Which HVAC Upgrades Are Designed with the Future in Mind?

From increasing energy efficiency to providing better temperature accuracy and greater control over home comfort, technology advances in HVAC have vastly transformed how we heat and cool our homes. Based on the innovations in the pipeline, it seems we've just scratched the surface of what HVAC technology really has to offer. Let's take a look at some of the future HVAC upgrades that will change home heating and cooling as we know it.

Thermal-Powered Air Conditioning

Chromasun, an Australian company, has recently implemented a thermally driven air conditioner. The system utilizes solar energy, with natural gas serving as a supplement. This makes it highly efficient. But that's not all. Its double-chiller design has greater cooling power than any existing AC system and can eliminate electricity costs.

Dual-Fuel Heat Pump

The system is a combination of a gas furnace and an electric heat pump. The concept is based on the argument that heat pumps usually provide maximum comfort and efficiency when combining fuel sources.

This heat pump uses gas heat at low temperatures and switches to electricity at temperatures higher than 35 degrees. Its initial costs are higher than those of a conventional system. However, the money you can save over several years makes it worth the extra cost — and a valuable one of many future HVAC upgrades.

Ice-Powered AC System

A California-based company called Ice Energy has designed the Ice Bear, an ice-powered air conditioner. The unit freezeswater overnight and then uses the ice to cool a building the next day. Currently, the system can only provide cooling for a maximum of six hours.

The Ice Bear doesn't have enough capacity to cool your home on its own. Nevertheless, its technology is quite impressive and will undoubtedly be an excellent system for your home when it's improved to provide cooling for significantly longer periods. Yet another impressive one of the future HVAC upgrades.

Based on these potential future HVAC upgrades, it's clear to see that continued innovation in HVAC technology will cause an unprecedented increase in energy efficiency while decreasing the need for reliance on environmentally harmful heating and cooling methods. For information on the high-tech HVAC solutions that you can use now, contact Air Assurance. We've proudly served residents in the Broken Arrow area with a variety of HVAC services since 1985.

Rating Smart Thermostat Technology

Smart thermostat technology is almost a decade old. In that time, it has advanced in leaps and bounds. Today, multiple brands with various functionality features enhance HVAC automation, efficiency, and maintenance. Rating smart thermostats, like any technology, must take into account the specific application of the unit as well as the requirements and budget of the buyer. With that caveat in mind, here are three examples of smart thermostat technology in various categories.

Ecobee 4

For all-around functionality combined with affordable pricing, Ecobee's smart thermostat technology rates high. The unit includes terminals to connect and control up to 12 HVAC-related devices, including air conditioner and furnace, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, ventilation units, and other air-quality accessories. It also integrates motion detectors as well as temperature and humidity sensors to supply data that informs accurate control of your indoor environment. All programmed temperature settings are easy to override to adapt to changing conditions.

Nest Learning Thermostat

Nest introduced smart thermostat technology to the home market. The company sustains its prominence with the third-generation Nest model. Combining data from individual sensors throughout the home with algorithms that learn your occupancy patterns and household heating and cooling preferences, the unit computes and executes ideal temperature adjustments. All data is also displayed on the mobile app, and users can manually override programmed temperatures at any time. A variety of updated information such as HVAC energy-consumption history can be accessed. Nest also derives your GPS location from your smartphone to activate geofencing functions and provides emergency alerts if indoor temperature extremes are detected.

Honeywell Home T9

The T9 rates high among choices for temperature monitoring and control in multiple rooms. In addition to most standard smart thermostat technology, the T9 integrates up to 20 long-range wireless room sensors that detect occupancy and report temperatures. This data allows the T9 to make intelligent temperature adjustments to keep cooling and heating uniform throughout all rooms in the house. Alexa home voice commands are also supported, as are geofencing functions.

For more examples of today's smart thermostat technology, contact the HVAC professionals at Air Assurance.

5 Smart Heating Options for Your Home

Keeping your home warm in the winter can be a difficult task. Heating needs change throughout the day, and often, you have to keep adjusting the thermostat to maintain comfort. Fortunately, there's a solution: Smart heating can help you make your home comfortable all day, with a lot less effort, by adjusting to your home-comfort needs automatically. Here are five different types of smart heating for your home:

1. Multistage heating. A multistage furnace has two or more speeds. On colder days, it delivers heat to your home at full power. When the temperature is milder, it provides a lower, gentler heat to keep you warm without bombarding you with hot air.

2. Programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat allows you to set heating and cooling preferences based on your family's schedule. It goes into energy-saving mode when you're not home, so you're not paying to heat an empty house.

3. Wi-Fi thermostat. A Wi-Fi thermostat connects directly to your mobile device, so you can control it from anywhere. It shows you temperature, relative humidity, and a variety of other indoor and outdoor climate factors at a glance, allowing you to adjust to your comfort level quickly and easily.

4. Learning thermostat. A learning thermostat actually learns your heating and cooling preferences over time. Do you like it warmer in the daytime and cooler at night? What's your family's schedule like? A learning thermostat can use this information to make automatic adjustments to your heating throughout the day, keeping you comfortable without you having to lift a finger.

5. Zoning. A zoning system puts multiple thermostats in different areas of the house based on their individual heating and cooling needs. If the living room is too warm but the bedrooms are still cold, it can redirect heat as needed to keep everyone comfortable. Some systems can even sense where you are in the house, so if everyone's in the living room, it can save energy by sending less heat to the empty bedrooms.

To learn more about smart heating options for your home, contact us at Air Assurance. We provide quality solutions for Broken Arrow's home-comfort needs.

Celebrate High-Tech Month with These HVAC Products

Why not add some HVAC products embedded with high-technology to honor the month of January. They’ll bring a new level of function to your home that will be as useful as it is interesting.

Wi-Fi and Smart Thermostats

By their nature, thermostats that you can control from anywhere have to be among the smartest products to use in your home to control its energy use. These thermostats let you monitor your home from anywhere you can get a Wi-Fi signal.Some thermostats track room occupancy to adjust the temperatures. Others have features that tell you when the unit needs servicing or when a part is malfunctioning. Overall, smart and Wi-Fi thermostats save considerable amounts of energy for people who aren’t home 24/7 or travel a lot. They’re also useful to control temperatures remotely.

Air Purifiers

Considering the high volume of air that you breathe daily, installing a central air purifier will clean the air and reduce the symptoms of allergies or asthma. You can choose from UV (ultraviolet) air purifiers and the advanced systems that eradicate the pollutants in the air without using filtration.

Air Quality Monitors

If you’re not sure you need an air purifier, start smaller with an air quality monitor. If your garage is attached and someone in your home has a hobby that uses chemicals, an air purifier will alert you when the air isn’t necessarily safe to breathe. Harmful but all too common airborne chemicals include volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that cause a variety of complaints and serious illnesses will show up on the monitor, as well as. Other dangerous gases include carbon monoxide and dioxide and radon.

Advanced Heat Pumps

If you need a new heating and cooling system, consider an advanced heat pump with variable-speed operation. These kinds save tremendous energy and ensure your comfort using high-tech sensors to monitor indoor and outdoor temperatures and adjust their running speeds accordingly.

If you’d like more information about any of these HVAC products and others, talk to a pro at Air Assurance, providing HVAC services for Broken Arrow homeowners.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, call us at 918-217-8273.