Home Advice Blog for Central MN
Boiler Maintenance – And the Advantages of Hot Water Heat
In its simplest form, a boiler is any closed vessel in which fluid – usually water – is heated. The heat is generated by combustion of coal, oil or gas, although electric boilers are also available. Once the water heats up, it is circulated throughout the system's...
How Wildfire Smoke Can Enter and Circulate Within a Building’s HVAC System
Since March 2023, over 4,000 wildfires have ravaged over 20,000 million acres of forest in multiple Canadian provinces. The smoke has traveled as far as Europe, and has also prompted a record number of air quality alerts in the state of Minnesota. As of July, the...
Benefits of Water Jetting
Water. It's not just good for drinking and important to the fishing industry. When it's highly pressurized, water becomes a powerful cleaner as well You have probably already appreciated the results of pressure washing: cleaner sidewalks, driveways and siding,...
4 Reasons Why You Should Leave Plumbing Repairs to the Experts
If you would like an illuminating demonstration of the kind of damage amateurs can do to a home's plumbing system, consider watching the 1940 educational film A Plumbing We Will Go starring the Three Stooges. Although Larry, Curly and Moe had good intentions, their...
What the Inflation Reduction Act Means for the HVAC Industry
Save Money on Your Next Heat Pump, Furnaces or Air Conditioner! The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will have no significant effect on inflation. The $739 billion Democratic spending plan is expected to lower the Consumer Price Index by just 0.33% over the coming...
What Do SEER and SEER2 Mean?
The United States Department of Energy's (DOE) new regulations for residential central air conditioning sold in the United States went into effect on January 1st, 2023. The DOE now requires residential air conditioner systems sold in the Northern United States to have...
6 Tips to Avoid Clogged Drains
Clogged drains are frustrating. A drain that fails to do the only thing it is meant to do – indeed, the very thing it is named after – means that the entire sink, tub, shower or toilet is nonoperational. You can hire a local plumber to quickly scour a clogged drain...
Ice Dams and the Damage They Can Cause
What is an ice dam? It isn't something that's made by ice beavers. It is a ridge of ice that accumulates on the edge of a roof. Equally true to both halves of its name, an ice dam prevents meltwater from freely running off the roof – and that can cause many problems...
8 Ways to Keep Your Furnace Running Year After Year
A new furnace is an expense most homeowners don’t want to deal with. Facing this dilemma in the middle of a Minnesota winter is an even scarier scenario. As the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and this couldn’t be more true than...
Why Do You Need a Carbon Monoxide Detector?
Colorless, Odorless, Tasteless, and Undetectable to the human senses, carbon monoxide is accountable for at least 430 deaths and approximately 50,000 hospitalizations in the United States every year. Known as the "silent killer", here's what you can do to protect your...