TimesToCome

Back home most homes don’t have central air, and most have boilers instead of forced hot air heat. So this central heating and air conditioning is all new to me.

Today ours needed repair and I was able to follow ( stalk ) the repair guy all through and learn about the system.

If you have a built in electrostatic filter there are filters in there that need cleaning quarterly. If you have not cleaned yours Simple Green helps to remove the build up. If you put the filters back while they are wet you will fry the air filter unit.

If you have two units in a two story open home, set your first floor ac 2′ cooler than upstairs in the summer and 2′ warmer in the winter to properly balance the units.

If you use the extra good hepa filters you are probably not getting proper air flow through the system and you are beating the system up. The home ac units are not designed to push through that much material. Use the cheap filters.

A 15 seer is a good solid unit that will likely save 30%-35% over our current 10 seer units. After that energy savings per dollar spent up to 20 seer doesn’t make much sense and the higher the seer the newer and flakier the technology.

A forced air heating and cooling system will last about 15 years with proper care. ( Don’t forget to gently clean the fins on the outside units with a garden hose once a year )

A new system ( 15 seer 3-5 ton units ) will cost about 8k to replace. You need the outside compressor, the condenser in the attic, air filter and heater. If you skip the electrostatic air filter you can probably do it for about 6k.

If you need a good ac/heating guy in North west Houston give Proline a call.

Click the thumbnails for med/large photos

2009 Houston Art Car Parade Photos

More information:
Orange Show Houston Art Car Parade

Today we wandered down to Via Colori sidewalk art festival. Here’s some photos of the sidewalk art I liked best.

We try to get to the rodeo every other year or so. It is a lot of fun to go watch cattle roping and cattle round ups. The most fun to watch is the calf scramble. Half as many calfs as children are released and they compete to catch, rope and then drag the calf back to the square. The calfs are usually not to keen on being dragged back into the middle of the arena.

We saw John Foggerty perform the night we went. Skip it if you have a chance to go hear him. He didn’t interact with the audience or get any momentum going. It wasn’t much different then playing a cd.