 407-291-1644 (Central Florida) 352-409-9007 (The Villages) or 800-305-5187 (toll-free) or e-mail us at service@protechac.com for more info and pricing details.

Unique (and inexpensive) Embellishments for the Outside of the Home

There are a lot of things you can do to add charm to the exterior of your home, without breaking the bank. All you need it a little bit of creativity and some simple tools. Chris and I have recently added several small things to the house that made a big difference. I’ll describe some of them here, and then you can check out the slide show at the end of this post.

We would love to see photos of interesting things you’ve done to you home. Submit them to iceadvice@protechac.com and we’ll post them to the blog!

Outdoor Storage

Since we don’t have a garage, it’s sometimes a challenge to figure out where to put our things. As you already know, we love to garden, but we hated to just leave the gardening supplies lying around in the yard somewhere. I had bought an old trunk from a neighbor who was moving, but it never seemed to fit quite right inside the house. I liked the rustic look of it, and since it had never been refinished and wasn’t super nice, we decided to see if it would work as outside storage, since it didn’t really matter if it got dirty or a little damp. It’s up on the porch, so it doesn’t get rained on, and so far it’s working out great. We’re just going to make one small addition—putting wheels in the bottom so we can slide it out easier. The lid opens quite far back, so we have to move it out before we can open it up.

Bird Feeders (functioning) and Bird Houses (just for looks)

One of the coolest things we’ve done is to hang a bird feeder outside the dining room window. We have to replenish the seeds a lot because it’s so popular (as you can see, it’s empty in the photos). As we sit eating our breakfast and dinner, we watch the birds come and eat. Blue Jays are the messiest by far, but we get all types, colors, sizes and temperaments. It’s also very peaceful to sit and watch the birds do their thing.

Chris’ daughter made a birdhouse at school as a craft project. It’s not functional, but it looks good, so we went ahead and hung it up in our Hawaiian lemon tree. Another small touch that adds something big to the overall look of the house.

Interesting Planters

It’s not only the plants that make a big difference around the home, it’s what you put them in as well. A lot of nice planters can be extremely expensive, but we found some alternatives at Old Time Pottery (a wonderful place to get all sorts of things for your home).

Chris loves Converse sneakers, and we scored this shoe planter for around $5. We planted a succulent in it, and all of a sudden had a little more character on the front porch. We kept it mixed in with very traditional planters on a bright table so that it looked cool, but not overdone or too cutesy.

The 3 planters you’ll see hanging along the porch railing cost around $1.25 each. We then just spent $1.50 on each of the plants that went in them and it added a huge amount of character to the house. They look better when the yellow flowers are blooming on the plants, but the heat wave last week was not kind to them, so they look a bit sad right now.

In the case of the large basic terracotta pot you’ll see in the photos, we chose to plant potato vine around kale. The kale was planted first and it was getting very tall. The stalks were not very attractive, so we decided that it might be nice to do a very brightly colored, softer looking plant next to the more muted tones of the tougher looking kale. We loved the results!

Stars

These are very popular in our neighborhood. Choose a contrasting color for a great accent, or choose a color that blends in for a more subtle, cohesive look.

Wind Chimes

I love these for their sound and their look. Gives a whimsical feeling to both look at them and hear them. This one came from Sea World for around $10.

Shutters (or closet doors) as screens and backdrops

A great and interesting way to make a little privacy is by using old shutters as a screen. We were finding the price to be a little more than we wanted to spend, so when we were at the wood store we asked about the price of a folding closet door. Much, much cheaper than antique shutters. Chris brought it home, we took out the hinge, sawed it in half, painted it, and now we have a wonderful screen that looks a lot like a shutter.

Outdoor Pillows

These are really pretty, and also hold up to the elements—and so far, no one has stolen them! These particular pillows came from Wal-Mart and were around $10 each.

Remember, send us your photos of unique outdoor home decor and we’ll share what you’ve done with the other blog readers. Enjoy the slide show…

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System Replacement

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A lot of people think that installing a new air conditioner is a fairly simple procedure, but there’s a lot that goes in to making sure you’re getting the exact right thing for you home and your family. You can get high quality equipment, but if you don’t get a high quality installation, you may as well have not bothered. Here’s an overview of what goes into a new install:

Step 1: A Visit to the Customer’s Home and the Heating/Cooling Load Calculation

When we go on a home visit, we spend time with the customer discussing everything from allergies to long-term plans for the home. We need to get familiar with the home environment so that we can develop a system that will meet the family’s needs. We then go over the home from top to bottom (including crawling up into the attic to check out the ductwork!), take measurements of all rooms and windows, and run a heating/cooling load calculation on the home. This is extremely important because it gives us the exact equipment size needed for the home. It may surprise you to learn that 47% of homes have oversized equipment. Over or undersized equipment can cause a host of problems, so it’s very important to make sure that we get it right. Most companies will just replace a 2.5 ton for a 2.5 ton and call it done—they won’t bother to see if that’s actually correct. I went to a home a few weeks ago that had 2.5 tons, but when I ran the load calculation, we learned that the home only needed 2 tons. The homeowner was having problems with humidity, noise and uneven temperature, all of which are signs of oversized equipment.

Step 2: Propose Equipment Options and Equipment Selection

After we’ve determined the customer’s needs and run the load calculation, we know what options will work best for the customer. We present these solutions, along with the appropriate accessories (CleanEffects!), and share benefits of each option. The customer selects which suits them best, we schedule the install date and pull the appropriate permits.

Step 3: Install Overview

The install crew (2-3 people, depending on the size of the job) arrives at the customer’s home at 8:00am. They review the job with the customer, explain the job and make sure that there are no unanswered questions or concerns. After posting the permits, one crew member begins unloading the equipment, while another starts preparing the old equipment, both indoor (air handler) and outdoor (condenser) for removal. Adjustments are made to the ductwork that feeds the air handler, if necessary, and a new concrete pad is put in place for the condenser. The new equipment is put in place, and the new thermostat is connected. During this entire process, the home is protected using our clean system—drop clothes, booties and plastic bags—and all codes and best practices are followed.

Step 4: Job Completion

After the new equipment is completely installed, the install crew completes a Quality Assurance Checklist with the customer, making sure that everything is 100% complete. Equipment operation is explained to the customer, and we assist with thermostat programming and operation. All old equipment and debris are removed for the job site, and the crew does a thourough cleaning job to make sure everything is as it was when they arrived. 

Step 5: Follow-Up

All new Pro-Tech installs come with 1 year membership in our Comfort Club. After 6 months, and again at 12 months, we’ll come out and perform our Comfort Club maintenance to make sure everything is operating as it should be. 

And there you have it. A brief overview of what we do when it’s time for a new comfort system for your home. There’s more to it than that, but this synopsis just goes to show how important it is that everything is done properly.