Indoor Air Quality

December 26th, 2017 Comments Off

Benefits of a Whole-House Humidifier

Here in College Station and Bryan, we don’t complain all that much about the summer heat…we’re used to it. But we complain to anyone who will listen about the heat and humidity combined.

It’s just what we do. But then, a funny thing happens when summer transitions to fall and winter, and standard time returns with its early curfew on sunshine. Now we’re spending lots more time indoors and complaining about – you guessed it – the lack of humidity. Maybe not directly, but when you complain about any of the following, reduced humidity is what’s really bothering you:

Dry, itchy skin
Dull, hard to manage hair
Nose bleeds
Headaches
Exaggerated problems with allergies and asthma
Static electrical shock
Wood doors shrinking and cracking
And a host of related problems

It’s a simple fact of life that your heating system – especially if you have forced air heat – dries the dickens out of your air, causing you to seek myriad remedies for all the problems overly dry air can cause. Well, McKinzie Heating & Air would like to suggest a single solution that would remedy the situation once and for all: a whole-house humidifier, one we would install to work in tandem with your furnace.

A whole-house humidifier allows you to set the ideal relative humidity level for your home and family, and change it any time when added indoor comfort is needed. Then you can say good-bye nose bleeds, static electrical shock, and all the rest…while saying hello not just to great comfort, but noticeable energy savings. That’s right: with more humidity in the air during the winter, you’ll feel perfectly comfortable at lower-than-normal thermostat settings.

For more information and a free in-home proposal, contact the indoor air quality specialists at McKinzie Heating & Air Today.

Indoor Air Quality

August 30th, 2017 Comments Off

How to Remove Excess Humidity from Your Home

Too much humidity can ruin your day. Especially since you can’t always leave it outdoors. That’s right: excess humidity can be like that guest you were planning on having over for a weekend but ends up staying 6 months or longer.

There are lots of ways humidity can build up inside your home, and just as many ways to get rid of excess amounts. First, let’s examine some self-help steps that other home owners have found to be more than a little useful:

Take cooler showers since hotter water generates more humidity.
Properly vent your bathroom during and after a bath or shower either via opening doors or a window, an effective exhaust fan, or some combination thereof. Also, vacuum your exhaust fan occasionally to remove dust and dirt that prevent full ventilation.
Do you have a non-venting range hood? If so, you’re not accomplishing anything by running the exhaust fan while cooking. If your hood can be vented, it should be.
Keep your air conditioning drain lines and drip pans clean and unobstructed.
Be on the lookout for hidden water leaks. Telltale signs include black mold build-up on walls or ceilings, puddled water behind your refrigerator, and damp spots on the carpet over your slab basement. Not only do water leaks raise humidity levels, they also create an ideal environment for mold and mildew build-up.
If possible, store your fire wood outside or in your garage. Freshly cut wood contains large amounts of water that evaporates when brought indoors.
Keep downspouts and gutters clean. Adjust downspouts so they carry water away from the house so water can’t seep into your garage or basement.

If you have a newer central AC system, chances are you minimal if any indoor humidity issues. But as your system ages, it gradually loses its ability to de-humidify your house. That leaves you with two basic options, both of which McKinzie Heating & Air can assist you with:

Replace your AC system with a new and more dependable unit
Or, add a whole-house dehumidifier to your home

The latter is the more economical choice, and one that allow you to adjust indoor relative humidity levels at will so you can feel just as comfortable as you like, all cooling season long. Contact us today for more information or a free in-home estimate so you can compare for yourself: new AC system or whole-house dehumidifier.

January 25th, 2015 Comments Off

How to Add Humidity to Your House in Bryan and College Station

This time of year, the skin care aisle in pharmacies and supermarkets are awfully busy places.

That’s because so many of us suffer from dry, itchy skin. And that’s just one of the consequences of overly dry indoor air during the winter.

If the humidity levels in your home are super low, here’s what else you might be experiencing:

Frizzed out hair
More frequent bloody noses
Static electricity that sends a jolt through your system
Wood furniture and floors that shrivel up, dry out, and occasionally crack

Worst case scenario, you or members of your family are also experiencing new or stepped up symptoms of asthma, allergies, and other respiratory ailments.

Just like most other things in life, there are two primary ways to deal with a problem: treat the symptoms, or do something to fix the problem. And history has taught us that the latter approach is always the more effective and longer-lasting.

Here are some quick, easy, and affordable ways to add humidity to your home for as long as the heating system lasts:

Purchase some house plants, keep them well-watered, and place them in strategic locations where moisture is most needed.
Get yourself a clothes drying rack and hang at least some of your clothes out to dry indoors.
When baking or broiling something in the oven, place a pan of water on the stove. The water inside will heat up, evaporate, and escape into the air.
Place bowls or pans of water near baseboard heating units or floor vents. As the heat passes over the water, the water in turn will be heated and enter the atmosphere with much-needed moisture.

Looking for something a little more global and permanent? Then contact McKinzie Heating & Air and ask about a whole-house humidity control system. With its manual control function, you get to set the precise and most comfortable humidity settings for you and your family all year long. At the same time, you’ll save money on your home heating and cooling costs. Contact us today for more information or a free new system quote.

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Blog, Indoor Air Quality

November 20th, 2014 Comments Off

Tips for Cleaner Indoor Air in Bryan and College Station

$Description: C:\Users\Bob\AppData\Local\Temp\shutterstock_200339462.jpg$ A typical list for home fixer-upper projects usually contains one or more of the following: clean the garage, repair the downspout, repaint the bathroom, replace the broken tile in the foyer, and so on.

What do those and so many other similar projects have in common? They are things that you can see. And by looking at them over and over again, sooner you’re going to do something about them.

But what about things gone wrong inside or around your home you can’t see? Take the quality of your indoor air as a leading example. Did you know that, on average, indoor as twice as polluted as the air outdoors? And that’s true even in homes that are meticulously kept and cleaned.

The quality of your indoor air reaches the problem stage when you start noticing any of the following:

More frequent colds and viruses
Colds and flu-like symptoms pass from one family member to another
The onset or worsening of allergy and asthma symptoms
Other upper respiratory ailments
Itchy nose and eye

Here are just a few of the many ways you cut back on indoor air pollutants in your home:

Don’t allow anyone to smoke indoors. Cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing compounds plus 400 other toxins. And while it’s bad enough to smoke a cigarette once, the smoke rises and gets trapped in your ducts, which means you’ll – in effect – be smoking those same cigarettes over and over again.

Switch to all-natural cleaning products. Most commercial cleaning products include highly toxic chemicals and fragrances. Lysol disinfectant sprays, for example, include such chemicals as mipa-borate, ammonium, hydroxide, ethanolamine, and petroleum gases, earning them the dubious distinction as the most toxic household cleaners.

Switch to machine washable bedding to help control the dust mite population in your bedrooms. Weekly washing is recommended for your comfort, sheets, pillow cases, and all the rest.

Replace your vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filtration model like those made by Dyson. They effectively remove and trap dust, dirt and other allergens that love to hide out in your carpets, rugs, upholstery, floor crevices, and especially under furniture and other hard to reach places.

Leave your shoes at the door. Shoe bottoms are like magnets for attracting dust, dirt, pesticides, and bacteria, including E Coli and Serratia ficaria, and Klebsiella pneumonia. The bottoms and insides of your shoes should be cleaned and disinfected on a regular basis.

Buy some new house plants. But not just any house plants, as some varieties are particularly effective in removing bacteria and other pollutants from the air. These include: Boston Ferns, Chinese Evergreens, Crotons, and Arrowhead Vines are ideally suited to the task.

At McKinzie Heating & Air, we can help you fight the battle against indoor air pollution by installing a whole-house air purifier in your home. And that’s just one of several indoor air quality solutions we bring to the table. To learn more or schedule a free in-home consultation, contact us today.

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Blog, Indoor Air Quality

September 7th, 2014 Comments Off

Duct Cleaning in Bryan & College Station

It usually takes a lot for people to call us for our duct cleaning service. Like one cold or flu after another. Persistent and worsening symptoms of allergies and asthma. Or chronic sneezing, coughing, and itchy, watery eyes.

“Dirty ducts can cause all that?” you ask. Actually, all that, and worse. And it happens to even the most faithful and thorough of house cleaners.

The most common indoor air pollutants that collect inside your ducts include the following:

Dust and dust mites
Bacteria
Pet dander
Smoke byproducts
Tobacco byproducts
Pollen
Mold & mildew
Chemical byproducts
Formaldehyde from new carpeting
And more

How do these and other contaminants get inside your ducts in the first place? In an average six-room house, a family of four generates up to 40 pounds of dust per year just through normal, everyday activities. And dust goes everywhere: on your furniture, possessions, window fixtures, and more. Plus it hangs suspended in the air.

Each time your HVAC system cycles on, it pulls dust, dirt, bacteria, and all the rest into the system where they eventually find their way into your ductwork where they build up over time and are re-circulated back into your home courtesy of the AC or heating system’s fan.

It’s literally enough to make you sick.

As a rule of thumb, McKinzie Heating & Air recommends having your ducts cleaned about every four years. And yet, even if four years or more have passed since your last duct cleaning, that still doesn’t necessarily mean they need to be cleaned again. That’s why we inspect your ducts before we clean them to determine the need.

You should also consider having your ducts cleaned under the following circumstances: