Archive for the ‘Indoor Air Quality’ Category
05.24.2010
Need Freon for Your AC? Not So Fast!
Gwinnett County is abuzz with graduations, last days of school, recitals, and ball games. Here in Buford, that means party season. (That reminds me; our mailbox has made it through so far, intact. Whoops. I just may have jinxed it.) Have you called us for your cooling maintenance visit? Or are you a new customer who needs a “charge” of freon to get you through the season? Basics first. Your cooling system is self-contained. After being installed, it was charged with the proper amount and pressure of freon and then closed and sealed. If your system is freezing up and requiring additional freon to properly cool, that means you have a leak. Adding freon is a temporary and sometimes, irresponsible fix. The freon will eventually leak out; it’s just a matter of time. It may last 2 hours or 2 months. Consider financial and environmental factors as well. Adding freon can be costly, especially with no guarantee of how long it will last. Adding freon to a leaky system also poses environmental quandries. Knowingly releasing freon into the atmosphere is against EPA regulations. We can locate the freon leak and properly repair it. Once done, we recharge the unit and warranty the repair for the […]
11.19.2009
The Nitty Gritty About Carbon Monoxide
It’s almost turkey time. I’ll bet you’re thinking about Aunt Polly’s stuffing and cozy fires with bunny slippers. Or maybe this is the year to break out that Snuggie for the football game. (Noted for another blog entry.) Which ever way you’re inclined, it’s time to get the facts on carbon monoxide and keep your family safe this winter. We all know CO is bad. We know that every home should have a CO detector. But at what level does CO become dangerous? I did a little research and found that mild CO exposure is 70-100 ppm (parts per million) and causes flu like symptoms such as headache, sore eyes and runny nose. 150-300 ppm causes dizziness, drowsiness and vomiting. 400 ppm causes unconsciousness, brain damage and ultimately death. This is assuming you’re exposed for eight hours. So then I took a little drive to check out the carbon monoxide detectors being sold in the big box stores and local family shopping arenas. Here’s what I found: hold on to your stuffing. At 70 ppm (flu like stage), the big box store CO detector takes 60-240 minutes to alarm. At 150 ppm (the dizziness and vomiting point) it will alarm in 10-50 minutes. At 400 ppm, it […]
