Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog

Should You Replace Your Furnace with a Heat Pump?

February 4th, 2015

Furnaces are the most common type of heating system in the country, and by a pretty wide margin at that. There are many reasons for this popularity, including versatility and cost. However, being popular does not necessarily mean that a furnace is the best option for everybody. Heat pumps have been gaining in popularity among home owners for their energy efficiency and safer operation. So, should you replace your furnace with a heat pump? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each system and see if that can make your choice easier.

Furnaces

As mentioned above, furnaces are the most popular type of heating system largely because of their versatility and cost effectiveness. There are many different kinds of furnaces available, from electric to natural gas to wood, making it easier for homeowners to find one that fits their needs. Due to their widespread availability, furnaces are also relatively cheap to install and fix, compared to more rare systems.

The downside to furnaces is that they aren’t that energy efficient. A furnace burning natural gas, which is the most common fuel type for furnaces, tends to lose a lot of heat to various factors like duct leaks and combustion gases. Many furnaces still use standing pilot lights, as well, which constantly burn fuel in to stay lit. These cons lead to a lot of wasted energy and money.

Heat Pumps

Heat pumps are non-combustion heating systems. They don’t burn any kind of fuel to create heat, and only require electricity to run. They don’t use heating coils either, as electric furnaces do. Instead, a heat pump moves heat from one place to another by evaporating and condensing refrigerant. By siphoning heat from the outside air and releasing it inside, the heat pump saves a great deal of energy that would otherwise be spent on combusting fuel.

However, heat pumps do have one big drawback. In areas where the temperature frequently dips below zero, there is not as much thermal energy in the air for the heat pump to draw on. This leads to a decrease in the heat pump’s energy efficiency, as it has to work longer to heat the same amount of space.

If you aren’t sure whether or not to replace your furnace with a heat pump, call Red Rock Mechanical. We provide heating installation in the Williston, VT area.

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The Facts about Water Hammer

January 30th, 2015

Have you ever been disturbed by a loud knocking noise in your pipes? When this happens while you are comfortable resting at home, it may come as a bit of a shock. In fact, when homeowners believe that paranormal activity has occurred in a home, they often list knocking on the pipes as one of the reasons. But this noise actually has a far more probable explanation: water hammer.

Get the facts about water hammer in today’s post, and be sure to schedule plumbing repair in Essex, VT with the friendly technicians at Red Rock Mechanical at the first sign of pipe problems.

“Water Hammer” Describes a Particular Plumbing Event

Many people use the word “water hammer” to describe any strange noise in a plumbing system, assuming it’s a fairly universal term. But it turns out that water hammer is actually a specific event caused by changes to your plumbing system or an imbalance in the pipes. Water hammer occurs when there is a sudden change of pressure. If water is forced to stop suddenly, a wave of pressure forces it to change direction and knock against the pipes. This may happen because of a waterlogged air chamber or a valve that shuts too quickly.

Water Hammer May Severely Damage the Pipes

This change in momentum can actually cause some detriment to your pipes. The vibration that follows from the pressure wave may knock fittings loose and could even force a pipe to burst. This will result in costly renovations, an enormous mess, and the potential for mold growth.

What Works In Some Plumbing Systems May Not Work for Yours

Although many plumbing systems are fitted with air chambers that work to provide a cushion of air to protect against water hammer, these may become waterlogged and will need to be purged. In other cases, there are not enough protective features in your plumbing to safeguard against water hammer, and a technician may recommend any of several solutions. A new air chamber may not be possible because they are quite large, so your technician may prefer to install an arrester part. Sometimes, plumbers choose instead to install slowly-shutting valves or even new pipes.

Your best bet is to call an expert, like the plumbers at Red Rock Mechanical, to check out your pipes and decide on the optimal course of action for plumbing repair service in Essex, VT. Call us today!

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This Is Why a Heater Must Be Properly Sized

January 21st, 2015

A lot of people think of heaters in terms of “bigger is better.” This is true, in the sense that larger heaters do have a greater heat output. It is not true, however, that a larger heater is always a better option. After all, if you follow that logic you end up with a commercial heater larger than your basement. In all seriousness, though, a heater absolutely must be properly sized to fit the home in which it is being installed. Let’s take a look at what can happen if you pick the wrong sized heater, either too large or too small.

Too Large

A heater that is too large tends to provoke one major problem, by putting out more heat than the rest of the system is used to. That major problem is short-cycling. Short-cycling is what happens when your heater rapidly turns itself on and off throughout the day. This is caused by the heater’s limit switch, which is designed to monitor the internal temperature of the heater. When the heater’s internal temperature gets above the safety limit, the limit switch shuts the system down to prevent it from overheating. After the heater cools off, it starts up again and provokes the same reaction. This locks the system into a never-ending cycle of on and off that wastes energy and damages the system. Now, the oversized heater isn’t actually overheating, but its heat output is high enough to provoke the limit switch anyway.

Too Small

A heater that is not large enough for the home it’s supposed to be heating will still have a much shorter lifespan, though not from short-cycling. Instead, an undersized heater will simply run indefinitely in an attempt to heat a space that it does not have the output to adequately service. The stress of constantly being on will wear down the heater much faster than one which is properly sized, eventually causing the system to die an early death and require replacement.

If you aren’t sure what size heater to install in your home, call Red Rock Mechanical and let us know. We offer quality heating installation in the Montpelier, VT area.

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How to Tell You Need New Toilet Installation

January 13th, 2015

Of course, you use your toilet every day, but you probably try not to think much about the fixture itself until it needs a good scrubbing or when something goes wrong. In today’s world, a D-I-Y mentality leads homeowners to believe that they may be able to fix a broken toilet with a few supplies from the hardware store and a little bit of skill and hard work. But there are many circumstances under which it may turn out you simply need a new toilet, which a trained technician should install.

Always leave major plumbing installation in Stowe, VT to the professionals, like the certified plumbing experts at Red Rock Mechanical.

Signs that a Toilet Has Passed Its Prime

If you notice any of the following signs, a simple repair most likely won’t do the trick. While professionals may be able to find a way to fix some common ailments, the following signs likely indicate that replacement is necessary.

  • Cracks in the Tank or Bowl: If you notice a crack developing in the tank or bowl of your toilet, the risk of a broken toilet and water leaking all around your bathroom is simply not worth it. No amount of sealant can prevent the risk of a flooded bathroom and a major water leak.
  • Frequent Repairs: If you find yourself frequently making repairs on your older toilet, new installation may be your best option. Replacing the toilet today is likely to actually save you some money over time.
  • Wobbling: A toilet should never wobble, as it means there is a potential for leaking and even the possibility of a damaged floor. You should have a technician come and check out the problem to make sure the damage isn’t too extensive. While it may just be that you need a new wax seal, it could also be that your toilet is compromised.
  • Old Age: Finally, old age often indicates that it’s almost time for a toilet to go, especially when you consider the money-saving benefits of a new toilet. New low-flow toilets flush with ease using high pressure instead of exorbitant amounts of water like older toilets did, cutting your toilet’s water usage in half.

Call Red Rock Mechanical today to speak with an expert about toilets and any other new plumbing installation in Stowe, VT that you’ve been considering.

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3 Ways to Improve Your Heating for the Rest of the Winter

January 7th, 2015

Everyone looks for ways to stretch their heating during the winter, both in terms of cost and effectiveness. While most people are content to simply keep doors and windows closed to keep as much heat in as possible, there are a number of better ways to ensure that your heating system is operating at peak efficiency. Let’s examine some of the best ways that you can improve your heating for the winter.

Schedule Preventive Maintenance

The best way to make sure that your heating system provides maximum heat output is to have it serviced at least once a year. The prime time to do this is usually during the fall, right before you start using the system more heavily. If you haven’t scheduled it yet this year, however, winter should do just fine. Having preventive maintenance done at this time of year ensures that your system is prepared for the stress of daily use during the winter, saving you the money and stress of repairing it when it breaks down.

Get Your Ducts Sealed

Forced air systems lose an incredible amount of heat each year to leaks in their homes’ ducts. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates this loss at about 30% of total heat, on average. This means that almost a third of the energy you paid for could be going to waste instead of heating your home. Since ducts are largely out of sight, and the leaks are often small, you probably won’t be able to find them yourself. Call a professional to examine and seal your ducts for you, and you’ll be able to significantly cut down on heat loss during the season you need it most.

Replace Your System

If your heating system is more than 15 years old, it’s probably a good time to consider replacing it. Even if you don’t have any mounting issues with the health of your old heating system, replacing it with a new one is almost guaranteed to increase the efficiency of your home’s heating.

If you’d like to know more about how to improve your heating, call Red Rock Mechanical. We provide professional heating services throughout Burlington, VT.

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12 Grapes for 12 Months: An Unusual New Year’s Tradition

January 1st, 2015

Across the world, many cultures have specific traditions to celebrate the transition from the old year to the new. In the U.S. and Canada, we associate New Year’s with the ball in Times Square, kissing at the stroke of midnight, resolutions, and singing “Old Lang Syne.” But for many Spanish-speaking countries, one of the key traditions has to do with eating grapes as fast as possible.

The “twelve grapes” tradition comes from Spain, where it is called las doce uvas de la suerte (“The Twelve Lucky Grapes”). To ensure good luck for the next year, people eat one green grape for each of the upcoming twelve months. However, you cannot just eat the grapes during the first day of the new year any time you feel like it. You must eat the twelve grapes starting at the first stroke of midnight on Nochevieja (“Old Night,” New Year’s Eve) as one year changes to another. And you have to keep eating: with each toll of midnight, you must eat another grape, giving you about twelve seconds to consume all of them. If you can finish all dozen grapes—you can’t still be chewing on them!—before the last bell toll fades, you will have a luck-filled new year.

Where did this tradition come from? No one is certain, although it appears to be more than a century old. One story about the Twelve Lucky Grapes is that a large crop of grapes in 1909 in Alicante, Spain led to the growers seeking out a creative way to eliminate their surplus. But recent research through old newspapers shows that perhaps the tradition goes back almost thirty years earlier to the 1880s, where eating grapes was meant to mock the upper classes who were imitating the French tradition of dining on grapes and drinking champagne on New Year’s Eve.

It can be difficult to consume grapes this fast, and the lucky grapes of New Year’s Eve have seeds in them, making the job even trickier. (Seedless grapes are not common in Spain the way they are over here.) For people to manage eating all the grapes before the last stroke of midnight requires swallowing the seeds as well and only taking a single bite of each grape.

Oh, there is one more twist to the tradition: you have to be wearing red undergarments, and they have to be given to you as a gift. The origins of this part of the tradition are even more mysterious, and it’s anybody’s guess why this started.

Whether you go for the grape challenge or find another way to ring in New Year’s, all of us at Red Rock Mechanical hope you have a great start to the year and a, uhm, fruitful 2015.

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The Composition of Snowflakes: Are No Two Alike?

December 25th, 2014

“No two snowflakes are alike.”

This is a statement nearly every schoolchild has heard at least once, either while crafting unique snowflakes with a sheet of folded paper and some scissors or while learning a lesson on the science of snow. While even most scientists don’t quite understand what causes a snowflake to form such complex and beautiful columns and points and branches, one thing is for certain, the composition of snowflakes guarantees that no two will ever be identical.  However, it is possible for two snowflakes to appear to be nearly exactly alike.

A snowflake begins to form when a piece of dust catches water vapor out of the air. Water is created when two hydrogen molecules attach to an oxygen molecule. The two hydrogen molecules are angled from one another in such a way that they form a hexagonal shape when they come together during the freezing process; thus, a snowflake begins as a simple hexagonal shape or as layers of hexagons called diamond dust. The emergent properties that follow from the original hexagon are what differentiate one snowflake from another, as the humidity, the temperature in the air, and many other factors (some of which remain unclear to scientists) allow each snowflake to form in an entirely unique way with a seemingly endless variety of shapes.

However, in 1988, a scientist named Nancy Knight claimed to have located two that were the same while studying snowflakes as part of an atmospheric research project. And it appeared to be so; when put under a microscope, the emergent properties looked nearly identical. But while it is feasible that two snowflakes can appear to be exactly alike on the outside, they are never identical on an atomic level. Deuterium is an atom that appears attached to about one in every 3000 hydrogen molecules in the air. Because there are millions of atoms that make up a snowflake, the random assortment of deuterium in any two snowflakes—even in two that so very closely resemble one another—simply cannot be the same.

Here at Red Rock Mechanical, we’d like to remind you to grab a cup of cocoa and relax with your family this holiday, perhaps by crafting some unique snowflake creations of your own. We wish you a very happy holiday season, from our family to yours!

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Ways to Avoid Plumbing Repair Problems

December 17th, 2014

You don’t have to be a plumbing expert to do a few things that can help reduce the incidence of plumbing problems in your home. While you should leave repair work to a trained and certified professional, there are some simple steps you can take to help maintain your plumbing:

Schedule Annual Plumbing Maintenance

Just as your heating and cooling systems need annual maintenance, so does your plumbing system During an annual plumbing maintenance appointment, your entire plumbing system is inspected for problems, safety issues and performance. This includes all water-using appliances, faucets, toilets and sinks. Water pressure will be checked, and if any problems are found, you’ll be given a written report and recommendations on how to repair the issue. Annual plumbing maintenance can get you ahead of potential repairs before they can become large problems.

Fix Faucet Leaks

The vast majority of faucet leaks occur because the seals and/or rubber around the faucets wear out and break. Leaks do not repair themselves, so while a leak may be quite small at first, it’s best to have it taken care of right away.

Don’t Put Everything Down Your Drains

It can sometimes be pretty amazing what will get flushed down a toilet, dumped down a drain or put into a garbage disposal. Plumbing is made to remove liquid and items that easily break down in water; things that can clog, like plastic, large amounts of paper and hard items like metal or glass, should never be put into any kind of plumbing.

Don’t Do Repairs Yourself

Unless you are a trained and certified plumber, it is never advisable to conduct plumbing repairs on your own. Plumbing systems can be complex and come into contact with other systems in your home; a mistake made in your plumbing repair can affect other parts of your home, including the sewer and septic.

There’s no way to guarantee that you’ll never need plumbing repair service in Williston, VT, but taking the steps above can help reduce your incidence of it. If you do experience problems with your plumbing, call the people you can count on: Red Rock Mechanical.

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Common Problems You May Encounter with Your Heating

December 10th, 2014

Winter temperatures in Vermont may mean that we receive beautiful snowfalls, but they also mean that we must have durable heating systems in peak condition to keep us warm until the spring thaw. We have listed some common heating issues that you might encounter during the winter and what they may mean. If you think there is a malfunction with your heating system, don’t hesitate with calling for technicians. The problem will not improve and your heater may be in danger of a full breakdown…and that is the last thing you want to happen during one of the colder days of the year.

For fast and effective heating repair in Essex, VT and throughout Northwest Vermont, rely on the 24-hour emergency services of Red Rock Mechanical. We have served the area with quality comfort for over 23 years.

Frequent Home Heating Troubles

  • Insufficient heat: This problem can come from something as basic as a malfunctioning thermostat to a heating system that is too aged and worn down to work effectively. Call for a repair technician to determine what the trouble is and fix it or arrange for a replacement if that is the best option.
  • Weak airflow from the vents: If you have a furnace or heat pump in your home and you notice low levels of airflow coming from the vents, you should first check on the air filter to make sure it is not clogged with debris. If changing the air filter does not improve the airflow, you need to call on technicians to look for other possible causes.
  • Heater will not turn on: If your heater does not turn on when it should, the trouble could be a loss of communication with the thermostat. Another possibility is an electrical issue within the system, such as failed capacitors or electrical relays on motors.
  • Heater will not turn off: When a heater keeps running constantly, the likely culprit is an electrical failure that is preventing the blower from receiving the signal to turn off. Do not try to repair this problem on your own: it requires professionals.
  • Heating is too expensive: Should your heating bills begin to rise and you cannot explain why, then there is probably a malfunction in the heater that is making it overwork. Do not try to diagnose the cause on your own. Professional HVAC technicians can get to the bottom of the trouble fast and then handle the necessary repairs.

Whatever your concerns about home comfort during the winter, you can depend on Red Rock Mechanical for the heating repair in Essex, VT that will restore your indoor warmth. Call us any time.

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Reasons Your Gas Furnace Might Not Be Running

December 3rd, 2014

There are many reasons why your furnace may not operate. The problem could be something fairly simple, or it could be something quite serious. This range of possibilities leaves a lot of room for mistakes, especially if you attempt to repair the problem yourself without having expert knowledge of your system. Vermont winters are no time to be without heat, even for a short duration, so if your furnace won’t turn on, call the people you can count on for heating repair in Essex, VT: Red Rock Mechanical.

Why Won’t My Furnace Run?

Here are a few examples of why your furnace may not be turning on:

Dirty Air Filter

When your furnace’s air filter becomes too clogged, it can restrict the air flow in your system. Proper air flow is necessary for your system to work, so if the air filter blocks air flow, the system can eventually shut down. It is recommended that you change your air filter every 3 months to avoid having problems develop.

Thermostat Issues

Your thermostat controls when your furnace turns on and off; if problems develop with your thermostat, your heater may not turn on. Common problems that can affect how a thermostat operates are frayed or corroded wiring, dirt and dust on the instrumentation and dead batteries. It’s also important to make sure your thermostat hasn’t been accidentally switched to off or cooling, or that the program hasn’t been altered if you own a programmable thermostat. If you own an older mercury-based thermostat, it may be to be calibrated.

Problems with Ignition

Furnaces have either a standing pilot light or electronic ignition. When a furnace has a standing pilot, it also has a safety mechanism called a thermocouple. This component lets the system know that there is a pilot and it is viable for ignition. However, if there are problems with the thermocouple, there can be problems with ignition. The same is true for electronic ignition. There are two types of electronic ignition: hot surface ignition and intermittent pilot. The probe for hot surface ignition can crack, disabling it from heating properly, and if the right amount of electricity doesn’t flow to the intermittent pilot, the pilot can’t be lit.

As you can see, a wide range of problems can cause your furnace to breakdown. Instead of trying to figure it out yourself, call the experts you can trust for all of your heating repair service needs: Red Rock Mechanical.

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