San Antonio residents face a challenge every summer: staying comfortable despite stifling humidity and blazing-hot temperatures. As a result, homeowners are always looking for new ways to cool their homes without spending a fortune on energy bills. Air conditioning enhancers are often a wise investment, because they supplement your cooling system with targeted humidity-fighting capabilities.

Because cooler air naturally feels somewhat drier, you might believe that your air conditioner has the capacity to remove humidity. But it doesn’t. And asking an air conditioner to run all summer in a very humid environment can lead to higher energy costs, because it’s working overtime to generate cooler air while overcoming moisture and condensation within the system.

Air-conditioning enhancers can help. There are two enhancer options for removing humidity:

• Whole-house dehumidifier. Installed inside your home’s ductwork system, a whole-house dehumidifier will remove moisture from the air that will then pass through your air conditioner. The air conditioner can then efficiently cool less humid air. This system is ideal for whole-house comfort, because it utilizes your existing ductwork so that every room in your home benefits from dehumidified, cool air.
• A/C enhancer. Usually added to existing air conditioning systems, this piece of equipment is specifically designed to remove moisture from the air. Used in conjunction with an A/C, it lets the air conditioner do what it does best – cool the air — while the enhancer removes the moisture.

With a system in place to remove humidity, many homeowners can raise their thermostats a few degrees, allowing their air conditioners to consume less energy while still comfortably cooling their home.

With an efficient air conditioner supplemented by air conditioning enhancers, San Antonio homeowners can rest assured that this one-two punch will optimize home comfort and ensure manageable energy bills. For help evaluating which air conditioning enhancer best suits your home, contact Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning today. Serving the San Antonio area, we’re always happy to help.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Humidity meter image via Shutterstock

In San Antonio, homeowners are often all too familiar with household mold. Because of our climate, homeowners must be vigilant in keeping relative humidity within a healthy range to prevent household mold from taking over.

Prevention strategies are often more effective if you first understand how mold grows.

Mold is actually useful — as part of nature. In its natural environment, mold helps to “mulch” organic matter such as leaves. But inside your home, it holds no value. Mold spores, when present in the air, are attracted to moist surfaces. Once they meet up with moisture, they begin to feast — namely, by reproducing at an alarmingly fast rate.

If you’ve ever had a mold problem in your home, you likely have first-hand experience with how stubborn mold spots are — and how hard it is to get rid of them. That’s why prevention is the best strategy.

Most obviously, the best way to prevent mold is to avoid dampness in your home. But this can be hard to do in San Antonio, with nearly year-round high relative humidity levels. Short of moving, here’s what you can do:

• Clean up water spills and leaks immediately.
• Keep your gutters in good condition for ideal drainage.
• Be sure the ground around your home doesn’t slope toward the structure, which can cause moisture to seep into the home.
• Make sure that your bathroom and kitchen exhaust systems, as well as your furnace and dryer venting, send humid air outside.
• Use a whole-house dehumidification system to consistently maintain healthy indoor humidity levels. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, you can ensure safe indoor humidity levels by keeping relative humidity between 30 and 50 percent. Dehumidification systems are generally manufactured with sensors that allow you to program a particular humidity setting; the system will adjust its output accordingly.
• Consider installing an A/C enhancer, a component that will assist your air-conditioning system by  specifically addressing moisture removal.

Easily limit household mold problems and use these tips to prevent it from getting the upper hand. For expert help and advice, contact Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning today. Serving San Antonio and surrounding communities, we’re always happy to help.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Household air quality image via Shutterstock

A good moisture balance in your home is ideal for more than just your comfort. Too little moisture and you’re likely to have problems with dry sinus passages, dry skin and warped wood; however, too much moisture is also a problem as it often leads to the growth of mold.

Have you ever walked into a space and smelled that familiar musty or mildew odor? That smell indicates the presence of mold, even if you can’t see it. And mold can lead to significant health problems, even in people who are relatively healthy.

The best way to approach mold removal is to maintain a mold-resistant environment. Keep in mind that four criteria must be in play in order for mold to grow:

1. Mold spores are in the air.
2. There is food (wood, paper or other fibers) for mold.
3. The temperature is above freezing.
4. The humidity levels are high (above 50 to 60 percent).

Because you can’t realistically control the first three points (mold spores exist naturally within the air; you can’t dispose of a wood-framed home; and humans could never exist at temperatures low enough to get rid of all mold) it’s ideal to attack the source; humidity.

You can use two home systems to control mold: dehumidification and air conditioning.

• Install a whole-house dehumidifier that works with your cooling system. It gives the A/C a boost in controlling humidity, as air conditioners are designed to cool air (dehumidification is a by-product). When the A/C cycles off, the dehumidification system continues to work to maintain healthy humidity levels.
• Operate the A/C to help maintain good moisture levels. Don’t use the A/C’s “On” switch; instead, use “Auto.” This action allows the A/C to cycle off occasionally, which is actually conducive to lowering humidity. When the A/C fan is continually on, moisture that condenses on the evaporator coil is re-introduced into your home, adding to the humidity.

To create ideal conditions and allow mold removal, control your home’s humidity with dehumidification and A/C. The comfort experts at Jon Wayne are here to help. Call us anytime with your questions and we’ll help you explore your options.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about mold and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services  San Antonio and the surrounding communities of Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County.  Visit our website to see our special offers to get started today!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

The heat is bad enough here in San Antonio, but humidity only makes us feel hotter. To survive summer you not only have to stay cool, you have to stay dry as well. There are a few dehumidifier options that work well:

Air conditioners

While A/Cs are not specifically designed to remove moisture from the air, they do generally remove some moisture from the air as a by-product of the cooling process. This might work for homes located in regions with low humidity levels. But for San Antonio area homes, this is asking too much of an air-conditioning system because of our high humidity. The only time an A/C system can dehumidify is when it is running. Most homeowners do everything they can to keep the system from running, such as tinting or upgrading windows. While steps like this are good in terms of saving energy, they are not so good if the A/C doesn’t run enough to sufficiently dehumidify.

Whole-house dehumidifiers

These systems work in conjunction with your A/C to dehumidify the air. Here’s how it works: Whole-house dehumidifiers run concurrently with the A/C to dehumidify the air, but when the home’s temperature reaches the desired level and the A/C shuts off, the system continues to dehumidify. And you get a comfortably dehumidified home.

Contact the pros at Jon Wayne. You can rely on our experience, as we’ve been helping San Antonio homeowners stay comfortable since the 1970s.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about whole-house dehumidification systems and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services  San Antonio and the surrounding communities of Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County.  Visit our website to see our special offers to get started today!

San Antonio homeowners get to know their homes really well in the summer. With high temperatures and humidity, homeowners seek refuge inside to stay comfortable. As a result, indoor air quality can be compromised when a home is closed up for a long period. Indoor air quality, however, can be managed and improved through source control, ventilation and air-cleaning systems.

Several indoor pollutants trigger problems even in healthy people, but are more damaging for those with respiratory issues, like asthma. There are two categories of pollutants that can lurk in closed-up homes: particulates, such as dust and mold, and gases, such as paint fumes.

• Removing pollutants at their source is one of the most efficient and least-costly methods to improve indoor air quality. If you’re remodeling your home, doing painting jobs outside or with enough air circulation to release fumes outdoors targets the source. Taking care of any moisture problems quickly and cleaning up mold thoroughly when there is a problem removes the source.
• Ventilation helps to move fresh air in and stale air out. A Whole House Dehumidifier can be set up to draw in fresh outside air into the home, while removing moisture from the air. One benefit here is a Whole House Dehumifier can help keep the indoor humidity at levels at which dust mites can not survive. In addition, when indoor humidity is consistantly kept at the 50% range, users find that they can run their AC thermostat setting up to 5 degrees higher and still be comfortable.
• Air cleaners can help to target specific classes of contaminants. UV Light systems target mold and bacteria. Air Purification Systems do more than filter the air – they purify it, often through the use of several air-cleaning technologies.

For improved indoor air quality this summer, use source control, ventilation and air cleaners. Contact the experts at Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning for a consultation. Our indoor air quality technicians can help you target the right pollutants and get you on your way to cleaner air.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about indoor air quality and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services  San Antonio and the surrounding communities of Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County.  Visit our website to see our special offers to get started today!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

Indoor air quality is one of the most underestimated health hazards that confront San Antonio homeowners. Unfortunately, it’s also common. Indoor air is often home to a host of contaminants, including dust and dust mites, mold spores, bacteria and viruses, pet dander, pollen and cleaning fumes.

Ideally, your indoor air quality strategy should involve more than one method. Here are three effective strategies that can help improve the air you breathe.

Advanced filtration

Standard, disposable air filters are typically able to trap only about 5 percent to 15 percent of particles. Advanced options are available:

• HEPA filters, or high efficiency particulate air filters, do a superior job of capturing particles that can irritate allergies or other respiratory problems. They can trap 99.97 percent of particles small as .3 microns across. True HEPA filters are too restrictive for all or the air circulated thru your HVAC, so only a portion of that air should be channelled thru the HEPA. Doing this over a long period of time geatly increases the IAQ of a home.
• Extended-life filters have large surfaces, require minimal maintenance and trap extremely small contaminants much better than even the best 1″ throw-away filters, and since they normally only require changing once or twice a year, are more economical to maintain.
• Air purification systems that utilize more than one method of killing microorganisms and trapping contaminants can clean air as many as eight times an hour.

UV light

UV light purification systems destroy microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria by rupturing their cellular structure. The damaged microorganism is unable to repair or reproduce itself and is rendered harmless. Ultraviolet light is a natural sterilizer due to its high frequency.

Dehumidification

A high humidity level may be uncomfortable for you, but it makes for prime growing conditions for microorganisms, such as mold. Mold can grow on HVAC equipment, around moist windowsills, in damp bathrooms, inside walls and elsewhere. Whole-house dehumidifiers can remove several gallons of moisture from your air every day.

By balancing relative humidity levels around 50 percent, you can stem the growth of microorganisms. A UV light system can work in conjunction with these efforts by killing any microorganisms that do happen to be present. Advanced filtration systems capture remaining particles such as dust, dust mites, pollen and other allergens.

Don’t be daunted by poor indoor air quality. There are many options to improve it. Questions? Please contact the experts at Jon Wayne Heating & Air Conditioning. We’re happy to help.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about indoor air quality and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services  San Antonio and the surrounding communities of Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County. To get started, check out our website or see our current promotions.

High humidity makes everyone uncomfortable. Our bodies are designed to cool using evaporation. If the humidity is high, that can’t happen and we feel it. In cold weather humidity increases heat conductivity, making the cold feel even colder.

Humidity can be a health hazard, too. Humidity above 50-60% contributes to the growth of molds and dust mites and neither are good, particularly if you have allergies. Studies indicate that exposure to high humidity levels and molds raise the likelihood of asthma and contributes to other health problems (National Institute of Environmental Health Science). High humidity can also damage woodwork, furniture, musical instruments, books, fabric (such as quilts) and artwork.

Protect yourself and your family by taking steps to reduce humidity. Here’s a common sense tip: close windows and doors during wet weather and ensure that all rooms, particularly high humidity rooms like bathrooms and kitchens, are properly ventilated. Small, portable dehumidifiers are available and helpful if you have high humidity in a basement, garage or other location.

Portables can only do so much, however, and may require daily emptying. To bring down humidity levels in 3 or more rooms, your best choice is to add a central dehumidifier or A/C enhancer.

Modern whole-house dehumidifiers or A/C enhancers are good solutions. Centralized dehumidifiers will remove many gallons of water and require very little maintenance and attention. A ventilated dehumidification unit can bring fresh air into your home and works year-round, whether it’s hot or cold.

Add an air conditioning enhancer to improve the efficiency of your A/C unit and lower humidity. A/C enhancers improve efficiency by prickling the coils and removing residual humidity during A/C system startup. SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) tests do not measure efficiency during start-up so A/C systems do not typically have enhancers.

You can increase your comfort, health and the efficiency of your HVAC system by adding a dehumidifier or A/C enhancer. There are several factors to consider when choosing one. We would be happy to provide more information to help you choose the right one for your home, so contact us for more information.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about saving money with programmable thermostats and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Jon Wayne Heating and Air Conditioning services  San Antonio and the surrounding communities of Seguin, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Boerne, and Comal County. To get started, check out our website or see our current promotions.