Scott's Comfort Cooline

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The monthly newsletter is short and an easy read. We include tips on keeping your comfort system working efficiently and saving you money.
If you wish to receive the monthly newsletter call Apple Heating & Cooling and ask for Paige. She will get you added to the list.

As summer winds down, our activities gradually change with the changing weather. Some families are shopping for school clothes and supplies, some are sending their children to college campuses.
As we anticipate the migration of the birds and the changing color of the leaves, we naturally are engaged in activities to prepare our homes for the coming winter season.
Part of that preparation should include making sure our heating system is ready for another year of service. Members of Apple Heating & Cooling Discount Club will be ready. Discount Club members get an annual precision tune up of their heating system included with club membership.
If you have not had a heating professional give your system a tune up, consider getting it done now, before the heating season arrives.
And don’t forget safety. Furnaces and boilers need to have the vent system and safety controls checked annually by a competent professional.
Save $20 by visiting Apple Heating & Cooling website at www.appleheating.com.

Well it is finally comfortable outside. After 10 weeks straight of hot humid weather we finally get to enjoy beautiful, comfortable weather here on Ohio’s North Coast.
We have had our air conditioner on steady – thanks Apple Heating & Cooling! so we have been comfortable at home and at work.
But our co-workers have had to endure long hours and discomfort taking care of our customers – thank you co-workers!
And many of our customers have had to endure inconvenience and discomfort of their air conditioning systems breaking down during the hot weather.

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity! We’ve all heard that many times. In the air conditioning business we have to know more than the average bear about humidity and how it affects our customer’s comfort.
Many people have been to the desert Southwest in the United States and experienced “dry heat”. Temperatures in the nineties, which we remember as being very hot and uncomfortable in Ohio, magically seem more or less ok, and when it drops into the eighties is downright comfortable.
As you have suspected the reason is higher humidity in Ohio makes us feel more uncomfortable at those tempertures.
A properly designed air conditioning system does a good job of removing humidity to provide comfort while it is cooling the air.
Occasionally we have customers who want to turn their air conditioner off during the day, and then come home to hot house, turn on the air and expect it to cool down in an hour or less. While this is possible with a larger air conditioner, it is not the best way to attain comfort and save energy.
An air conditioner that is over-sized for the home does not do a good job of removing humidity – a key component of comfort.
A properly sized air conditioner will run almost all the time when the weather is very hot as we have been experiencing recently. While it is running, it is removing humidity.
When an air conditioning system is designed and installed correctly, it will run a lot when it is hot, remove lots of humidity and provide great comfort.
If you have questions about air conditioning please call us at Apple Heating & Cooling – your local experts. We’ll be glad to help.

I get an E-Zine from a friend of mine Mark Matteson, the award-winning author of “Freedom From Fear” and “Freedom From Fear Forever” and motivational speaker.
Last issue I got Mark spoke about “Wag More, Bark Less. I liked it so much I am reprinting it here.
To learn more about Mark here is a link to his website http://www.mattesonavenue.com/index.html

Wag More, Bark Less!
by Mark Matteson
Why do we love dogs? We call them “man’s best friend.” They never read a book on relationship building. They never attend a seminar. Most of the time, they never “say” anything. It’s what they do: Dogs give us time, attention, affection, empathy, and unconditional love. They operate on instinct. They wait patiently for us, and when we come into view, they smile and wag their tail with great enthusiasm and never stop. We know exactly how they feel about us, every time! What if we did that with the people we care about in our lives, every time? I wish I could say I do. The sad fact is, I don’t. That needs to change. What is the answer?
Wag more, bark less. I love that bumper sticker and see it more and more. Along with lots of coffee, movies, and rain, we have lots of dogs in Washington State.
I have always loved big dogs. Our first dog, Bridget, was a mongrel. She would follow me to elementary school. I wept when, at age 20, I got the letter from my mother informing me that Bridget had passed away. Jake was a wedding present from an old and well-meaning friend. Jake was a Doberman Pinscher. He was crazy, but he died too soon. To get over the grief, we found Britt at a shelter. She was half Labrador retriever and half Doberman. She was sweet. After her came Anna, a dalmatian. She was the family dog our boys remember.
Then years later, after Anna died (detailed in my e-book, Uncommon Children’s Stories) and swearing that I would never get another dog, a feral cat showed up on our back deck. We named her Cole. I loved her just as much as any of the dogs. However, dogs are special, intuitive. They love us unconditionally. They give first. We love them because they love us first and always.
Wag more, bark less. It’s great advice, if you really think about it. I understand it to mean praise more, criticize less. Be a good finder. Listen more.
How many of you have a pet? Dog? Cat?
How many of you have a spouse?
I see an increasing number of baby boomers and empty nesters taking their dogs on airplanes. I see these people spending more time and giving more loving attention to their dogs than to their children or spouses! I don’t get it.
After delivering the keynote at the Texas A&M International University Athletics Banquet recently, I was going through security in Laredo’s airport. A couple in their early thirties stood in line ahead of me. The wife had a tiny carrier with a little lap dog wiggling around inside its leather prison. A women, directly behind her and just ahead of me, went on and on about how “cute” the dog was. The owner proceeded to take little “Fido” out of her portable gulag and they began to pet and baby talk to the grateful miniature canine.
Mind you, the line stopped moving while everyone waited for these two. There were nine people behind me, all frowning. The two women talked with great enthusiasm about Fido’s fur, collar, and tail. To add insult to injury, the woman ahead of me took out her iPhone and took a picture of the dog. The women were lost in their own little dog world. I watched the husband. He clearly felt left out of the social equation. I felt bad for the dude!
I don’ t like, reverse it!
Be honest, how many of you greet and treat your pet with more enthusiasm, joy, and love than your spouse? What if you “scratched and petted” your spouse as much as you do your pet? What if you ignored the dog, but gave your attention and love to your spouse? Hmmm…
Fellas, what if you took your spouse for a long walk (without jiggling your keys) every day after work and left the dog to clean the kitchen or take out the trash?
Ladies, what if you bought your spouse a new gift (not a chew toy!) once a month, say the new Springsteen or Jack Johnson CD and ignored the dog? Jack Johnson asks, “Where did all the good people go?”*
In his new book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Malcolm Gladwell profiles Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. Perhaps you have seen him on cable television. Gladwell ends the profile with a sad story about a woman whom Millan was trying to help. Her lap dog was attacking her teenage son with alarming regularity. He tells it this way:

Lori was on the couch in her living room as she spoke to Cesar. Bandit (her little dog) was sitting in her lap. Her teenage son, Tyler, was sitting next her.
“He was our baby. He was in need of being nurtured and helped and he was so scared all the time.”
“Do you still feel the need of feeling sorry about him?” Cesar asked.
“Yeah. He is so cute. He so small and helpless.”
At that point, Tyler reached over to pet the dog and Bandit attacked him. It happened in an instant. Cesar knew the problem immediately.
“Enough dog attacking humans. He is only becoming more narcissistic. It’s all about him. HE OWNS YOU! The dog is biting your son and you are not correcting him hard enough. I don’t understand why you are not putting two and two together.”
After working with the family, Milan concluded, “It’s not going to work. The mother is choosing the dog over her own son! I would never choose a dog over my own son.”
He stopped. He had enough of talking, people saying, “I’m your mother”, while reaching out to a Chihuahua instead of her own flesh and blood. Lori shifted nervously in her seat. Bandit growled. Cesar turned to the dog and said, “Shhh.” And everyone was still.
We all need to WAG MORE, BARK LESS with the PEOPLE in our lives. Employees, friends, family need to hear more sincere praise and acknowledgment and less criticism.

Pressure washers sure are great. They can be used for cleaning decks, siding, driveways and much more.
But if you are thinking of using a pressure washer to clean your air conditioner – please don’t! Air conditioners have a heat exchanger known as the outdoor coil. It looks a lot the radiator on your car or truck and actually has a similar purpose. It is composed of tubes and fins – the tubes are made of copper or aluminum and the fins are usually aluminum. The purpose of the coil is to transfer heat from the refrigerant (a lot of folks call it by the brand name Freon) inside the tube to the outside air that is drawn across the coil by the outdoor fan.
The fins are packed close together to increase the efficiency of the heat transfer – that’s a good thing. But the air that is being drawn across the coil to remove heat brings with it dirt and debris – and this dirt and debris blocks the airflow and reduces heat transfer the same way insects and leaves would reduce heat transfer on your radiator.
So cleaning the outdoor coil is a good thing – it helps restore the unit’s efficiency and capacity.
But don’t use a pressure washer! The pressure washer can flatten the aluminum fins – and that reduces the heat transfer efficiency.
Instead use a garden hose with mild pressure to wash the coil.
The absolute best way to restore your air conditioner’s efficiency and capacity is with a professional Precision Tune Up from Apple Heating & Cooling. Our NATE-certified techs will use an environmentally appropriate detergent on your coil to loosen the dirt. Then they will take the top off the unit and wash the dirt out from the inside out. They will also check the unit to make sure it does not have a refrigerant leak and that all the components are in good working order.
Having professional maintenance on your system annually is the best way to keep it running reliably and efficiently.
But if you must clean the unit yourself – don’t use a powerwasher.

Now that Summer is officially here, we are getting some hot weather. For some homeowners the heat brings with it discomfort in one or more rooms of the home.
A common problem we hear about at Apple Heating & Cooling is “the upstairs is too warm”. Because warm air is less dense than cooler air “heat rises”. This can mean that even with an air conditioning system that is working fine, we have “too much heat upstairs” which can make sleeping uncomfortable.
We often lower the thermostat setting, which causes the air conditioner to run more, and cooling the upstairs a little better. The problem is now the downstairs is too cold.
There is a solution to this common problem – zoning! Zoning means dividing the home into separate zones, each with their own thermostat.
Think of it – you would never want to only have one switch for all the lights in your home to go off and on together. Why only have one thermostat?
With Arzel Zoning systems installed by Apple Heating & Cooling, you can have one thermostat for each area of the home. Learn more about Arzel Zoning at http://www.arzelzoning.com/.

Warmer weather is definitely here and our phones are “ringing off the hook”. While we are grateful for the many customers and potential customers calling us with their air conditioning needs, we sometimes get “sold out” and can’t respond as soon as everyone would like.
One proven way to avoid the inconvenience of waiting especially when the air conditioner is not working is with and Apple Heating & Cooling Discount Club membership. Club members air conditioning units get an annual tune up from one of our NATE-certified technicians. We have the records that show when air conditioners get annual maintenance they break down less, use less energy and last longer. So what are you waiting for? Call Apple Heating & Cooling and find out how you can become a member of the Apple Heating & Cooling Discount Club.

For those of us in the Eastern United States early June is when the cottonwood trees send their seeds afloat in cottony structures designed to travel long distances on the wind.
While interesting due to the appearance of “snowing” in warm weather, the cottonwood seeds and their structures are a problem for owners of air conditioners.
If you have an air conditioner in an area that has a lot of cottonwood flying around, the structures will get drawn into the outdoor coil of your air conditioner as it operates. This will block the airflow and have a negative consequence on your electric bill and could affect your comfort and the life of your air conditioner.
Here is what you should do if you have cottonwood debris on your air conditioner. First turn the power off to the unit so the fan won’t be pulling air into the coil. Then use a soft bristle paint brush to gently brush away the debris. The larger size brushes will make this go faster. Then collect the debris and dispose of away from the unit.
Do not use your garden hose and try to flush the debris away – you risk driving the debris in between the fins of the coil – exactly where you don’t want it.

Remember to turn the power back on and enjoy your air conditioning.