Did you know that Sky Heating and Air Conditioning is the largest WaterFurnace ground source heat pump installer in the pacific NW? A ground source heat pump, also known as a geothermal system is the most efficient way to heat and cool and home and take care of a homes hot water needs. A geothermal system can replace a natural gas furnace, air conditioner and water heater with only 1 unit! They heat the house in the winter and cool the house in the summer while optionally providing 100% of the homes water heating needs. They can heat water for a shower, a radiant floor or even a pool and heat for less than the cost of natural gas, oil, propane or electric resistance heat, so how do they work so well?
A geothermal heat pump uses the heat stored in the ground to convert the BTU energy to warm heat for the winter. During the summer time a geothermal heat pump rejects the heat from your home into the 55 degree ground to be stored for later use in the winter. While a normal heat pump or air conditioner works using the outside air temperature a geothermal system uses the stable 55 degree year round ground temperature to transfer energy.
Because of the systems efficiency the federal government provides a 30% federal tax credit on the total cost of the system. There are also additional state tax credits, energy trust of oregon cash incentives and PGE instant rebates so that these systems are more affordable then ever. A geothermal system has a 24.7 year lifespan compared to a national average of 15 years on a conventional gas furnace and air conditioning or heat pump system. WaterFurnace geothermal heat pumps come with a 10 year parts and labor warranty vs the standard 5 year parts 1 year labor warranty of a conventional system and because of their efficiency they can save up to 70% on your heating and cooling costs! All this plus no outdoor air conditioner so you can enjoy your backyard in the summer without the noise from your air conditioner coming on and off. You can also visit our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/skyheating1 to see videos of systems we have installed. If you have any additional questions call Travis at 503-235-9083 and ask about a geothermal system.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
When is the best time to buy a furnace?
We often hear questions about when is it the best time to buy a furnace, are they less expensive in the summer, do the installs go faster in the winter etc. The honest answer is, there is no perfect time to buy a furnace. Pricing does not change throughout the year. Sky Heating keeps the same pricing for a furnace year round unless we get an increase from the manufacture of the product. We work with both Trane and Ruud to get you the best options available. During the summer is usually our busiest time of the year so it can sometimes take us a few weeks before we can get your furnace installed and during the winter we run into the same issue with furnaces breaking and needing to be replaced. Ideally if possible, have your furnace replaced between August and November to get the fastest service or February through May before we get busy again with AC's. Currently there are great financing offers up to 48 months 0% interest or we have year round 36 month 0% interest financing on the Trane XC95M which is a 60 stage modulating furnace. New furnaces are up to 97% efficient and have energy saving ECM blower motors that can also reduce your electric bill costs.
The fact is the best time to buy is whenever you can afford to put a new furnace in, older furnaces last 15-25 years and if your furnace is over 25 years old it is probably living on borrowed time. Call Sky Heating today to get a quote for a new furnace replacement so you are not left in the cold this winter or without air conditioning if your furnaces blower breaks this summer.
The fact is the best time to buy is whenever you can afford to put a new furnace in, older furnaces last 15-25 years and if your furnace is over 25 years old it is probably living on borrowed time. Call Sky Heating today to get a quote for a new furnace replacement so you are not left in the cold this winter or without air conditioning if your furnaces blower breaks this summer.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Special rate of 0% APR with 60 equal monthly payments*
Sky Heating is proud to announce the continuation of our Special rate of 0% APR with 60 equal monthly payments* on Trane XV18 and XV20i heat pump and air conditioner systems. A system is both an indoor(either furnace or air handler) and outdoor component. This means you can get a top of the line heating and cooling system for as small payment each month before tax credits and rebates which can add up to over $2,000 in additional savings. These systems come with a best in the business 12 year compressor warranty, 10 year functional parts warranty and 6 year labor warranty. Call Sky Heating today for additional details because this offer won't last long.
503-235-9083
**The Home Projects® Visa® credit card is issued by Wells Fargo Financial National Bank, an Equal Housing Lender. Special terms apply to qualifying purchases charged with approved credit at participating merchants. The special terms APR will continue to apply until all qualifying purchases are paid in full. The monthly payment for this purchase will be the amount that will pay for the purchase in full in equal payments during the promotional (special terms) period. The APR for Purchases will apply to certain fees such as a late payment fee or if you use the card for other transactions. For newly opened accounts, the APR for Purchases is 27.99%. This APR may vary with the market based on the U.S. Prime Rate and is given as of 07/01/2015. If you are charged interest in any billing cycle, the minimum interest charge will be $1.00. If you used the card for cash advances, the cash advance fee is 5.00% of the amount of the cash advance, but not less than $10.00. Offer expires [12/31/2015]."
503-235-9083
**The Home Projects® Visa® credit card is issued by Wells Fargo Financial National Bank, an Equal Housing Lender. Special terms apply to qualifying purchases charged with approved credit at participating merchants. The special terms APR will continue to apply until all qualifying purchases are paid in full. The monthly payment for this purchase will be the amount that will pay for the purchase in full in equal payments during the promotional (special terms) period. The APR for Purchases will apply to certain fees such as a late payment fee or if you use the card for other transactions. For newly opened accounts, the APR for Purchases is 27.99%. This APR may vary with the market based on the U.S. Prime Rate and is given as of 07/01/2015. If you are charged interest in any billing cycle, the minimum interest charge will be $1.00. If you used the card for cash advances, the cash advance fee is 5.00% of the amount of the cash advance, but not less than $10.00. Offer expires [12/31/2015]."
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Ductless mini split heating and cooling systems
Have you heard the term "Ductless heat pump" or "mini split" before? Maybe you have been wondering what is that silly looking thing on the wall of the homes I am seeing on House Hunters international on HGTV, well wonder no more.
A Ductless mini split heat pump system is a more modern style of heating and cooling system that has been used around the world for many years but has only become popular in the US in the past few years(although Sky Heating has been installing these for over 10 years now). In the rest of the world over 70% of heating and cooling systems are a form of a ductless mini split, we are one of the only parts of the world that uses ductwork to heat and cool a home. Ductwork has the potential to leak energy, to leak air and to pull in air from unconditioned spaces like a garage, attic or crawl space. Nobody wants to be heating their crawl space while breathing in air from their attic with ductwork. We also have cars with up to 4 heating zones yet most homes only have 1 heating zone? Its amazing that a car that is maybe 120 sq feet and used an hour a day has more comfort than a house that is 10X the cost, 10-40X the size and used up to 24 hours a day. With a ductless mini split a wall head goes into each room of the home or the main areas of the home depending on cost.
Each of these wall heads can independently heat or cool, so the living room can be set to 72 degrees when company is over, the guest bedroom can be set to save energy at 60 degrees and the master can be set for 68 degrees for the ideal sleeping conditions. With a ducted system the whole house is whatever temperature you set the thermostat. This is also saves energy because you only heat or cool the areas that you need to rather than wasting energy and heating the entire home when only when room is being used at a time. Ductless mini splits are also up to double the efficiency of standard heating systems like gas furnaces or basic heat pumps. Ductless mini splits both heat and cool so you get both benefits out of one unit and they are incredibly quiet, usually they produce less noise than a refrigerator!
Sky Heating and Air Conditioning even uses a Daikin Ductless mini split to heat and cool our office.
A Ductless mini split heat pump system is a more modern style of heating and cooling system that has been used around the world for many years but has only become popular in the US in the past few years(although Sky Heating has been installing these for over 10 years now). In the rest of the world over 70% of heating and cooling systems are a form of a ductless mini split, we are one of the only parts of the world that uses ductwork to heat and cool a home. Ductwork has the potential to leak energy, to leak air and to pull in air from unconditioned spaces like a garage, attic or crawl space. Nobody wants to be heating their crawl space while breathing in air from their attic with ductwork. We also have cars with up to 4 heating zones yet most homes only have 1 heating zone? Its amazing that a car that is maybe 120 sq feet and used an hour a day has more comfort than a house that is 10X the cost, 10-40X the size and used up to 24 hours a day. With a ductless mini split a wall head goes into each room of the home or the main areas of the home depending on cost.
Each of these wall heads can independently heat or cool, so the living room can be set to 72 degrees when company is over, the guest bedroom can be set to save energy at 60 degrees and the master can be set for 68 degrees for the ideal sleeping conditions. With a ducted system the whole house is whatever temperature you set the thermostat. This is also saves energy because you only heat or cool the areas that you need to rather than wasting energy and heating the entire home when only when room is being used at a time. Ductless mini splits are also up to double the efficiency of standard heating systems like gas furnaces or basic heat pumps. Ductless mini splits both heat and cool so you get both benefits out of one unit and they are incredibly quiet, usually they produce less noise than a refrigerator!
Sky Heating and Air Conditioning even uses a Daikin Ductless mini split to heat and cool our office.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Variable Capacity Heating Systems
The newest technology in heating and cooling is what is known as a
variable capacity system. Unlike conventional systems that either turn
on to heat your home or turn on to cool a variable capacity system will
adjust how much heating or cooling and airflow goes into your home. The
best way to equate the benefits of this technology is to think of cars.
Can you imagine a car that is only accelerating at full speed or braking
at full speed? Me neither, because that would be very dangerous,
inefficient and uncomfortable. A car has a transmission that has
multiple gears and a gas pedal that has multiple "stages" to put gas
into your car so that when your car operates it has hundreds of micro
adjustments that can be made depending on your speed, how much weight is
in the car and if you are going up or down a hill. A variable capacity
system works the same way, when it is 50 degrees outside and your house
only needs minimal heating your system may run at 25% of capacity, but
when its 25 degrees out and your house needs a lot of heat it can run at
97% of capacity. This variable capacity or modulation helps keep your
home more comfortable, more efficient and has a longer lifespan. Just
like a car on the highway gets better gas mileage and has less
breakdowns a variable capacity heat pump system runs on cruise control
for the best efficiency and lowest breakdowns. Various manufactures like
Trane, WaterFurnace, Mitsubishi and Daikin offer variable capacity
heating and cooling systems. Call Sky Heating to find out if this is a
good product for your home! We also have up to 60 Month 0% interest
financing on Trane XV18 and XV20i systems.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Natural Gas vs. Electric Heat Pump Heating
Its time for the two fuel sources to play fisticuffs and battle it out to see who is really more efficient for our climate and what is often the best fit for your home. The results may surprise you because with the new technology available its not as simple as it used to be.
Lets start with natural gas, the reigning champion of heating since it unseated oil heat in many parts of the country in the 70's and 80's. Natural gas has been a staple for many new homes heating systems and with costs currently around $1.00 per therm(100K BTU's) it has a relatively low cost. It can be used for cooking, clothes drying, water heating and of course heating your home. The best furnaces today are in the 97% efficient(AFUE) range compared to older 78-80% furnaces. This means that for every dollar(around 100K BTU's) you get 97K BTU's into your home and only 3K BTU's going out of your chimney. With recent finds of new sources of Natural Gas in North America there is plenty of supply, but how difficult and how much impact there is to get it out of the ground is yet to be seen. Another downside to natural gas is that it currently can not be generated on your own property, do you know anybody with a natural gas drill rig in their back yard? Neither do I! So for a typical home with a $1,680 per year gas bill and a 92% efficient furnace with a $1.20 per therm price they use around 123.7 million BTU's per year.
So lets talk about electric heat pumps, just like gas furnaces, the efficiencies can range from minimum standard(7.7 HSPF) to high efficiency(10+HSPF) HSPF stands for Heating Season Performance Factor and is essentially the COP of a heat pump seasonally adjusted. So what is a COP? COP Stands for coefficient of performance, so its a little like a % rating, but since a heat pump is over 100% efficient it gets stated differently. The highest efficiency ground source heat pump is up to a 5.3 COP or 530% more efficient than electricity. The highest efficiency air source heat pumps are in the 4.5 COP range or 450% more efficient than electric. The problem is they are rated at a specific outdoor air temperature of 47 degrees, so when its warmer they are more efficient and when its colder they are less efficient unlike a gas furnace that is 97% efficient nearly all of the time if sized properly. So getting back to HSPF lets say we have a 9HSPF heat pump(needed for most rebates) we can divide 9.0 by 3.413(number of BTU's per watt) to get a seasonal average COP of 2.63 or 263% more efficient than standard electric. You can already see that it is hard to compare natural gas to a heat pump and while the results are coming, I want you to see why many others may not offer a heat pump, because they don't understand how they work and understanding how they work is key to knowing what is best for your home.
Using the same 123.7 million BTU's for a home and a cost of $.11 per KWh for electricity we can figure out that it would take 36,243 KWh of electricty or $3,986 to heat the same home. However since we are running at 263% efficient the cost to heat the house with a heat pump would be $1,515
The heat pump would cost around $165 per year less, and if the home did not need the gas meter or did not currently have a gas meter that would save them another $8 per month or $96 per year additional. Electricity can always be generated by solar PV that is available for many homes and that would drop most costs to operate a heat pump to only $1,200 per year if you lease a solar PV system with $0 down. A heat pump both heats and cools and provides better air quality with more even temperatures for most homes.
So which is the winner? It still depends on your home but with all things considered for a mid efficiency heating system a heat pump is going to be the lower cost to operate system and if you don't currently have gas in your home, then you will save an additional $96 per year by not needing a gas meter.
Lets start with natural gas, the reigning champion of heating since it unseated oil heat in many parts of the country in the 70's and 80's. Natural gas has been a staple for many new homes heating systems and with costs currently around $1.00 per therm(100K BTU's) it has a relatively low cost. It can be used for cooking, clothes drying, water heating and of course heating your home. The best furnaces today are in the 97% efficient(AFUE) range compared to older 78-80% furnaces. This means that for every dollar(around 100K BTU's) you get 97K BTU's into your home and only 3K BTU's going out of your chimney. With recent finds of new sources of Natural Gas in North America there is plenty of supply, but how difficult and how much impact there is to get it out of the ground is yet to be seen. Another downside to natural gas is that it currently can not be generated on your own property, do you know anybody with a natural gas drill rig in their back yard? Neither do I! So for a typical home with a $1,680 per year gas bill and a 92% efficient furnace with a $1.20 per therm price they use around 123.7 million BTU's per year.
So lets talk about electric heat pumps, just like gas furnaces, the efficiencies can range from minimum standard(7.7 HSPF) to high efficiency(10+HSPF) HSPF stands for Heating Season Performance Factor and is essentially the COP of a heat pump seasonally adjusted. So what is a COP? COP Stands for coefficient of performance, so its a little like a % rating, but since a heat pump is over 100% efficient it gets stated differently. The highest efficiency ground source heat pump is up to a 5.3 COP or 530% more efficient than electricity. The highest efficiency air source heat pumps are in the 4.5 COP range or 450% more efficient than electric. The problem is they are rated at a specific outdoor air temperature of 47 degrees, so when its warmer they are more efficient and when its colder they are less efficient unlike a gas furnace that is 97% efficient nearly all of the time if sized properly. So getting back to HSPF lets say we have a 9HSPF heat pump(needed for most rebates) we can divide 9.0 by 3.413(number of BTU's per watt) to get a seasonal average COP of 2.63 or 263% more efficient than standard electric. You can already see that it is hard to compare natural gas to a heat pump and while the results are coming, I want you to see why many others may not offer a heat pump, because they don't understand how they work and understanding how they work is key to knowing what is best for your home.
Using the same 123.7 million BTU's for a home and a cost of $.11 per KWh for electricity we can figure out that it would take 36,243 KWh of electricty or $3,986 to heat the same home. However since we are running at 263% efficient the cost to heat the house with a heat pump would be $1,515
The heat pump would cost around $165 per year less, and if the home did not need the gas meter or did not currently have a gas meter that would save them another $8 per month or $96 per year additional. Electricity can always be generated by solar PV that is available for many homes and that would drop most costs to operate a heat pump to only $1,200 per year if you lease a solar PV system with $0 down. A heat pump both heats and cools and provides better air quality with more even temperatures for most homes.
So which is the winner? It still depends on your home but with all things considered for a mid efficiency heating system a heat pump is going to be the lower cost to operate system and if you don't currently have gas in your home, then you will save an additional $96 per year by not needing a gas meter.
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