Category: HVAC

At times of great devastation, it’s important for communities and countries to come together to help those in need. Johnson Controls is doing just that by offering discounts to homeowners in Texas who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey. To qualify, residents must live within the designated disaster area as defined by FEMA. The rebates can be used towards the replacement of air-conditioning, heating, and ventilation equipment.

Which Products Qualify?

There are several products that qualify for the rebate, with ones that provide the best Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) offering the best rebates. The more efficient the product, the better. Certain products from Champion, Fraser, Cole, Luxaire, Johnston, Guardian, and Evcon qualify. For air conditioners, if they have a SEER of 20, there is a $250 rebate. It’s $200 for an 18 rating, $150 for 16/17, and $100 for 14. For furnaces, there is a $150 rebate for 90% AFUE models, and $75 for 80% AFUE.

How To Apply

To apply for the rebate, homeowners or Johnson Controls employees can visit johnsoncontrols.com/harvey, or call (855)324-3650. The rebates cannot be used with other rebate offers, but fortunately they can apply retroactively. At the same website, homeowners will find a locater to find certified dealers in their area to make sure that they have a trusted source for their new equipment.

Other Initiatives

Johnson Controls also encourages everyone to donate to the Red Cross to help the recovery effort. The company already donates $500,000 every year to the charity, but have a spot on the site to donate. They’ve also set up a Harvey Relief Fund for employees who have fallen victim to the hurricane. Johnson Controls will match all donations to the fund as well. They have also created a team within the company to help with a strategy to meet the needs of affected employees.

Johnson Controls has stated that its prime concern is with the health and the needs of its employees. With the rebate initiative, and the relief fund for employees, they are showing that everyone must come together to help when disaster strikes.

Even with the best quality furnace or air conditioning system in the world, one needs a proper and effective duct work or else there will be loss of energy and money. This will cause the structure to have uncomfortable temperatures. Poor duct work will definitely affect negatively the quality of the air inside the rooms. Here are some essential facts on why tight ducts are effective for heating and cooling.

Importance of Tight Ducts for Effective Heating and Cooling.

Majority of structures in America are installed with forced air-heating and cooling system. A main heating, ventilating and air conditioning system mostly a heat pump, furnace or A/C which creates cool or warm air that is blown around by powerful fans through interconnected ducts and registers to reach the various destinations within the structure. This is a repetitive process where the ducts that supply air, take the heated or cooled air to the rooms, while return ducts and registers do the reverse by drawing the room air back into the equipment to be heated or cooled.

One would want to avoid defective ductwork, where ducts network is not well linked to each other, or to the registers, or to the furnace plenum.

Some negative causes of defective ducts.

Loss of energy, the HVAC equipment must operate above its required optimum in order to compensate for the lost energy as heated or cooled air is lost out into unconditioned areas such as the basement area , spaces below the roof , and even cracks on the wall . Some rooms never reach their optimum required temperature, because much of the conditioned air is lost through the faulty ducts before it even reaches the intended destination or room. This mostly affects rooms at the far end of a building whose ducts are long but leaking. Poor quality of air, this is caused by contamination of air from cracks and basement spaces that mix through the leaking points, this causes changes in the air pressure. The contaminated air is then circulated in the structure, lowering the quality of the air from the plenum.

How to Achieve Tight Ductwork.

The best way to achieve an air-tight duct is to hire a professional to do inspection of the existing network of ducts and seal the leaks with the necessary insulation. Although one may temporarily seal leaking ducts using sealants such as metal-backed tape or even mastic sealant in areas where the ducts are obviously leaking.