Our L,G&E (Louisville Gas and Electric) company – Friend or Foe to the customer

Louisville Gas and Electric Company. Its been around for a long time. Its also went thru a lot of different owners. Its history is quite remarkable. L,G&E was first formed in 1838 by a group of private investors. It was called Louisville Gas and Water Company. It eventually dropped the water business and in 1890, its charter was amended allowing it to sell , manufacture and distribute electricity.  In 1945 the company successfully fought a takeover by the City of Louisville  and won with the help of some of the aldermen. In the year 2000, it was acquired by a British Company called Powergen,Plc. In 2002, Powergen sold the company to E.ON out of Dusseldorf, Germany. In 2010, E.ON sold L,G&E to PPL (Pennsylvania Power and Light) Corporation out of Allentown, PA. You can see that it has went thru several owners.

L,G&E used to be our friend.  We  at, Aire-Com of KY, used to have a very good relationship with some of the upper level management people in the 1980-1990’s and they were very helpful to us all. Now, its like the other large corporations in the world that are totally profit driven by management that have no connections to the people here in Louisville, KY that it serves. It used to be that if the electric went out, L,G&E had the people and resources to get us up and running very quickly. Now, it takes a few days to bring in outsiders to make the repairs and L,G&E’s people escort them around our city to keep them from getting lost. They paid their most experienced people out in the field to take an early retirement several years ago and we were left with a lot of young and untrained personnel to take their places. I miss the old L,G&E with a heart for our community.  Sadly, because of its commitments to their shareholders and not to our community, it will probably never return.

And that is where my complaint lies. I’ve just noticed that L,G&E will send a L,G&E technician to your house to determine if you should have your cooling system cleaned and serviced.  It will only cost you $35.00, but then it will cost you $50.00 for a contractor to come out and clean and service your system.  a total of $150.00 if you are a commercial customer. Now this adds up to $85.00 and if you called the contractor direct, the prices normally run $49.00 to $89.00.  Now, for your fee of $50.00, the contractor usually has to add more services and parts to break even on the call.  If they also want to make a profit, then they will have to charge even more.  However, if you call the contractor directly, then he does not have to involve L,G&E and its quite possible that you’ll get better service  at less  cost. L,G&E  and other utilities across the U.S. have tried to get into the heating and cooling business several times over the last 20 years and it seems that they always fail and you, “The consumer” pays the price.  And you must remember, L,G&E does not do anything that they will knowingly lose money on.  Think twice before you let their unlicensed technicians come to your home to tell you that you should get your systems cleaned and serviced.  If you still think you need someone to tell you the obvious, then call up a cooling contractor and ask him if he will tell you whether you should get your system serviced and ask him if he will underbid L,G&E and tell you this for $30.00. I’m sure that they all will be happy to help you save your money.

Now, my biggest complaint is with the thermostats and boxes that they use to shut off your cooling system in the heat of the day. They call it energy conservation and pay you $5.00 a month to let them do it to you. Now, those thermostats and boxes they provide are not free to them. They have to pay for them and for the labor to install them.  And again, I want you to remember that companies that are in business to make money will not knowingly do anything that they will lose money on. Now, you see many different people in their advertisements talking about how much money they get ($20.00 a year) for using the boxes or thermostats. They are not L,G&E employees and you never see the people from L,G&E telling you that it will actually save you money.  If it would save you money, then L,G&E would have proof of that and they would be advertising proven savings by installing the devices. The systems work by shutting off your cooling system for 15 minutes a day during the hottest periods of the day. If your AC is sized correctly for your house, then it will run a lot more to catch up with the temperature that you want, than if it had been allowed to run without interference from L,G&E. In doing this, it will cost you a lot more than the $5.00 a month that you get over the cooling season. I’ve seen customers call and ask to have the systems removed. L,G&E will tell them OK, but it usually takes 5-6 calls before they will remove the devices. They drag their feet because they want to make as much money from these devices as possible.  I’ve also seen their installers install the boxes on the cooling coils of the outside unit. This blocks some of the airflow and increases your utility usage, along with being able to help cause damage to your AC system.

You now know my opinions on L,G&E as far as being our friend and helping us save money.  Its up to you to decide whether or not you wish to utilize these specific services. If you think its a wise move, then I’d suggest buying stock in PPL. Its a guaranteed way to make money.

AC system theft prevention.

Theft has become a very big issue lately for us at “Aire-Com of KY”. The price of copper is higher than its ever been and the economy is still way down. A copper thief knows that if he can find work at $10.00 an hour and works 8 hours, he can make $80.00 before taxes. He also knows that if he can steal an average residential air conditioning or heat pump coil, he can make $75- $200.00 for 10 – 15 minutes of work. Most thieves are also lazy and we all know the route they are going to take.  So, they make $75.00 – $200.00 and it costs you about $3,000.00 – $6,000 to replace the system. Something about this just does not look right, what do you think? If they steal the outside units copper, then you need to replace the entire cooling system.  This translates into one outside air conditioning unit, one inside A-coil or evaporator coil, two new copper refrigerant lines, probably a new air conditioner pad, and the labor charges to remove the trash the thieves left behind and install the new system. You may have recently installed a new A-coil or evaporator coil, however most manufacturers will not honor the warranty if you do not install a new  coil. You may be lucky and have insurance that covers theft of your cooling system, but some of you don’t have it. I had a longtime customer this spring that had his system stolen and his insurance company denied his claim because they said it was not covered.  We see a lot of thefts and I have been very impressed with the way Farm Bureau handles its claims. They are one of the best as far as taking care of their customers from what I’ve seen.

Thieves will steal your coils in the daylight hours, the night time hours, whether it’s on the ground or on a roof. They seem to have no preferences. I’ve seen where they sometimes come out the day before and start a freon leak so that when they come back the next day, it will be quieter and faster for them. I’ve seen commercial systems in plain sight along Dixie Highway and along the Watterson Expressway, where the traffic is very heavy and these units were  plainly seen with no problems and the copper coils were stolen from them.  It used to be that we would put some bars over the system and the thieves would not bother them. Anymore, they just cut around the bars. So what alternatives do we have?

Some contractors will put an alarm on the hi-voltage lines to stop the thefts. Sometimes it does stop them. Some put the alarm on the low voltage lines and it also works sometimes. The majority of the contractors will put the alarm on the refrigerant hi-pressure lines and this works sometimes also. The reason they sometimes don’t work is because they put the switches for the alarms on the outside and a smart thief will wire around them and continue his work. There is only one anti-theft device made exclusively for air conditioning systems that always works that I know about. It monitors the high and low voltage lines and it also monitors the refrigerant pressure.  The thief has to eliminate one or more of these areas in order to accomplish the theft. They may cut your coils, however, before they can do any extreme damage, the alarm will sound and they will make a hasty exit. The system is called “Warning Watchdog” by Jackson Systems.  It will cost most of you less than your insurance deductible and that also makes it a worthy investment. It will also sound an alarm if you develop a freon leak. This can be a nice side effect.  Now, I know that there are other anti-theft alarm systems on the market for air conditioning, but this is one that is tried and proven.

If you have any more questions about theft prevention for your system, then please feel free to call me at (502) 447-5508 or email me at : jesse@kycooling.com.

Why is my house so hot and yet, my AC technician tells me that my cooling system is working properly?

Yes, most of us in Metro Louisville have a hard time understanding this answer. Is it right or wrong? Well, we at Aire-Com Heating & Air Conditioning believe it all depends on several factors. Lets start with the outside temperature. If your cooling system is sized properly, then the temperature inside the house should be approximately 20 degrees F. cooler than the outside temperature.  Notice, I said approximately. A lot of different variables come into play here. Some of them are, the house could have had a light colored roof replaced with a dark roof, not enough air flow thru the attic, added heat producing devices such as computers, flat screen televisions, new windows and doors, added insulation or removed insulation, poor ductwork, unlevel mercury bulb thermostat, dirty, clogged filters, more occupants, hotter light bulbs, more cooking and a host of other reasons.  Sometimes, it’s the equipment not performing properly. We can fix that. That’s easy. The hard one though is that the unit is undersized. We can not do anything to fix that other than to suggest more insulation or replace the unit. So, why not just oversize the cooling system. Won’t that  cure the problem up front. No, wrong answer again. An oversized cooling system will not run long enough to remove the humidity in the occupied space. And, here in the Ohio Valley, we all know how terrible the humidity is.  The house will feel cool and clammy. Its not a very clean feeling and definitely not comfortable. To make the house feel comfortable on an 80-85 degree F day, we have to lower the temperature so much that we would have to put on a jacket or light sweater to be warm. Our utility bill would be extremely high also.  The 20 degree temperature drop is kind of a decent middle ground between warm days and very hot days. It’s no-where close to perfect, but it used to be all we had.

Now, we’ve came up with a better alternative. The two (2) stage cooling system. This is where the unit gives you 60% of its cooling capacity on warm days and usually 90% of the time, however on those hot days, it gives you 100% of its cooling capacity. To better understand this, we have a house that needs 3-1/2 tons of cooling ( 1 ton of air conditioning is 12,000 BTUH (British Thermal Units perHour), so 3-1/2 tons of cooling is 3.5 x 12,000 = 42,000 BTUH). Our two (2) stage air conditioning unit will run on the 1st stage of cooling (28,800 BTUH)    during cooler temperatures and the second stage of cooling (19,200)  will come on to supplement the 1st stage when the temperature becomes to warm for the 1st stage to cool. Total cooling capacity for the combined 1st and 2nd stage cooling is 48,000 BTUH.  Now, remember that we only needed 42,000 BTU’s in our original estimated cooling needs. Well, at the present time, all of the two (2) stage compressors only come in 24,000 BTUH (2 ton), 36,000 BTUH (3 ton),  48,000 BTUH (4 ton) and 60,000 BTUH (5 ton) sizes.  There are no 1/2 ton sizes available.  These units make it very nice for us now in different ways. if you did a lot of entertaining, they could better handle the time you have the company and the times when you don’t.  They are a great system to have for the ultimate comfort.

So, we have seen where oversizing a house for cooling is just as bad as undersizing it. The inside cooling temperature is very relative to the out side temperature. And last but not least, I would like to say that I believe that the Energy conservation monitors that L,G&E puts on your AC equipment also contribute to the uncomfortableness in your house and my advice is,”Get rid of them”. I will go into this subject  at a later date.

Why does your Heating & Air Conditioning guy worry so much about your furnace’s air filter?

There’s a lot of different things we can talk about in furnace filters. We can talk about the MERV rating, the brands, types, etc. However, today I’m going to talk about the simple things you should know about your furnace filter.  First, did you know that probably 95% of all the compressors in Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps that go bad can be attributed to dirty, clogged furnace filters. I’m not talking about a little dirty, I’m talking about the really clogged up filters that your furnace can’t breathe thru. An AC system needs the warm air in the house to pass over the indoor coil so it can pull the heat out of that air in order to properly function. If the filter is clogged up, then the air is moving to slow and it can’t pull the heat out and it causes a condition that we call “slugging”. This can cause the valves in your compressor to be damaged beyond repair and you could be  facing a very expensive repair bill. You think,” My air conditioner or heat pump is not that old. It will be OK”. Sorry folks, but the age has nothing to do with it when the filters cause it to go bad.  “Keep your filters clean.” It reminds me of something that happened to me last fall. I started my riding lawn mower up to cut the grass. It did not exactly work properly, but I kept it running and the engine threw a rod.  I checked my oil levels and they were extremely low. I had an extremely good mower, but my lack of maintenance cost me money that I would not have spent, had I just checked my oil. The same holds true for your furnace filters and your heating and cooling system. Change your filters when they start getting dirty and don’t wait for them to become clogged up with dirt.

Second, the type of filters does matter. The purpose of the filter is remove the dust from the air in the house and to keep the dirt out of the indoor “A-coil” or evaporator coil, as we know it in our trade.  The indoor coil is actually where our cooling takes place and it removes the humidity in the air as it cools. Well, this humidity that is removed is actually water vapor that is condensed to cold water on the coil. It runs thru hundreds of aluminum fins on the coil. It travels from the top to the bottom of the coil and runs on out the drain. As the condensation (water) runs down the coil, if the furnace filter is dirty and clogged, then the condensation will begin to freeze. This blocks the coil even more , so then it begins to freeze even faster. Soon, your coil will look like a 4-7″ thick block of ice and no air passes thru it and guess what,” You have NO Air Conditioning“.  Another thing that happens is if your filters are clogged, or you use the very cheap spun fibreglass filters, then there will be small dust and other particles that travel thru the coil. But, when the dust and other particles come into contact with the condensation, they will immediately start to attach themselves to the face of the coil. Eventually, they build up so much that the dust and dirt are catching the other dust and dirt and trapping it on the coil face and its also starting to pull the debris into the openings between the aluminum fins and again, the coils start to freeze up. Then, once again you have” NO air conditioning“. I have noticed down thru the years that the best inexpensive filter that you can buy is the cheapest pleated filter that you can find. Now, others might disagree with us, but this is from 30 years of observing this in the field and this is my opinion. Remember, everyone has different opinions about different things.  I believe that the cheapest pleated filter is able to pull out all the major dirt and it also allows the air to move freely thru it. However,  when you buy the more expensive pleated filters, then their composition is so dense, its like putting a clogged up filter in the system to begin with. Don’t be influenced by all the claims on the more expensive filters. They make a lot of claims, and yes, for the most part, they are true on what they say. It’s what they don’t tell you that causes the problems. If you have allergies and asthma, I think you will find that the cheap pleated filters do just as well and maybe even better for you than the more expensive ones do.  If you still have an old electrostatic filter from years ago (they look like they have monofilament fishing line as the surface), then discard it and get the cheap pleated filters. They work much better.  There’s also a lot of very good pleated filters out there that you only change once every 6 months to a year. I call them the “Lazy man’s filter”. They do an exceptionally good job. I like the Aprilaire brand the best, but Honeywell, General and some others have very good filters also. They are normally 3″-5″ thick and go into a special filter cabinet. You can also get a prescription from your doctor if you have allergies, asthma or some other breathing problems and then their installation is tax-deductible.  There is also the electronic air cleaner. Get rid of them and install a media filter in their cabinet. It will work much better. The very best filter that I’ve ever seen on the market is the “Aprilaire 5000 electronic filter”. It’s totally different from all the other electronic filters on the market and it incorporates a media filter also. The most expensive and what should be the best is the HEPA filter. It would be, except that it only filters about 10-20% of the air going thru the furnace at a time. I find this to be totally unacceptable and we will never install one unless they change to 100% filtration.

Remember, these are mostly opinions that I have from 30 years of observing heating and cooling equipment.  I won’t claim that I’m 100% correct on my observations, but the results that I’ve seen will not prove me wrong either.

Another thing to remember, if you put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher and do not turn it on, your dishes will never get clean.  Using the same principle, if you do not turn your furnace’s fan on at the thermostat, then the air  in your home will never get cleaned by the filter. Let the fan run and help reduce the air-borne dust in your home.

Do the new air conditioners and heat pumps use freon?

It’s a question that we at Aire-Com of KY hear 2-5 times every week in the summertime. Yes, the new Air conditioners and Heat Pumps still use freon. The difference from the old to the new is that it’s a different chemical blend.  It’s kind of like a soft drink, there’s coke and there’s mountain dew. Both are soft drinks. They both have a lot in common and serve the same purpose. However, I’m telling you, there’s a difference between the two and you can definitely tell one from the other. That’s the way of our freon. The old freon was called R-22 freon and the new freon is called R-410A. They both are used for the same purpose and they both come from the same factory, but they definitely do not mix. Kind of makes you think of diesel fuel and gas. If you ever put diesel fuel in your car and it has a gas engine, then you would definitely wish you hadn’t.

The old freon “R-22” is a HCFC (Hydrochlorofluorcarbon) and they help deplete our protective ozone layer. They are being phased out of production and will not be produced after the year 2020. However, during that time they have reductions in availability of the R-22 freon. The EPA is the governing agency for freon. They use 1999 as the base year for production. They said that the year 1999 was a 100% production year. In 2005 the freon manufacturers could only manufacture 65% of  the amount that was produced in 1999.  In the year 2010, the manufacturers were only allowed to manufacture 35% of what was manufactured in the year 1999. In the year 2015, they can only manufacture 10% of what was manufactured in 1999. And in the year 2020, they are only allowed to manufacture 1/2 of 1% of what was manufactured in the year 1999. They also increase the federal taxes on it every year to help increase the cost and to force consumers to purchase new equipment. Here’s a link to an EPA publication that was published a few years ago explaining the phase-out of R-22 freon.  It tells the story in more detail.

The new freon is R-410A. It’s also called “Puron” by the Carrier Manufacturers. Carrier loves to come up with their own names for things and then trademark them. But, that is a story for another day. It’s an HFC refrigerant blend. It does not deplete the Ozone layer like the R-22 refrigerant does. It operates at almost twice the pressures of R-22.  But, in my opinion, I think that it out-performs R-22 tremendously.  The old R-22 heat pumps were always putting out luke-warm air in the winter time and you had to switch to an alternative heat when the temperature reached 30-35 degrees Fahrenheit outside. The R-410A delivers very warm heat and it will continue to heat down to 5-6 degrees Fahrenheit outside before you switch to an alternative heat source.  The old Air Conditioning and Heat Pump systems would use about 5 – 12 lbs of R-22 freon. The new, Ultra Hi-efficiency R-410A units will use from 10 – 20 lbs of freon. That’s because they are larger and one way to increase efficiency is to increase the coil sizes of the equipment.

So, yes all of our Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps still use freon. Residential units use R-22 and R-410-A. Commercial units can use over a dozen different refrigerants.  And Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps do not really use freon like a car uses gas. The freon is always present in the same amount throughout the life cycle of the system unless it has a leak. The freon only changes its properties.  It goes from a high pressure, hot gas to a high pressure warm liquid to a very cold, low pressure liquid to a very cool low pressure gas and then it starts the cycle all over again.  Its interesting when you start to really study it, but all we really want to know is” Is my AC cooling properly”

Manufacturer’s Extended Service Plans

Almost all of our heating and cooling units sold and installed by Aire-Com of Ky has an extended service plan. The service plans are usually for 10 years on parts and labor.  Our plans are from GOODMAN Manufacturing and they begin 30 days after installation.  The plans cover any equipment malfunctions or defects for 10 years.  So, for 10 years you have coverage on any functional part of your GOODMAN or AMANA produced heating and cooling system.  On a furnace it includes all the inner parts of the furnace, on a Heat Pump or air-conditioning unit , it covers all of the interior parts of the Condenser (The outside cooling unit), and on an evaporator it covers the interior parts of the A-Coil, Horizontal Coil or the Slab Coil. It’s important to know that the coverage is only on the GOODMAN or AMANA portions of your HVAC system. If a part fails that is not manufactured by GOODMAN, then it’s not covered.  These parts would normally be the thermostat, disconnect box ( the electrical shut-off box  on the wall next to the outside AC or Heat Pump unit), the condensate pump, any air filters, Air Conditioning pad, gas lines, electrical wiring outside of the GOODMAN or AMANA units, freon lines and drain lines. The plan does not cover maintenance items, such as cleaning the evaporator or condenser coils, air filters, unclogging or repairing drain lines, lubrication,adjustments and cleaning of the burners, flame sensor or heat exchanger.  The extended warranty plan does not apply  to equipment not produced by GOODMAN or AMANA, or parts that have been subject to alteration, misuse, abuse, accidents  (such as a car hitting the outside unit or a tree falling on it), improper installations, damage, excessive voltage, acts of nature, corrosion, theft, commercial use or for service other than what was approved by GOODMAN.

Some things to understand about your GOODMAN or AMANA service plans are that we, the dealer, must use OEM (Original Equipment Manufactured) parts and this lets GOODMAN know that the parts that are used for replacement on their equipment are not cheap or substandard and as such, lower the performance or efficiency of your equipment.  There is no deductible to be paid and there’s not even a signature required from you once the repair is completed.  GOODMAN does not authorize overtime hour repairs for the equipment. However, to the best of my knowledge, neither does any of the other manufacturers.  The plan is fully transferable to any subsequent owners of the home. If the equipment is relocated to another location, then the plan is terminated as soon as it leaves the original installation site.

Extended warranty plans are available from all of the major heating and air conditioning manufacturers. Some finance their own plans and some use outside extended warranty protection companies. during the years that I’ve been in the HVAC business, I’ve seen most of the leading extended warranty protection companies that offer the plans for the manufacturers go bankrupt. Usually, those that survive do not cover very much and are more difficult to deal with. The few manufacturers that finance their own plans are much better and are very easy to deal with sometimes. However, sometimes, I’ve found problems dealing with some and finding out that once the homeowner has a problem, then they don’t cover portions of the repairs and this can be very expensive for you, the homeowner.  GOODMAN and AMANA is the first extended warranty company that we have not had problems with. That’s good news for you.  GOODMAN/AMANA is now the leading residential equipment manufacturer in North America. CARRIER/BRYANT/PAYNE is the 2nd, AMERICAN STANDARD/TRANE is 3rd and LENNOX/ARMSTRONG is the 4th. All the other manufacturers come in a distant 5th. I feel that the quality of the equipment and the extended warranty plans are one of the major reasons that GOODMAN/AMANA went from 4th largest to the largest North American residential manufacturer of heating and cooling equipment in just 10 years. Their plans are excellent and cost about half of what the plan would cost from another manufacturer.  Call or e-mail me if you have any  questions on the AMANA  ASURECARE or GOODMAN GOODCARE extended warranty plans.