Ways to Safeguard Your Home Before Leaving Town
Congratulations! You’re finally going on that long-anticipated and much-deserved vacation. Don’t make the mistake of waiting until the morning you leave to get your house prepped for vacation-mode. Here’s our pre-travel checklist: Unplug and reset the thermostat. Temporarily adjust the thermostat so you’re not wasting energy in an empty house. (A good rule of thumb
Tips to Get Your HVAC System Ready for Warmer Weather
March in Minnesota can’t make up its mind: one day we get slammed with enough snow to warrant school closures, and the next it’s 40 and sunny, bringing spring-time thoughts of flowers and sunshine and warmer days ahead. March weather also means your heating and cooling needs will likely go from one extreme to another.
How to Change Your Furnace Filter
Remembering to change your furnace filters is one of the best ways to maintain your HVAC system between tune-ups. Not only will regular furnace filter maintenance keep your air clear when open windows aren’t an option, but it will also reduce heating costs by improving the efficiency of your furnace. Keeping up with furnace filter maintenance isn’t difficult, but
Take Care of the Heart of Your Home: Your HVAC System
A highly functioning system translates to lower utility bills, better air quality, and fewer unnecessary costs With February 14 fast approaching, it’s hard to ignore the abundance of red, pink, and white hearts decorating retail stores and restaurants and even cars. Not coincidentally, February is also American Heart Month, drawing attention to cardiovascular disease and
10 Common Plumbing Problems & Helpful Tips
It’s hard to imagine life before indoor plumbing, when water for cooking and bathing was hauled into the house by the bucketful, people took sponge baths in little tin tubs, and chamber pots and outhouses were the norm. We’ve grown so accustomed to modern plumbing innovations that we often don’t give much thought to our
How to Handle a Holiday HVAC Emergency
There’s no good time to have an HVAC, plumbing, or electrical emergency, but perhaps the worst time is on a holiday. An emergency interrupts your festivities, and it’s not easy to find an HVAC repair company willing to send someone out on a national holiday (at least not for an exorbitant holiday rate). As a
How to Prevent Holiday Plumbing Problems
Plumbing problems are…. not exactly festive. But unfortunately, our houses are extra prone to plumbing problems this time of year. All that cooking, feasting, and hosting places additional strain on your home plumbing system that can result in untimely breakdowns. The good news is that it takes just a little extra precaution to prevent the
The Surprising Facts About Thanksgiving Energy Use
With all the cooking and baking that happens on Turkey Day – not to mention the football watching – you would expect Thanksgiving energy use to be higher than normal and might go looking for tips to help you use less energy on Thanksgiving. In fact, the opposite is true. Across America, energy usage actually drops
HVAC Guide to Hosting Over the Holidays
It’s that time of year: We’ve had our first (and second) snowfall, malls around the Twin Cities are putting up red and green decorations, and our social calendars are quickly filling up for every weekend between now and mid-January. The holidays are just around the corner. Hosting family and friends over the holidays is a
Save Energy With Nest Learning Thermostat
Did you know that your thermostat is responsible for over half of your monthly energy bill? If you’re trying to save energy in your home, you need a thermostat that not only works with you, but works for you. Saving money on energy use is not as easy as simply installing a programmable thermostat. You
