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Need service now?
Call B&B Air Conditioning & Heating Service at 866-604-1220
Serving Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
Serving Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Serving Fairfax and Loudoun Counties and the surrounding area
Are people in your house starting to fight over who gets to shower first in the morning because the hot water has started to run out early? This is one of the first signs of a water heater that’s struggling to meet its normal capacity demands. This isn’t a problem you should ignore, since it often warns of a growing malfunction that can end up leaving you with a broken water heater and no hot water at all!
We offer professional water heater repair in Fairfax, VA to rescue faulty water heaters. We also handle replacing water heaters when repairs are too expensive or won’t deliver a long-term solution to the problem. Below are some of the possible reasons your water heater isn’t meeting your household’s customary hot water demands.
The heat at the end of summer is often intense, so it might not surprise you to find your air conditioning system, after months of steady work, has started to struggle to keep all of your house comfortably cool. Even if it isn’t surprising, it’s still something you want fixed as soon as possible. When you’ve got an AC leaving rooms in the house too hot, it may mean the whole system is in jeopardy.
We’ll explain some of the different reasons an AC can start to provide uneven cooling and when you’ll need to call our team for air conditioning repair in Fairfax, VA.
You know your air conditioning system has limits. It can’t make your house as cold as the inside of the freezer in your refrigerator, after all. But when you look at the thermostat for your home, you might wonder if the AC could potentially go lower than the lowest setting on the thermostat. Most thermostats have a temperature setting low of 60–63°F, which is colder than most people want their homes to be. But theoretically, how cool can your central air conditioner make your home?
This is much more than a theoretical question! Understanding the limits on your AC’s cooling can help you know why air conditioning system sizing is so important and how air conditioners operate.
People often think that duct cleaning isn’t something they need to have done regularly for their home—if it needs to be done at all. Because ducts remain mostly out of sight, it’s hard to tell just how dirty they can get, and this is why so many homeowners don’t even think about scheduling duct cleaning in Fairfax, VA.
But duct cleaning is an immensely beneficial service. You probably don’t need it done every year, but we recommend a schedule of every three to five years. If you’ve lived in your current home for five years or more, then we strongly recommend you call us up soon to have the job done. We provide thorough duct cleaning that will provide multiple benefits to your home. We’ve listed the reasons we recommend regular duct cleaning below.
If you take good care of your home’s central air conditioner and regularly schedule maintenance for it, it should work with few problems for most of its service life. Repair problems can still crop up, however, and one we advise you to look out for is leaking refrigerant. This is a common issue with AC systems and also one of the most damaging.
One of the most challenging aspects of being a homeowner is deciding when to repair appliances and equipment and when they need to be replaced. Indeed, while no one wants to deal with a piece of multifunctional equipment, replacing equipment prematurely can be a waste of money. For instance, furnaces are a necessary part of any functional home. However, since they can last for decades, it can be difficult to determine when to repair them and when it’s time to replace them. With that in mind, here is a closer look at how to tell if an older furnace is worth replacing.
This is a “PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT” from B&B Air Conditioning & Heating Service Co., Inc. to our highly valued clientele on the availability and the future outlook of HCFC-22 refrigerant or as the industry calls it, R-22 or Freon. If your current residential or commercial air conditioner or heat pump system was manufactured before 2008, then your system may utilize HCFC-22.
Section 605 of the Clean Air Act establishes the U.S. phaseout targets for Class II substances. In 1993, EPA established the phaseout framework and the “worst-first” approach, which focused first on HCFC-22, HCFC-141b, and HCFC-142b because they have the highest ozone depletion potentials of all HCFCs. The phaseout schedule has drastically diminished the availability of HCFC-22 and has exponentially driven up the overall cost of this refrigerant over the past two years.
What does this mean to you? Well, if your equipment utilizes HCFC-22 and you experience a malfunction in the refrigeration circuit, then you will have a very serious decision to consider. The cost associated in repairing older systems is extremely difficult to justify because of the pricing of HCFC-22. Currently, HCFC-22 has a price range of $250.00 to $300.00 per pound and many of our suppliers have quit handling the product due to the high cost associated with maintaining inventory. The average residential air conditioning or heat pump system uses approximately 8-12 lbs to provide the required cooling capacity, and we anticipate the cost to continue to escalate as we approach the spring/summer of 2022.
The other alternative to repairing your antiquated air conditioning or heat pump system is to have new updated equipment installed that doesn’t use HCFC-22 refrigerant. All equipment manufactured after 2008 required the implementation of an alternative refrigerant. Currently, the HVAC industry is using HFC-410A or R-410A which is a “chlorine-free” based refrigerant and is much safer on the atmosphere.
Updating homeowner’s equipment is not as easy as it sounds today. Each and every person in the United States are experiencing some sort of supply chain issue. The manufacturers of HVAC equipment are having the same dilemmas. Copper, steel & aluminum are critical materials that manufacturers use to build their products. These supply chain issues have drastically reduced the production of HVAC equipment and it is our understanding that the availability of air conditioning & heating equipment will only worsen as we enter 2022.
B&B Air Conditioning & Heating Service Co., Inc. has been in business since 1957 and has grown to be one of the largest HVAC service companies in the Washington/Baltimore Metro area. This enormous feat could not have been accomplished without keeping our clients informed with real issues that are relevant to this industry today.
If your HVAC equipment was manufactured prior to 2008, we are strongly urging our customers to consider proactively exploring the age of your HVAC equipment before a problem arises. If you don’t know when your equipment was manufactured, then please contact us and we can research your service information so we can aid in determining the age of your equipment, and if necessary provide you with a free at-home solution.
Heat pumps are becoming an increasingly popular option for home comfort, with more people each year discovering the convenience and energy-saving potential of these systems. Heat pumps work similarly to air conditioners: they circulate refrigerant to absorb heat from one place and release it in another. An air conditioner can only remove heat indoors and release it outdoors, while a heat pump can do that plus change the direction of refrigerant circulation so that it moves heat from outdoors to indoors. It’s a great heating-and-cooling combination in a single installation.
If you read that, you may have had doubts spring up in your mind; or you might have already heard that heat pumps can struggle in winter. We understand that thinking, because the idea of a heating system that draws its heat source from outdoors during the winter doesn’t make much sense.
Yet, heat pumps are popular, so many people must find them worthwhile installations. Can a heat pump in Fairfax, VA, help your house through our local winters?
As warm weather settles in, you’ll rely more often on your home’s air conditioner to keep your family cool. Like any machine, too much strain on an AC system can cause it to break down or malfunction and provide substandard cooling.
As the summer starts and you make more requests of your air conditioning system, it’s a good idea to know the signs that you need to call us for air conditioning repair in Fairfax, VA. The sooner you get a problem addressed, the better it is for the AC as a whole.
‘Tis the season to install a new air conditioning system! (Well, if you need one at least. If you aren’t sure, please call our technicians to ask them if an air conditioning installation in Fairfax, VA is something you should have done this spring.) With the summer weather not far away, now is a good time to take advantage of the relatively mild weather and go over your options to replace your old AC. And then take this simple quiz:
The easiest way to install a new AC is to…
Do it yourself. There are plenty of online tutorials that make it a snap!
Get Phil to do it. You know, Phil. That guy who says he can install anything as good as a pro.
Call licensed and professionals HVAC technicians to handle the service.
