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What Happens During a Home Energy Audit?

April 24th, 2023

We strongly recommend that our customers arrange for energy audits for homes in Slidell, LA. A house isn’t just the place where you live, eat, sleep, and spend time with your family. It’s also an entire energy system, and like any energy system, it can become wasteful and lose energy.

A home energy audit allows professionals a chance to examine your home’s use of energy and identify places to improve it. With the improvements based on an energy audit, a household can save anywhere from 5–30% on its energy bills. That definitely makes an energy audit worth it, and that’s before we consider that these improvements will also make for a more comfortable home.

When you sign up for an energy audit with our team, what can you expect? The steps aren’t always the same, but we can give you a broad outline of what goes on.

What You Need to Know About the Inflation Reduction Act and Your Home Comfort

April 10th, 2023

You may have heard about the recent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its possible benefits for your ability to purchase energy-efficient appliances for your home.

We’re happy to tell you that the IRA can help you with improving your home comfort through several rebate programs that will make it easier for you to upgrade to a heating and cooling system that not only helps lower your bills, but also helps to benefit the environment with lower carbon emissions.

In this post, we’ll go into more detail about what the IRA can mean for you specifically when it comes to HVAC equipment. However, there are limits on what we can tell you at this point.

We don’t know all the information about how the IRA will work in Louisiana, since the Inflation Reduction Act provides federal funds to each state, and the states must then set up their own programs and apply for funds through the US Department of Energy.

We’re keeping up with the state developments so we can help our customers get the most benefits from the IRA program in Louisiana.

Why We Stand By American Standard HVAC Products

March 27th, 2023

At Gowland’s, we believe in giving our customers only the best. That means not only our best work and effort, but also the best products on the market. When it comes to HVAC, the products that we standby are from American Standard.

You’ve probably heard of American Standard, or at least seen their logo on different household products, such as plumbing fixtures. The company has a long history, starting in 1881 with the foundation of the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, which produced plumbing fixtures and fittings.

In 1929, Standard Sanitary Manufacturing merged with the American Radiator Company, and the new company became known as American Standard. Today, American Standard is one of the leading manufacturers of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning products for both homes and businesses.

Before Summer Arrives, Should You Replace Your Current AC?

March 13th, 2023

To replace or not to replace an air conditioner in Slidell, LA; that is the question. Or at least, it’s often a question people have during spring as they anticipate the coming heat.

You may have a relatively young air conditioning system (under 10 years) and don’t have much worry about whether it will get through the coming season.

But you may be in a situation where you have doubts about your home’s AC. Can you still get it through the summer, maybe with a repair? Or has the time come to retire it and have a new AC installed?

To help you approach the big question of “Replace or Not to Replace?”, we’re going to have you answer several related questions. This will help you focus on what’s going on with your air conditioner and what its future may be like.

The Most Common Places Where Homes Waste Energy

February 27th, 2023

At Gowland’s, we provide more for homes than heating and air conditioning services. We are also experts in home performance that views a house as an entire energy system.

With an energy audit, we will pinpoint the places in your house where energy is going to waste.

We then offer you solutions to reduce waste, lower your bills, and improve comfort.

If you’re wondering if you need home performance services in St. Bernard, LA, we’ll go through a list of places where homes are most likely to waste energy.

There’s a strong chance that at least one of these is draining excess energy from your home right this moment.

How Poor Duct Designs Affects Your HVAC System and Home

February 13th, 2023

Ducts are an essential part of the majority of homes. They’re responsible for the circulation of air around a house and the delivery of heating and cooling from the heater and the AC.

Unfortunately, many homes have ducts with poor designs and bad installations.

A house may have beautiful construction and impeccable interior design, but hidden behind the walls and up in the attic lurks ductwork that was hastily cobbled together from pre-fabricated parts and installed with a focus on speed over craftsmanship.

What’s even worse is that homeowners often are unaware of these poor designs. It’s easy to notice bad craftsmanship on the inside of your home, such as drape brackets that rip off the wall or chipped wainscoting, but what about the ducts hidden within your home?

Poor duct design will have a major impact on your HVAC system as well as your home, so it’s something you’ll want to have corrected. We’ll look at how bad ducts can turn into trouble in your house.

Do I Need an Air Filter or an Air Purifier for My Home?

January 30th, 2023

Although we can’t tell you exactly what your house needs to improve it’s indoor air quality because we don’t (yet) have information about your house, we can make a broad generalization based on the work we’ve done in the past and the statistics about indoor air quality: You probably need both air filters and air purifiers for your home.

The unfortunate fact about IAQ (indoor air quality) is that it’s poor in many modern homes and a leading cause of multiple health problems.

You might think of poor IAQ as something that would only happen if a house isn’t kept clean or if it’s located next to a smog-belching factory. But you can have a clean, wonderful home far away from a major source of air pollution and still end up with poor IAQ.

The reason is an increase in the number of sources for indoor pollutants combined with heavy insulation that prevents fresh air circulation. I.e. you have a house full of pollutants with no easy way for them to escape.

Enter the air filter and the air purifier—one of several indoor air quality services in Chalmette, LA we offer that can help you enjoy much healthier IAQ in your house.

Don’t Let Your Heating System Just Fail—Replace it Before it Fails!

January 16th, 2023

People want to get the most out of any investment they make, so they’ll often run devices for as long as possible until they wear down to the point of failure.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the best philosophy all of the time. For example, you don’t want to keep wearing the same pair of shoes until they fall apart because your feet will start to suffer before the shoe is ruined.

What’s true for the shoe is also true for your home’s heating system: there are consequences to continuing to push an older heater until it fails. You need to know when your heater is declining and replace it at the right time.

How a Heat Pump Water Heater Works and Its Benefits

December 19th, 2022

We offer excellent water heater services in Slidell, LA for our customers. We can help you out with installation and repairs for your tank water heater, no problem.

But we can also offer you the option to upgrade to a different type of water heater: the heat pump water heater. Don’t worry, it’s not as radical a change as you might think (unlike a tankless water heater), but it can also make a significant difference for your home, especially if you have an all-electric one.

We’ll provide you with the important information you need to know about heat pump water heaters and the benefits they bring.

Do Tankless Water Heaters Have Any Drawbacks?

December 5th, 2022

Tankless water heaters are becoming more common with each year, and many new homes are built with tankless water heaters already installed. We often recommend our customers look into the possibility of tankless water heaters when they’re shopping around for a water heater replacement. They offer several tremendous benefits that can make significant changes for a home.

But tankless water heaters aren’t the ideal fit for all homes because, yes, they do have some drawbacks to go along with the many benefits. For some homes, the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks, but we advise you to always work with professionals like us when you’re planning for a new water heater installation.

We’ll look at several potential tankless water heater drawbacks and see how important they may be for you.