I don’t mean to scare any germaphobes out there, but the air circulating through the average household is full of unhealthy impurities: dust, mold, pollen, bacteria – not to mention some homes that also battle pet dander, pet fur and cigarette smoke. By installing and regularly changing quality air filters in your home, you can protect your family against these common environmental health hazards.

What can you do? To ensure that your home’s air conditioning system is armed with optimal filters, follow these important air filter FUNdamentals:

• Change your air filters every 1-3 months, depending on their specified lifespan. Without regular filter changes, your HVAC system will be hindered from circulating air efficiently through your home. Also, if your current filter is overused, it can become clogged, preventing it from trapping airborne pollutants.

• Make an educated decision about the quality of your air filter using the MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) scale. With a range from 1-20, the most efficient filter rating is around 12.

• Purchase the correct size air filter to ensure full and proper filtration. At Pro-Tech, we have a complete line of custom sized Eco-Aire filters to fit any cooling system.

• Consider your personal lifestyle when choosing the right filter for you. Washable air filters are reusable and prove to be more long lasting, while disposable filters offer more convenience. Coming soon, we’ll be adding Bio+ Biodegradable air filters to our product offering!

Now, the next time you’re filtering your coffee grinds, filtering UV sunlight from your eyes by wearing sunglasses, or even listening to the American rock band named Filter, be sure to also remember the heating and cooling system at your home. If you haven’t checked out the air filter in a long time, now is a great time to take a peek.

Need help? Don’t hesitate to call our friendly service staff at Pro-Tech!

Remember, this program is for NEW customers that you bring to Pro-Tech–individuals and families that have never used our services before. If you want to participate, just give us a call at 407-291-1644 and request some referral cards. We’ll send some out to you right away so you can start earning your Darden gift cards. Thanks for your support of our company–we wouldn’t be where we are today without all of our great customers!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.