TAYLOR & TYLER ENERGY EFFICIENCY SOLUTIONS

Energy Efficiency

One of the top 10 investments

There’s gold in your house

• Energy consumption
• 40-60% from your Air conditioning
• 20-30% from your windows
• 20- 30% air infiltration
• 10-15% lights
• 10-25% other loads
• 10-30% from insulation or lack thereof

 

Start with the most effective solution

• Recondition or replace your A/C
• Reduce the air infiltration
• Reduce radiant heat through the windows and roof line
• Insulate attic properly
• Change lights bulbs to florescent

 

Air infiltration

• Seal all air infiltration in your home
• Windows
• Doors
• Receptacles
• Plumbing fixtures
• Light fixtures
• Duct leakage

 

Insulation

• Increase the R-value in your attic
• Spray a radiant barrier paint on roof line increases R-value 80-90%
• Cellulose is great for adding more insulation to the attic
• Foam can be retrofitted for existing homes, it is absolutely the best for new homes
• Foam will reduce the heat load on the home, duct-work, while sealing air infiltration.

 

Air Conditioning – After 17 years of doing this work I would say 90-95% of Air conditioners are working right now between 50-80% efficient due to a multiple of things such as.

• Dirty condensers
• Inefficient duct-work
• Broken duct-work
• Undersized supply and return ducts
• Dirty blower wheels
• Dirty filters or poor filtration
• Dirty evaporator coils
• Poor installations / workmanship
• Excessive heat in attic
• Overcharged systems
• Undercharged systems
• Mismatched systems
• Undersized copper lines
• Poorly maintained units
• Old 10 seer systems

 

Dirty condensers – When your condenser is dirty it cannot take out the heat from the house, so it transfers the heat back inside causing the system to loose as much as 50% efficiency.

• Condensers need to be cleaned as much as monthly.
• Service contracts are available for maintaining your system

 

Duct-work  –  30-40% of the efficiency in your home is lost through your duct-work.

• Broken ducts– cause cool air to blow in your attic and create a negative pressure in your home. Sucking in hot humid air from outside.
• Supply air leaks – At the plenum, collars, boxes, are more common than you would think. Increase energy bills as much as 30%
• Return air leaks– Suck in hot air from the attic 140 degree 90% humidity, this causes excessive load on your home increases energy bills as much as 40%
• Return air grills or chases cause inefficiency in your air conditioning system, resulting in a system loosing up to 20%efficiency
• Supply air ducts too small– Cause high velocity noisy inefficient duct-work. Your ducts should be sized appropriately to supply the proper airflow to a specific room.

 

Duct-work insulation – This is critical you can loose as much as a ton of air conditioning through the insulation on your ducts.

• Old duct-work– is very inefficient 20 years old original insulation on the ducts is only about an R-2 insulation (re-wrap with R-8 insulation) It also does not have a vapor barrier around it which could cause sweating on the ducts.
• Hard pipe can be re wrapped and resealed all seams can be screwed taped and mastic for life long efficiency.
• Flexible ducts- Typically R-4 could be replaced with R-8 flex
• Flexible duct-work with a plastic skin dry rots  in the attic and falls apart over years
• Hard pipe can only be used under the house, the insulation deteriorates under the house, needs re-wrapping every 10 years

 

Dirty blower wheels / filters

• Filtration/Filtration/Filtration   the 3 most important things when maintaining your system
• When your blower wheel is dirty it cannot scoop the proper airflow across your coil, causing the coil to not pick up the heat from the house.
• When your filter is dirty It restricts airflow causing your system to run inefficiently
• Lack of filtration causes your evaporator coil to get dirty. This causes a variety of problems from drain clogs, bad compressors, sweating ducts, humidity problems & high energy bills with very little airflow through your ducts
• Dirty blower wheels cause blower motor failure, loud noises from the blower compartment

 

Under sized supply and return ducts

• Restricting supply or return ducts greatly affect the efficiency of you’re air conditioning system
• Proper supply ducts allow the proper amount of air into the space to correctly cool or heat that room
• Too small of duct-work on supply will not allow enough airflow into a space, also it will be loud and noisy
• Too small of a return causes restricted airflow and extreme inefficiencies in your system
• Raise energy cost as much as 30%

 

Dirty evaporator coils

• Restricted air flow
• Poor filtration
• Return air leaks
• Low cooling capacity
• High energy bills
• Only cools at night
• Freezing, ice on the coils
• Mold problems in the plenum and in duct-work, also on grills
• Compressor failure, bad valves
• Burning wires on the compressor
• Compressor rusting
• Blower motor failure
• Ducts sweating/ water spots on ceiling
• Clogged drain lines
• Overflows on the floor or ceiling
• High repair cost

 

Poor – installation,  workmanship

• The installation Is very important if a system is not installed properly it will not work properly
• Check for air leaks
• Make sure the plenum is the correct size and not leaking under the plenum or behind it
• Bad installation when the coil is either larger or smaller than the supply plenum
• Always purchase a new plenum when buying a new coil , more expensive but worth it.
• Coils not being high enough to allow proper down flow
• Return/supply air leaks
• Condensers installed in the dirt not raised on top of the slab
• Flexible ducts for return air chases are typically not large enough
• Vertical installation – rotten platforms, openings sucking in hot air from the attic
• Condensers installed under patios or blocked by fence cause high head pressures and inefficient operation
• Too large of air conditions cause high humidity and short cycling

 

Excessive heat in the attic

• Typical construction of a home, the attic is usually between 130 -150 degrees
• Hot air flows to cool air any holes in your ceiling through electrical fixtures, smoke alarms, attic stair cases, all of these cause excessive heat load on your home
• Install an attic stair tent to cover the attic stair case
• Install insulated boxes over recessed lights
• Excessive heat penetrates through your insulation, the higher the R-value the less heat load on your home R-30 recommended in south Louisiana
•  RADIANT HEAT- Penetrates through your roof causing excessive heat.
• Have Heat Bloc 75 sprayed on your roof decking in your attic and reflect as much as 75% of the heat getting into your attic. Reduces the temperature about 20-25 degrees
• Foam your roof line and remove your existing insulation in your attic this will put your ductwork in a conditioned space which will greatly reduce the heat load on your home
• Your air inside your ducts is about 55 degrees the attic is usually over 130 with about ½ to 1’’ insulation how efficient can this be..

 

Over charged systems

• Most A/C systems are either over charged or under charged
• Overcharging a system causes compressor problems
• Inefficient operation
• High amperage
• Long run times
• High head pressure
• Loud operation
• Possible compressor failure
• Flooding of the compressor

 

Under charging of the A/C system

• High supply air temperature
• Low humidity removal
• Low cooling capacity, Does not cool well
• Compressor running hot and runs excessively
• System only cools at night
• A/C freezes up periodically
• Usually caused from refrigerant leaks
• High energy bills

 

Under sized refrigerant lines

• Mostly seen when replacing a 2 ton system very old existing 5/16-5/8 needed 3/8 -3/4
• This causes high head pressures and low suction pressure, very inefficient
• Replace refrigerant lines when applicable or when needed
• Make sure lines are insulated all the way to the condenser and the coil

 

Mismatched system

• Usually caused by the home owner wanting a larger unit and getting a friend of his brother to install a system that was pulled out of another friends house that’s only 2 years old.
• Mismatched systems are usually caused by inexperienced installers or home owners trying to find the cheap way out
• Mistakes do happen on new installations where the wrong condenser or coil are installed, mostly due to somebody not paying attention to what there doing grabbing the wrong unit from the supply house.
• Heat pumps must be matched from the factory do not mismatch a heat pump it will not work properly
• A larger condenser with a smaller coil does not work properly, you must change it all or reduce the heat load on the home

 

Poorly maintained systems – The #1 reason for poor performance.

• Most people only call for maintenance when it is not working.

 

Preventative maintenance – is the most important thing you can do to prolong the life of your unit and increase efficiency

• High repair cost
• High energy bills
• Uncomfortable home
• Have you had your system serviced recently

 

Old systems – (I want to get one more year out of this system) sound familiar

• Reasons to replace your A/C system
• Reduced energy consumption
• Better humidity control
• Complete new warranties parts and labor
• Very little worries about repairs or break down
• It will pay for itself, use the money save monthly to pay for the finance note
• R-22 phase out after 2009- obsolete R-22 systems and the sky rocking cost of R-22 refrigerant in the near future
• Two stage air conditioning for quite more efficient cooling
• Two stage heating for lower energy cost
• Tax credits / rebates for certain units make it more affordable

 

Taylor & Tyler Inc.
Air conditioning, Heating & Insulation

• Licensed
• Insured
• Factory trained
• We take pride in our work
• Family owned and operated