We visited the development facilities at Cimatec Environmental Engineering in Toronto, Ontario where I actually managed to get into the middle of a 65 foot ducting test system to see just what life looks like when you happen to be a furnace filter. Emanuel Mouratidis showed us how they clean the...
Anthony in Vancouver BC can't get enough heat into the upper story of the house. He has already tried playing with the balancing dampers on the furnace ducts to try and force more air to the far reaches of the house.When that fails, just about the only thing you can do is to add a special "in-li...
That is an interesting idea. Put the heater on the ceiling as part of a ceiling fan which assures that all that extra heat up there gets circulated all around the room.
Room light, ceiling fan for summer cooling and heating unit for winter heating all in one unit. Add to that a remote control za...
The field of energy efficient heating systems is advancing rapidly and constantly and I cannot evaluate all the new products here. Remember that it usually takes a company a couple of years to work the bugs out of new products. And some companies try so hard just for novelty that... for example i...
FURNACES & BOILERS
Well-sealed houses need a fresh air supply for combustion. (search keyword "Combustion Air" for the title "DOES MY FURNACE GET ENOUGH AIR?") The most common technique in basement installations, is to use an insulated duct to dump air next to the combustion intake. The gas...
When clean, electronic air filters are the most efficient furnace filters on the market - according to research at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. When dirty, they don't filter much at all. When in-between they can give off ozone.
If you're a lazy homeowner, they probably won't do m...
Air-change ventilation systems exist that take stale air out and bring fresh air in so as to not rely on cold air drafts for the entry of fresh air to the house. They are simply a box with two fans. In a few of the warm spots of Canada these are legitimate systems on their own. In most of Canada ...
A minimum filter is designed to protect the furnace fan from large dust balls -- not to protect your health.
ONE INCH FILTERS
You can start upgrading from there. One of the best of the 1 inch filters is called Filtrete from 3M. It's an electrostatic filter that becomes charged as the air pas...
Doug from Manilla, Ontario checked this site for basement heating systems: "I read the section? on cold air returns in the basement, however I could not find anything on where hot air vents should be placed. Do they need to be at the floor level or at the ceiling level?"
In the house above the f...
More and more people are asking for powerful kitchen range hoods or bathroom exhaust fans. The logic appears simple, increase the power of the exhaust fan and get rid of pollutants quicker. In more and more modern homes which have been weather-stripped and sealed against cold air leaks and heat l...
