Gowland's Heating & A/C Blog: Archive for the ‘Indoor Air Quality’ Category

How Poor Duct Designs Affects Your HVAC System and Home

Monday, February 13th, 2023

Ducts are an essential part of the majority of homes. They’re responsible for the circulation of air around a house and the delivery of heating and cooling from the heater and the AC.

Unfortunately, many homes have ducts with poor designs and bad installations.

A house may have beautiful construction and impeccable interior design, but hidden behind the walls and up in the attic lurks ductwork that was hastily cobbled together from pre-fabricated parts and installed with a focus on speed over craftsmanship.

What’s even worse is that homeowners often are unaware of these poor designs. It’s easy to notice bad craftsmanship on the inside of your home, such as drape brackets that rip off the wall or chipped wainscoting, but what about the ducts hidden within your home?

Poor duct design will have a major impact on your HVAC system as well as your home, so it’s something you’ll want to have corrected. We’ll look at how bad ducts can turn into trouble in your house.

Tags: Duct Design, Slidell
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Do I Need an Air Filter or an Air Purifier for My Home?

Monday, January 30th, 2023

Although we can’t tell you exactly what your house needs to improve it’s indoor air quality because we don’t (yet) have information about your house, we can make a broad generalization based on the work we’ve done in the past and the statistics about indoor air quality: You probably need both air filters and air purifiers for your home.

The unfortunate fact about IAQ (indoor air quality) is that it’s poor in many modern homes and a leading cause of multiple health problems.

You might think of poor IAQ as something that would only happen if a house isn’t kept clean or if it’s located next to a smog-belching factory. But you can have a clean, wonderful home far away from a major source of air pollution and still end up with poor IAQ.

The reason is an increase in the number of sources for indoor pollutants combined with heavy insulation that prevents fresh air circulation. I.e. you have a house full of pollutants with no easy way for them to escape.

Enter the air filter and the air purifier—one of several indoor air quality services in Chalmette, LA we offer that can help you enjoy much healthier IAQ in your house.

Tags: Air Filtration, Air Purification, Chalmette
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The Problems of Both High and Low Humidity

Monday, September 12th, 2022

We offer service to install, repair, and maintain whole-house humidifiers and dehumidifiers, so we’ve seen first-hand the difference these devices can make for homeowners. Here in New Orleans, people are often more focused on dehumidifying their homes during the summer months, but low humidity can present serious issues as well during the winter.

This isn’t a question of humidifier vs dehumidifier in Covington, LA—many homeowners have both installed to give them complete control over their indoor humidity. With the power of a whole-house humidifier and dehumidifier, you can find the right balanced humidity any day of the year.

Tags: Dehumidifiers, Humidifiers
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What You Need to Know About Air Filtration Systems

Monday, August 1st, 2022

Along with our services for air conditioning and heating, we also provide home performance and indoor air quality services, such as air filtration and air purification systems in Slidell, LA. You may have wondered if you could benefit from having an air filtration system in your house. It’s something many homeowners are thinking about now.

We’ll go into detail about what you can expect from air filters to help you with making choices about your home’s indoor air quality. You can always rely on our team to guide you toward the best options.

Tags: Air Filtration, Air Purification, Slidell
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Does My AC’s Air Filter Help With Indoor Air Quality?

Monday, April 25th, 2022

First, we’re glad to hear that you know about the air filter for your air conditioning system. If your AC is in the same cabinet as your furnace (and this is the most common type of HVAC setup), then the same filter works for both units. It’s important to know about this filter, since you must change it routinely to help your HVAC system work at the optimal condition and avoid several serious problems, which can include the system overheating and the evaporator coil freezing over.

But if you think that the AC filter is there to help improve the air quality of your home, we’re glad you stopped by to read this. Although the filter has some effect on air quality, it’s usually harming the indoor air quality because the filter is too congested. The filter otherwise doesn’t noticeably improve air quality.

Tags: Air Filters, Air Filtration, Slidell
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The Importance of Proper Ventilation for Your Commercial Building

Monday, February 28th, 2022

At Gowland’s, we work on more than residential heating and cooling. We’re also pros when it comes to commercial HVAC in Kenner, LA and throughout the New Orleans area. We can help local businesses achieve the right balance of indoor climate through heating and cooling system installations.

You already know the importance of proper climate control for a building—the wrong temperatures not only affect employees, customers, clients, tenants, etc. but can also ruin equipment and make it impossible to achieve daily tasks. But business owners often overlook the ventilation system of their building—the “V” in “HVAC”—when it comes to HVAC service. We’ll explain why it’s critical to have professionals help with your ductwork and building ventilation.

Tags: commercial HVAC, Kenner
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How Strong an Air Filter Does My Home Need?

Monday, January 3rd, 2022

If you’re asking this question, it’s because you want cleaner and healthier air inside your home, and you know you have powerful options available. Although your HVAC system comes with an air filter, it isn’t designed to clean the air but protect the interior of the HVAC cabinet components. An actual air filtration system that provides cleaner air requires experts to integrate the filters into the ductwork.

Filters come in different strengths, depending on how strong the weave is. The stronger the weave, the smaller the particles the filter can trap. And therein lies the tricky part: a filter can be so strong that it not only traps particles, it ends up blocking airflow. If you put in too powerful a set of filters, your HVAC system won’t be much good to you. In fact, the thick filter will lead to damaging it.

You won’t need to worry, however, when you have our experts to assist you. We know how to find the right indoor air quality solutions for homes.

Tags: Air Filtration, Air Purification, Slidell
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Fall Is a Great Time to Improve Your Indoor Air Quality

Monday, October 25th, 2021

During fall, we often talk about the best ways our customers can prepare their homes for winter. This means scheduling maintenance for the heating system and considering whether or not to replace an aging system.

But fall is also a good time to make another important improvement to your house: make the indoor air cleaner and healthier. You can have our professionals make indoor air quality improvements to your HVAC system that will make a difference in the air you and your family breathe daily.

Tags: Air Filtration, Air Purification, Humidifiers, Slidell
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Why Humidity Can Be a Problem for Your Home

Monday, September 27th, 2021

High humidity is often just a way of life in New Orleans. During cooler months, humidity can feel welcome, but during most of the year it’s a nuisance. You may not realize it, but when the relative humidity rises above 60%, it creates a set of problems inside your home. It goes beyond making a hot day feel hotter.

We’ll take a look below at how high humidity creates problems in your house. But don’t worry, it isn’t all bad news. We have solutions! Hang on until the exciting finale…

Tags: Dehumidifiers, Slidell
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Can My AC Help with the Humidity?

Monday, June 8th, 2020

A place like New Orleans deals with intense humidity during the summer months. As anyone who has ever had to endure a humid summer day knows, it can be pretty miserable having to deal with high temperatures and high humidity. It’s not because the humidity makes the day hotter—no matter the relative humidity, a 90°F day is still 90°F. It’s that humidity makes the day feel hotter. The moisture in the air makes it more difficult for the human body to expel heat through perspiration, and this traps heat inside the body. Humidity is basically like putting on a coat during a heatwave!

But you’ve got a good central air conditioning system in your home, so at least that will take care of the problem, right? Well, yes and no. An air conditioner can help you cool down, but it doesn’t actually help with humidity. We’ll explain more below.

Tags: Dehumidifiers, Slidell
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