Oasis Heating, A/C & Refrigeration Blog : Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Air Quality COVID-19: Ensuring Healthy Air Quality in Your Home

Thursday, April 30th, 2020

As a professional team of HVAC and indoor air quality experts, Oasis knows that we are living in uniquely challenging times. W also know that you are doing all you can to care for yourself and your family in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

As an essential business, Oasis is ready to assist homeowners like you across Northern Virginia. If you find yourself needing immediate repairs, contact our team for emergency HVAC assistance. As you and your loved ones continue to practice social distancing, your home comfort and indoor air quality have never mattered more. As we spend more time indoors, the air quality, and temperature can make a difference in how you feel. 

5 Steps to Ensure Indoor Air Quality and Comfort

  • Keep The Air Circulating in Your Home – It’s important to keep the air circulating through your home to increase the volume of fresh and clean air. To do this, turn on the circulate feature on your thermostat to keep the air moving throughout your filtration system. This will ensure the air is flowing through the filter and getting cleaned more often. *If you have an iComfort® Ultra Smart Thermostat, check out this video to see how you can adjust your fan mode. 
  • Replace or Upgrade Your Air Filter – You should make sure to change your filters on a seasonal-basis to reduce the amount of allergens and dust in your air. Now is a great time to make sure your filter is clean. If your filter is not clean, consider an upgrade to a higher-efficiency filter. When looking at air filters, you should look at the MERV rating, or Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value. This measures how successfully it filters pollutants. The higher the MERV rating, the higher the percentage of small-sized particles that are trapped by the filter. It is these fine-sized particles (smaller than 2.5 microns) that pass through our nose unfiltered and are known to possibly cause respiratory issues. It’s important to note that Lennox MERV16 filters contain a glass backing and should not be used to construct a mask, respirator or any application other than filtration associated with HVAC systems.
    • *High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters are regarded as the gold standard in air filtration, because they’re usually in use at hospitals. They’re effective at trapping 99.97–99.99% of indoor pollutants, including pollen, pet dander and smoke in homes.
  • Get A Good Night’s Sleep – There’s a direct correlation between your body’s temperature and your sleep cycle. Research suggests that the ideal sleep condition sits between 60 – 67 degrees. If that seems on the cool side, there’s a reason: your core body temperature drops to a lower level during sleep. An overly warm temperature interferes with your brain’s messages that it’s time to get some shut-eye.
  • Adjust Your Temperature for Your Fitness Routine – As you’re practicing social distancing, you’re likely adjusting a majority of your daily routines, including how and where you exercise. Practicing traditional yoga calls for a temperature between 70 – 76 degrees, but you might want to raise or lower your thermostat by a few degrees depending on your personal preference. You also want to keep in mind your home’s humidity, airborne pollutants and even a general perception of how the air “feels.” A good HVAC system integrated with the right indoor air quality solutions lets you control all of these factors so that your workout leaves you feeling great inside and out.
  • Call the Professionals – Whether you have questions around upgrading your air filter, seasonal maintenance, repairing or replacing your air filter in Lorton VA and across Northern Virginia, our dealers are here for you. Before you try to correct a system error or make a purchase on your own, contact our team for an expert’s opinion. 

Call on Oasis and Lennox to Enhance Your Air Quality in Response to COVID-19

We know these are challenging times. If you need us, Oasis and Lennox are here to help in Lorton, VA, Alexandria, VA, Burke, VA and across Northern Virginia. We are fully committed to keeping your air, and your home, perfectly comfortable. Here’s to home.

*Based on in-duct testing that shows Healthy Climate® filters reduce airflow restriction. Greater restriction of airflow creates a greater load on a unit’s fan motor, increasing energy consumption.

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A Reminder about Changing Your HVAC System Air Filter This Winter

Tuesday, April 14th, 2020

Whether you use a furnace (electric or gas) or a heat pump to provide cozy indoor temperatures for your family during the winter, you need to pay attention to an important maintenance task: regularly changing the air filter. A forced-air system like a furnace must draw air from inside the home to heat it and then send it out through the ventilation system. The filter prevents debris that the blower fan will draw in from the rooms from entering into the furnace or heat pump and damaging components. (It isn’t specifically designed to improve air quality, however. You need to install a special set of filters for that.)

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Leaking Water Heater

Tuesday, February 11th, 2020

Homeownership is filled with ups and downs. Whether your home is brand-new or gracefully entering its older years, there are maintenance and repair challenges every homeowner may face. One of those is a leaking water heater.

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What Your High Energy Bill Could Mean

Tuesday, January 15th, 2019

What Your High Energy Bill Could Mean

It’s the end of the month, and you’re going through your bills. You’ve paid your rent or mortgage, the credit cards, and the water and internet bills. You come at last to the electric bill, only something looks different. This month, the energy bill is through the roof. It’s higher than it’s ever been, and you can’t begin to imagine why. You think back through the last month and can’t remember having the heat cranked up, or leaving the lights on all night. So what’s going on?

A few possible culprits could be causing an unusually high electric bill. Some of them are fairly harmless, but some of them the may indicate a severe problem lurking beneath the surface. If you happen to notice an anomaly such as this in your electric bill, don’t ignore it. The problem could be more serious than you think.

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There’s Ice on My Heat Pump—Is This a Bad Sign?

Thursday, December 28th, 2017

If you know even a little bit about the operation of the heat pump that keeps your household cool in summer and warm in winter, you’ll understand that the outside unit needs to absorb heat from the ambient air and carry it indoors in order for it to work in heating mode.

Should you notice that there is ice developing along the outdoor cabinet of the heat pump, it may worry you. Is this normal during the winter?

The answer is, confusingly, both yes and no. But we will quickly unconfuse you below:

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The Difference with Quality Professional Furnace Installation

Tuesday, December 26th, 2017

We understand that homeowners are on the hunt for ways to save money, especially at the end of the year when finances often get a bit tight and everyone is starting to plan for the year ahead. Unfortunately, the quest to find bargains on services often ends up backfiring.

For a service like the installation of a furnace to handle the heating for the rest of the winter, you never want to go to any contractor who isn’t qualified and experienced to handle the job. And don’t even think about taking on furnace installation as a “do-it-yourself” experiment!

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Why You Should Upgrade to a Programmable Thermostat

Thursday, December 21st, 2017

What kind of thermostat do you have in your house to control the HVAC system? If it’s a manual one that uses sliders or dials, or a no-frill digital model that can only raise or lower the temperature, then we need to talk. It’s time to upgrade to a digital programmable model—especially if you have updated your HVAC system at some point during the past few years. There are many benefits that come with replacing an old thermostat with an advanced model. Here are a few:

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Heating Maintenance You Need Before Winter Hits

Tuesday, November 28th, 2017

We’re starting to experience colder and rainy weather as we head into the final month of the year. Do you have confidence that your heating system will be able to work at its best through the coming winter? No matter your answer to that question, if you haven’t scheduled a professional inspection or tune-up for your heater, now is the time to take care of it. It isn’t too late!

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3 Crucial Benefits of Fall Heating Maintenance

Thursday, November 16th, 2017

On this blog we’ve written before about why it is important to arrange for a maintenance visit for your home’s heating system before winter arrives. An annual inspection and tune-up for your furnace, heat pump, or radiant heater is the best way to protect your household from losing warmth during one of the coldest days of the year. Regular maintenance will also reduce repair costs and ensure that the heater works at it maximum energy efficiency so that you save money.

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Are Sump Pumps Good For Basements?

Thursday, October 19th, 2017

It is part of the popular conception of sump pumps that the main purpose they serve is to pump water that floods down into the basement. So if you live in a home that doesn’t contain a basement (and more and more modern homes don’t) you may think that it’s unnecessary to have a sump pump installed.

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