How Big Should a House Be To Need Separate HVAC Zones

Not every home needs a separate HVAC zone especially if you have standard HVAC equipment installed. Some houses can do with standard HVAC equipment and will not require variable setting HVAC equipment. On the other hand, having your house renovated to change the HVAC you have installed can also incur a pretty significant amount of time and money on your part. There are criteria that your home must meet for the variable setting HVAC equipment to be truly beneficial for you.

To know if your house is big enough to require separate HVAC zones, we first need to know what HVAC zones are. HVAC zones are areas in your house that have or you would like to have a different temperature setting than other parts or areas of your house. These zones each have their thermostat and their airflows and air ducts that run along with their ceiling or walls. A bypass duct or at least, dampers are needed to be installed for each HVAC zone. This is done to prevent an air current of different temperature settings from interfering with the rest.

The criteria for houses to have separate hvac zones are not set in stone and sometimes can be foregone altogether (although doing so would go against an HVAC technician’s advice). These criteria are the following:

  • Does your house have a finished attic or basement?

– An attic or basement, aside from being an altogether separate room from your house, often acts as a storage area for your family. This storage area optimally needs to have a fairly stable temperature setting regardless of the seasons.

  • Does your house have a vaulted or a high ceiling?

– Houses that have high ceilings need a separate HVAC zone due to different air temperature differences in differing altitudes.

  • Does your house have large glass windows?

– Apart from the relative ease of outside temperature being able to affect the temperature in a room with large glass windows, these large glass windows are often prone to air leaks affecting the temperature.

  • Rooms that are seldom occupied, like guest rooms and such

– Temperature settings for these rooms are rarely set since it is seldom occupied thus the need for it to have its HVAC zone.

By answering these questions you should be able to safely gauge how big should a house be to need separate HVAC zones. If you answered yes to all, if not most, to these questions then your house needs separate HVAC zones.

Does The Designer Or Client Buy The Interior Design Materials

The question of whether who pays for the interior design materials has been stumping clients and interior designers alike. To answer this and finally help shed a light on this question, first we must understand how the design process works.

First is the preliminary design phase. This is where the designer and client meet for the first time. This is also where initial interior design plans are first laid out by the designer or the client. Depending on how this preliminary phase went, the designer-client meeting may move on to specific design specifications by the client. And if this goes well, then the designer and the client can now move to the next phase. The second phase is the budget phase; this is where the designer-client agrees on the project price with the designer bidding an offer price that would include building and design materials and the client agreeing or rejecting the designer’s project budget proposal. Once they have arrived at an agreed-upon price for the budget, they can now discuss on whether who will buy the said materials.

The answer on who will buy the interior design items may be brought up in the designer-client meetings leading into the budget phase. But if they haven’t already, it will depend on the project the designer is working on. If it is a renovation project where most of the stuff that will go into the design is already owned by the client hence, he or she would naturally want himself or herself to buy the materials since he or she knows what materials his or her existing stuff are made of. But if the design project is a new design project, designers usually submit a proposal (different proposal from the budget proposal) on the design materials, and the client either accepting or rejecting the proposal. Once agreed upon the designer can then proceed on buying the materials with the expenses of course shouldered by the design project budget.

It can also depend on what type of design project the designer is currently working on. If it is a private residential design project, the client/owner usually wants to have his or her say in the design materials that will go into their house. But if the project is for commercial or public space the design material decisions are solely the designer’s responsibility as long as all is within the agreed-upon and prescribed budget for the design project.

So, the answer to the question of does the designer or client buys the interior design materials rests on a lot of factors and is not always one thing or another.

The HVAC Repair and Maintenance Tasks You Can Do Yourself

HVAC systems are expensive to buy and install. Having an HVAC system installed in your home might also require massive renovations that would just add to the overall price tag. HVAC systems are composed of multiple units operating in tamdem. That helps explain why it’s so expensive to buy and installing an HVAC system. With this in mind, an average homeowner’s mentality might be to save a few pennies here and there on HVAC repair and maintenance. While this totally understandable, you can keep your system running properly and still save money by doing some repair and maintenance work on the system yourself, to avoid a costly technician visit that would add yet another cost for your already-costly HVAC system.

DIY repairs

One of the most common and easiest yet one of the most important things you can DIY on your HVAC is replacing your air filters. HVAC systems commonly run on the forced air system. Meaning air is forcibly pushed from one place to another. This pushing action requires air filters to prevent having dust and other particulate matter go along with this pushing. Air filters frequently get clogged and would result in malfunctions to the HVAC system. Finding the dirty and clogged air filter and replacing it with a new one is a simple enough task that you can DIY.

DIY maintenance

Now, repairs are for when something is already broken but you can do many things to prevent your HVAC from being broken down. DIY maintenance tasks you can do abound to ensure that your HVAC system is always in tip-top shape.

  • Regularly changing your air filters.

– As mentioned, air filters frequently get clogged with dust and other particulate matter. Regularly replacing your filters as part of the maintenance is advisable.

  • Keeping your air conditioning unit’s condenser clean.

– Your condenser works by pushing hot air outside. This pushing action usually accumulates dirt and grime. Regularly cleaning your condenser unit can be invaluable to keeping your entire HVAC operating smoothly

  • Cleaning your home

– It is mentioned that dust and other dirt get into HVAC systems causing clogs resulting in reduced airflow. Those dust and dirt have to come somewhere first and the first place you have to look out is your own home. So, keeping a clean home is also advisable.

These are the HVAC repair and maintenance tasks you can do yourself to avoid a technician’s trip to your home and therefore saving you another hefty bill to add to your expenses.

Today’s Most Popular Styles Of Interior Design

The inside of your home or office or room feeling a little bit dull and boring? Want to spice up the brightness, color, or furniture choices in your house? Whenever you need to make changes that will be aesthetically pleasing and totally functional, you’re best served by learning more about interior design.

Interior designs come in many shapes, sizes and formulas. An eye for detail is what you need for you to be able to make sure that you can keep up with the styles interior designs today. To make sure that you can get the best, you can look for the design that you wish to get online and then consult one of the professionals to work on it for you.

There are a lot of designs that are included in the list of the popular styles of interior design. We may be able to tackle down a few for you.

The first one is the modern style. The modern style has more take on the functional programming, but also with the simplicity of the overall interior design, the modern style talks to you through articulated lines and geometry.

Next would be the Mid-Century modern style. This style was born and gained its momentum of popularity after the Second World War. The woods usually used for this interior design are rosewood, teak, and walnut. It has different colors for the design as well and that includes canary, mustard yellow, pale, chartreuse, avocado, carnation and flamingo pink, and pal turquoise.

Next is the Minimalist style. This style, as based from the name usually tackles with small amount of design and furniture. It usually focuses on the space that is in the room. Minimalist design often focuses on decluttering the distractions from the room, focusing on the space provided by this design.

Scandinavian design is the next one. The Scandinavian design also is one of the starters of the modernist design. Focuses on simplicity, functionality, and efficiency.

Next would be the industrialist design. Usually is mistaken for just having your house unfinished and saying it’s finished as a design. The industrialist design would actually highlight the working parts of the building, making it look good but also not showing it as the original unfinished product. This is great  for offices that has something to do with creative thinking.

The last that we’ll tackle here would be the Classic/Traditional style. This style is not limited to the old type of interior design, this is more open to changes and upgrade due to the fact that you can always use the traditional design and spice things up with mixing it with some other type of interior design.

All these interior designs are best with concept before making changes in your home, office, any room that you want. Just please, make sure that you are able to consult a professional or have a professional do it for you so that the design would not be ruined with the mixture of what you have at home.

More Cost-Effective: Full HVAC System, Or Regular Air Conditioners?

Are there any big differences between HVAC systems and regular air conditioners? Which one would you rather have at home? Which would make your home more comfortable in the long term?

Many people are confused about the features and capabilities of air conditioners and HVAC systems. It’s even more confusing because some professionals use the two terms interchangeably.

HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation, and Air conditioning. An HVAC unit is responsible for a lot of things more than air conditioning. So to clarify, this HVAC unit includes a furnace, the air conditioning unit, and any ducts or vents. So HVAC sometimes does reference air conditioning units but not all air conditioning units are HVAC.

An air conditioning unit basically designed for cooling. So only for cooling, that means that when you buy something and it only cools the air, that’s an air conditioner, but if it also heats the air, of course, that would be an HVAC.

You’d actually need to look at this more into the benefits for you and your home. In a normal basis, we’d be saying that the air conditioner is more cost-effective since the HVAC system would require more space, more maintenance, an installation process, and all the items to keep it running, like gas, or fuel. In the first part, even in just the installation, the furnace of a full HVAC system would needed to be installed in somewhere that is out of the way like basements, and crawl places.

An air conditioner unit would only require a simple installation and since it’s to operate, all you have to do is to make sure that it’s always clean. The Air conditioner is easy to install, a plug and play type of an appliance and you don’t have to worry about any fuel, or gas. You would just need to plug it in an electricity port and you’d be good to go to use.

However, coming into the benefits after the cost, which do you think is beneficial for the type of environment your house is in? There are very cold places that would rather have the HVAC system due to the comfortability and reliability of producing heat even if it has more cost the than other. You can consult any professional on what do you think is the best option for you.

When Hiring An Interior Designer, Be Sure They Share Your Vision

There are times that you just buy furniture and furnishings without thinking about whether your interior design reflects your personality. There are also times that you get tired of your house, thinking that your interior design is dull and boring. You can always hire a professional, but will they really come up with a design that you’ll be happy with?

Hiring someone who will decorate your home is something that people usually think twice about. This is not about just the design itself but also about the fact that you will have someone make changes in something or a place that you live in, something that you see every day.

When you look for a designer, find someone that would definitely fit your budget but someone who would also be able to share with you a comfortable space where you can express anything to the designer that will make sure that he will realize what you want and need to happen for your interior.

There are expensive designers out there but of course, expensive designers does not mean that they will be able to visualize what you are saying. When you hire an interior designer, let him or her know what you want because if you are not on the same page, you would only lead to more expensive mistakes and a much more expensive rectification of the issue that arose by not being on the same page as each other.

You need to make sure that when you are getting a designer, as mentioned, there is no need for you to look for the most expensive designer, all you have to do is to look for someone who you can be comfortable saying what you want to do with the whole interior design. You don’t want anything that would be out of place regarding the interior design.

You don’t want someone who will contradict what you want and of course, you don’t want someone being condescending with the choices that you have made. Look for someone that can give you a good chemistry to make sure that what you have visualized in your head, is realized by the designer. Remember, this is an investment, this is something that you will see every day, something that you will be living with once the designer is done with the works and the creative project.

Reasons To Consider Ductless HVAC Instead Of A Ducted System

Are you planning to revamp your HVAC system, or install a new one? Do you think that it’s still worth it to have the ducted HVAC system that’s been in the house since you bought it? There are many reasons to choose modern ductless HVAC over ducted systems; let’s look into the subject and see what’s involved.

You can certainly guess from their name that ducted air conditioning systems provide air conditioning through ducts in your office or your home and yes, there are factors to consider when staying with this type of HVAC. It’s a big unit, which consists of a compressor, condenser, and an air handling unit. This is a pretty big type of machinery so you would expect it to be somewhere hidden or out of sight, such as basements, garages, or attics. The conditioning that this HVAC has is heating and cooling throughout the building or home using ducts and vents.

With that being said, of course, there are definitely reasons for you to go to ductless HVAC. One of which is it creates a small footprint. Smaller footprint means that it takes up a smaller amount of storage or space by a lot than the ducted HVAC. The usual spots of these ductless air ducts are high up on the wall or almost to the ceiling.

Let’s face it, ducted HVACs are somehow a type of old school machinery. What you’d need to think about is the next reason. The fact the ductless HVACs should create less noise that the ducted ones. With the ducted HVAC, you would usually hear the whistling of the air through the ductwork and the vents. This is something that’s not occurring in a ductless HVAC. This is great for light sleepers and they would not wake up to the noise of the ducts and vents.

There are flexible positioning for the ductless HVAC and of course, it’s not always great as there are definitely limitations to the heating and cooling efficiency of the HVAC but will still definitely help you target the temperature that you need.

Ducted air ducts would often contain contaminants, and irritants that remains stagnant usually when the HVAC is turned off, and of course, with the ductless HVAC, you would be able to enjoy irritant-free air conditioning, less cost of HVAC duct cleaning.

Some HVAC allows you to get a control of different rooms and sections independently that would change settings even if you’re not in the room yet.

Those are just a few some of the reasons, if you want, you can check out a few more things in any search engine that would back-up the reason on why you should move on to the ductless HVAC so that you don’t miss out.