4 Signs That You Have Mold in Your Air Conditioning Unit

When the temperatures outside are soaring, it is always wonderful to walk inside and immediately feel the cool breeze of an air conditioner. While it's great to be able to cool off in only a few minutes, your air conditioner is also a prime spot for mold growth. Should you think this is not a serious problem, you are wrong. Once mold begins to appear, it is imperative it be addressed right away. To make sure you know the first signs of mold in your air conditioner, here are four classic signs that will confirm your suspicions.

Strong Musty Odors

If you notice a strong musty odor when your air conditioner is running, this makes it all but certain mold has arrived and has no plans to leave. While the smell itself will be very unpleasant to your nose, the good news is that this makes mold detection much easier to verify and remediate.

Respiratory Issues

When mold arrives and its spores start to spread throughout the air, you may start to experience various respiratory issues, especially if you already suffer from allergies or other respiratory conditions. Should you turn on your air conditioning unit and later on start to cough, sneeze, experience watery eyes, and feel a bit fatigued, you should contact mold remediation experts to have your air conditioner inspected.

Mold on Air Ducts

When your air conditioning unit releases its cold air, it comes into contact with vents before spreading throughout your rooms. As a result, mold spores will eventually settle on the ducts. When this occurs, you will start to notice small spots that are either white, black, or green in color. While you can easily clean off the mold that forms on your ducts, it will reappear there very fast if the underlying problem within your air conditioner is not addressed.

Mold Inside Your Furnace or Air Conditioner

While you may not associate mold with your furnace, the fact is the inside of your furnace can be a very common spot for mold growth. As your furnace heats and then humidifies the air contained inside it, the perfect environment exists for substantial mold growth. Thus, if you find mold inside your furnace, take a closer look at your air conditioner, since mold is probably hiding there as well.

Rather than let your mold problem get bigger and more complex, take immediate action as soon as you start sneezing, notice that musty smell, or spot mold on your ducts or elsewhere.

How Tinting Your Windows Can Protect Your Home and Family

If you have been searching for a simple home upgrade that is going to have a huge impact on your quality of life, then you should take a closer look at residential window tinting. Such a simple project is going to provide you with immediate benefits, and an experienced contractor can often complete the process in one or two days.

Lower Energy Bills

The average homeowner spends thousands of dollars a year on their heating and cooling bills, and that is just one of the many reasons why you should consider tinting your windows. Many of the leading tinting materials block UV rays, and that can make it much easier to keep your home at a comfortable temperature. After you have your windows tinted, you might want to seal them up as well to further reduce heat transfer in your home.

Less Damage to Indoor Property

Many people consider contacting a residential window tinting service company because they want to minimize damage to the belongings inside their homes. When furniture and other belongings are constantly bombarded with harsh UV rays, they might become faded or damaged in other ways. Instead of going with heavy curtains that will trap heat inside your home during the hottest months of the year, you can simply tint the windows to minimize the strength of the UV rays that are affecting your home.

Improved Security

When criminals think about breaking into a home, they will often look in the windows to see if there are any items that will be easy to steal and sell. One of the most effective ways to prevent a criminal from casing your home is to tint all of the windows. A high-quality window tint will make it very difficult to see in a home without having a big impact on your view from the inside.

Improved Home Value

When the time comes to put your home on the market, small additions can have a huge impact on your final price. Adding a layer of tinting material to all of the walls could be the exact upgrade that you need to help your home stand apart from the competition. Tinted windows will show potential buyers that you took pride in your home’s efficiency and security.

While it might be tempting to tint your own windows, this project is more complicated than most people realize. Improperly tinting your windows could result in uneven tinting, broken windows, and many other expensive eye-sores that every homeowner wants to avoid.

Guest Post - Why Having More Than one Bathroom is a Must

When we buy or rent a house, we seldom think about one extremely crucial point. The number of bathrooms available on the property. There was a time when having even a single indoor bathroom was considered an absolute luxury. Thankfully, those days are now long behind us. Let us take a quick look and see why it is absolutely imperative to have multiple bathrooms in your home or office:

• It Accommodates Family Growth as well as Guests 

If you are a single person, all well and good. But if there are more people in the house and your little ones are fast approaching an age when they won’t need diapers then ‘Houston we have a problem!’ Kids need their privacy and you can’t give it to them when there is only one washroom in the house. If you are already living with a large family then fighting over the bathroom can become a highly aggravating daily issue. However, a few extra bathrooms will end this daily (sometimes hourly) battle and you guys will all be able to go to work and school on time. An extra bathroom also makes a whole lot of sense if you are interested in hosting any holiday get-togethers or even in case you get a few overnight visitors. The few extra bathrooms that you have thoughtfully added to your home will save you from a lot of potential embarrassment and protect you and your family from germs as well. 

• It Adds a Whole New World of Convenience

If your home has multiple extra bathrooms, on every floor, you would not need to go up or down to relieve yourself every few hours.  Neither will you have to give visitors a ton of instructions whenever they want to use your facilities. An extra personal bathroom complete with its own shower stall will allow you to get ready for work every day at your own pace.  It is also a great boon for the elderly who may not be able to navigate the steps every time they want to use the bathroom. Finally, an extra bathroom can help you to keep your privacy whenever you use the loo. 

• It Will Utilize Extra Space 

A walk-in bathroom does not require a lot of space. Consider the large and unused cupboard under the staircase, the unused loft, the superfluous extra-large cupboard in the master bedroom. Actually many, if not most homes tend to have plenty of random nooks, corners, and crannies that rarely ever get to be used. They are either crammed full of useless junk or are covered in cobwebs and dust. You would be able to make excellent use of such real estate and make magnificent bathrooms out of them. Once you find that small corner or space, you will be good to go. And if you were to do it multiple times in different parts of the house, you will be sure to find an unoccupied bathroom whenever you need it the most. 

• Renovating Your Own Bathroom

This is also a great option, especially if your old washroom looks old and jaded. You can partner with general contractors who can help you with anything around the house, even siding. They will especially guide you on your bathroom renovation and you can easily spruce it up with a few really snazzy ideas. You can put in a new wall-to-wall bathtub or even a shower wall replete with its own shower curtains. You can also opt for slip-free floorings and brand-new sanitary fittings. If hot water is a big problem, it will be a good idea to replace the water heater with something better and more state-of-the-art. There are plenty of great water heater companies around, such as the Sacramento Water Heaters Company. They can easily get the job done with minimum cost and effort to ensure that you get fresh clean hot water whenever you want; in either your refurbished bathroom or even a new one. 

• Conclusion 

We can see that multiple bathrooms with running hot water are the need of the hour. After all, this is the 21st century and everyone from your kids to your parents to your guests needs a bathroom. Most important of all you need and deserve your own personal one too!

Author Bio: Lena Linetti is an architect based in San Francisco.

How to Use Less Energy in Your Home During the Summer

Temperatures can soar during the summer, and homeowners worried about high cooling bills often fret over what to do. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to use less energy in your home during summer. Here are a few tips.

Use Your Fans

Although fans don’t drop the temperature of your home much, they do make it much easier to handle higher temperatures. Try out your ceiling fans to see if they let you use your heater less frequently. Make sure your fan is set to the “summer” setting as the winter setting won’t provide as much comfort. If you’re mostly concerned about keeping one room more comfortable, consider trying out a floor fan.

Focus on Important Rooms

Do you have a guest room or other space that’s rarely used? If so, try setting your vents so that only the important rooms are heated. If the room is on a separate thermometer, make sure to set it to a higher temperature. You might even want to tuck a towel or other item underneath the door to prevent air from seeping through. Consider reducing the sunlight that enters unused rooms as well; closing the curtains or shutters, for example, can provide better insulation and reduce heating from the sun.

Check Out Your Doors and Windows

One of the highest areas of energy loss is air leaking through doors and windows. By upgrading your doors and ceilings, you can cut back on your energy usage in both hot and cool months. In some cases, it’s best to install new types of windows to enjoy the latest in efficiency technology. If not, simply ensuring a proper seal along the edges can do wonders.

Install a Smart Thermostat

The days of setting thermostats manually are over for many people, and you can help tailor your cooling to you and your family’s needs with a programmable thermostat. These thermostats can be set to let your home warm up while nobody is home and turn on the cooling before people arrive. They can also provide energy reports and let you adjust your settings through the internet while you’re away from home.

Cook Outdoors

Firing up the grill can be a great way to enjoy time with family and friends outdoors, but it can also cut back on your cooling bills. All of the heat you generate while cooking will eventually leak into your home, forcing you to rely more on your home cooling.

Modern HVAC solutions keep us comfortable, but they also cost us money. However, by taking simple steps, you can ensure your home remains cool and inviting while saving some money on energy bills and reducing your impact on the environment.