Carney Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning Blog

Reasons to Choose a Whole-House Generator Over a Portable Option

January 30th, 2015

Generators come in two categories: permanent, which are whole-home generators or back-up generators, and portable, also known as standby. The capability of these generators is very different, and these differences should be an important factor when deciding which type of generator to choose for your home. As we have seen over the last few years, weather events, large blackouts and flooding are all possible at any time. Knowing you have the back-up generator you need for your King of Prussia home is critical to your peace of mind. So what are the differences between a permanent and standby generator? Let’s take a look.

Standby Generators

Standby generators quite small and for good reason: they are meant to be portable and support only a few key items in your home, such as your refrigerator, several lamps or a television. They do not connect to a main source of fuel such as a natural gas line or propane tank; instead, they have fuel tank and use either gasoline or diesel fuel for power. The main components of standby generators are the engine, the power generator head and the fuel tank. The engine generates the energy needed for the generator head to produce the electricity. The fuel, which is typically gasoline or diesel (but can also be propane), feeds the engine. To connect to the generator’s power it is usually necessary to have an extension cord that will carry the electricity into your home. Re-fueling is necessary, which means that to have continuous power, you’ll need access to continuous fuel, which can be a challenge during a major weather event or power outage. The bottom line: if you only need to power a single large item for a few hours, a standby generator is the way to go; otherwise, you’ll want to consider a whole-home generator.

Permanent Generators

Permanent generators use natural gas, propane (LP) or diesel for fuel. With natural gas and LP, the generator is connected directly to the main line (gas) or tank (LP); with diesel, there is a large tank that resides under the generator that requires re-fueling should you use it. Whole-home generators are connected directly to your home’s electrical panel; they are equipped with sensors that detect when an interruption in power has occurred. Should the power go out, the generator automatically turns on and starts sending power to the electrical box to keep your home running. When the power returns, the generator automatically turns off. Whole-home generators can provide up to 5,000 watts of power to your home, so not everything can run as usual, but your home will still be comfortable.

Back-up generators can keep you safe, secure and comfortable during any kind of serious power outage. Call Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling today to learn more.

Reasons to Install a Natural Gas Generator

January 29th, 2015

Your home needs electricity to power the many appliances that help you to get through the day. Some of these electronics include those used solely for entertainment purposes, like the television or stereo, but others are vital parts of your daily life. You need electricity to power your home heating and air conditioning system, as well as the water heater in some cases. Electricity powers sump pumps that prevent flooding in some homes, and the lights that protect household members from injury. For those who work from home, electricity keeps their computers running as needed, and, for others, a lack of electricity would pose a health threat if family members who rely on medical equipment suddenly had to go without.

People in Quakertown are no strangers to power outages, which can happen at any time, not just in severe weather. Gas generator installation ensures a reliable fuel source to power all of the appliances, electrical equipment, and fixtures in your home. When the gas generator senses that there is no electrical current running through the home, it kicks in within seconds. Portable generators can only power select appliances, whereas a whole-home option can power everything at once.

Natural gas is a reliable source of fuel since most homes have access to a gas line. If you’ve been considering a whole-house generator, buying a model that runs on gas is generally a better option than one that runs on propane. Propane generators are best for those who cannot hook a generator up to the gas line. Natural gas is available even during a power outage and is actually a bit more cost effective than using electricity.

The cost of a power outage is too high to avoid generator installation for very long. In the event of a power outage, you can lose hundreds or thousands of dollars replacing spoiled groceries, staying in hotels or alternative accommodations, replacing burst pipes, repairing damage from flooding, and removing mold or mildew. Although the upfront cost is high, a generator pays for itself when you put this into perspective.

At Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling, we’ve been in the business for over 30 years, so we can make sure new gas generator installation in Quakertown is a success. Call us today!

The Benefits of Whole House Generators in Bucks County, PA

January 22nd, 2015

We have had our fair share of some very challenging weather over the last few years, and if there’s anything we learned from events like super-storm Sandy, it’s that extended power outages can happen at any time. Extended power outages aren’t just inconvenient; they can damage your whole-home systems and cost you money in lost food and water problems. But having a whole house generator in Bucks County, PA can change all that, and change it with an imperceptible, automatic switch.

How Does a Whole House Generator Work?

Whole house generators are much more powerful, stable and permanent than portable generators. First, a whole house generator is sized to carry the major systems of your home for a long period of time. They are installed outside your home in a highly weather-resistant cabinet and use fuels that are not affected by power outages such as natural gas and propane. Once the generator is properly sized and placed outside, it is connected directly into your home’s electrical panel. Most whole house generators are equipped with sensors that detect any interruption in electrical power to your home, and these generators automatically power your home through the electrical box when such an interruption is detected. When the power returns, the generator will switch back off.

Benefits of a Whole Home Generator

Convenience – with a whole house generator, you don’t have to worry about connecting, starting, fueling and monitoring the generator as you do with a portable generator.

Whole-home support – a whole house generator is designed to support all the major systems in your home, not just one or two. You can keep living comfortably with a whole house generator even though your grid power may be interrupted.

No issues with fueling – a whole house generator uses natural gas or propane to operate, and as such, the generator connects directly to the natural gas line or LP tank on your property; there’s no need to constantly re-fuel as there can be with portable generators.

If you are tired of the effect of unpredictable weather events and power outages, you may want to consider the installation of a whole house generator in your Buck County, PA, home.

Contact Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling today and schedule an appointment with one of our experts.

Choosing a Sink with Bathroom Remodeling

January 15th, 2015

The bathroom sink is the place that your day truly begins. It’s where you brush your teeth, wash your face, style your hair, and become prepared for the day ahead of you. That’s why selecting a new bathroom sink is one of the most important parts of bathroom remodeling, and why you should work with a contractor to help make your design plan come to life. A skilled contractor will modify the plumbing to help you realize your vision, but first you’ll have to choose from a number of different options for new sink designs.

The number of options you have when choosing a new sink is simply astounding. First, you may want to choose the design of the fixture itself. Do you want a standalone pedestal sink? Or would you prefer a vanity with lots of cabinet space? The design of the sink sets the tone for the style and functionality of the entire room. You should also have a plumber help you to decide how high up you want your new sink installed. Do you want it fairly low to make it more accessible to some members of your household? Or would you rather raise the sink a bit so that you can have more storage space underneath? Pipes may need to be lengthened, shortened, or moved around to suit your needs.

You’ll also want to choose the style of the bowl. You may decide on a vessel sink, a stylish option in which the bowl sits atop the countertop. Or you can choose a traditional bowl style with a drop-in sink design. In any case, you’ll want to choose a material that’s durable and decorative. Typically, you can choose between materials like laminate, tile, marble, and granite.

Finally, the faucet should be functional, and you will probably try to make sure it complements the design of the rest of the room. You may choose from center-set faucets with one or two handles, vessel faucets, and wall-mounted faucets. You’ll have to choose a finish such as stainless steel, brushed nickel, copper, or chrome. You can even decide to install a joystick design handle or a touchless sensor.

At Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling, we’ll help you with every step of the remodeling process. Call us today to discuss your new bathroom remodeling in Eagleville.

How Long Will My Home’s Water Line Last?

January 8th, 2015

Having an older home or fixer-upper can be a very rewarding experience, but there is always a concern about the water lines coming into the home. Water lines are quite study, but they do age, and if you have a property that has been around since 1950 or before, you could be looking at a water line that needs replacing. Following are some average lifespans from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for the different types of metals used for main water lines:

Brass – 40-70 years
Copper – 50 years
Galvanized steel – 20-50 years
Cast iron – 70-100 years
PVC (polyvinyl chloride) – indefinite
Lead – 100 years

So how do you know if your water pipe has blown? Here are some common signs:

Yard puddling – water main lines run under the ground and directly into your home; if a leak has developed in the area of your yard, the ground surrounding the leak will become saturated and the water will rise to the surface, creating very soggy areas or puddles.

Very high water bill – if you notice a sudden, big increase in your home’s water bill and haven’t increased your water usage, you may have a water main leak.

Significant decrease in water pressure – have you noticed that all the faucets and showerheads seem to have a lot less pressure when the water comes out? A significant drop in pressure means a leak has developed somewhere, and if the water pressure loss is across the board, then it’s likely to be a problem with the main water line to your home.

Water discoloration – are you noticing that your water has become brown, or that dirt is in it? This can indicate that soil is getting into your water from a break somewhere in the water line.

Water around foundation of your home (slab) – if your home sits on a slab, and your main water line is embedded in the concrete of the slab, a leak can still develop. Because the pipe is encased, the leaking water may escape to the outside of the foundation, where it will puddle.

If you have concerns that the main water line to your home may be aging, or you think you may have a leak, call Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling today.

Are Foul Odors from a Drain a Sign that I Need Sewer Repair?

January 2nd, 2015

The sewer line is the pipe that runs from your drains underneath your property to carry wastewater from your home into the municipal sewer. When there’s a problem with the sewer line that helps to evacuate sewage into the sewer, you’re responsible for handling any repairs up until your sewer line meets the sewer main. This means that, unfortunately, you’ll have to deal with finding a solution for the foul odors that sometimes go along with sewer repair.

A sewer line in need of repair will often, sadly, bring unpleasant smells along with it. But is this always the case? And are foul odors always a sign of a sewage line issue? We’ll address these questions on today’s guide to drainage problems and sewer repair in Lower Gwynedd.

Sometimes, odors are a sign that your sewer line has sprung a leak. However, if the leak is underneath your property, it’s unlikely that you’ll smell it in the drains. Rather, sewage will leak outside, possibly causing your yard to smell instead. If the leak occurs in a drain line behind the walls, an odor is likely to penetrate your home. If there is a major clog in your sewer line, sewage may backup into the drains, a probable source of unpleasant drain odors. Smells may also be contributed to sewer lines that are improperly vented, which means your plumber will have to install new vents.

Here’s something to ask yourself when you notice a smell from only one of the drains: when was the last time you used it? If it’s been a while since you’ve turned on the faucet or fixture that empties into that drain, there may be a very simple solution. Try simply running the water. The P-trap underneath a drain, the curved section of pipe that fills with water to prevent you from smelling the odors emitting deep from the sewer pipes, can dry out if left unused for a long time. Simply running the water can restore the amount of water necessary to block out the smell.

Call Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling to learn whether drain cleaning, leak detection, or sewer repair in Lower Gwynedd can keep away foul odors and any additional plumbing system unpleasantness.

12 Grapes for 12 Months: An Unusual New Year’s Tradition

January 1st, 2015

Across the world, many cultures have specific traditions to celebrate the transition from the old year to the new. In the U.S. and Canada, we associate New Year’s with the ball in Times Square, kissing at the stroke of midnight, resolutions, and singing “Old Lang Syne.” But for many Spanish-speaking countries, one of the key traditions has to do with eating grapes as fast as possible.

The “twelve grapes” tradition comes from Spain, where it is called las doce uvas de la suerte (“The Twelve Lucky Grapes”). To ensure good luck for the next year, people eat one green grape for each of the upcoming twelve months. However, you cannot just eat the grapes during the first day of the new year any time you feel like it. You must eat the twelve grapes starting at the first stroke of midnight on Nochevieja (“Old Night,” New Year’s Eve) as one year changes to another. And you have to keep eating: with each toll of midnight, you must eat another grape, giving you about twelve seconds to consume all of them. If you can finish all dozen grapes—you can’t still be chewing on them!—before the last bell toll fades, you will have a luck-filled new year.

Where did this tradition come from? No one is certain, although it appears to be more than a century old. One story about the Twelve Lucky Grapes is that a large crop of grapes in 1909 in Alicante, Spain led to the growers seeking out a creative way to eliminate their surplus. But recent research through old newspapers shows that perhaps the tradition goes back almost thirty years earlier to the 1880s, where eating grapes was meant to mock the upper classes who were imitating the French tradition of dining on grapes and drinking champagne on New Year’s Eve.

It can be difficult to consume grapes this fast, and the lucky grapes of New Year’s Eve have seeds in them, making the job even trickier. (Seedless grapes are not common in Spain the way they are over here.) For people to manage eating all the grapes before the last stroke of midnight requires swallowing the seeds as well and only taking a single bite of each grape.

Oh, there is one more twist to the tradition: you have to be wearing red undergarments, and they have to be given to you as a gift. The origins of this part of the tradition are even more mysterious, and it’s anybody’s guess why this started.

Whether you go for the grape challenge or find another way to ring in New Year’s, all of us at Carney Plumbing, Heating & Cooling hope you have a great start to the year and a fruitful 2015.

The Composition of Snowflakes: Are No Two Alike?

December 25th, 2014

“No two snowflakes are alike.”

This is a statement nearly every schoolchild has heard at least once, either while crafting unique snowflakes with a sheet of folded paper and some scissors or while learning a lesson on the science of snow. While even most scientists don’t quite understand what causes a snowflake to form such complex and beautiful columns and points and branches, one thing is for certain, the composition of snowflakes guarantees that no two will ever be identical. However, it is possible for two snowflakes to appear to be nearly exactly alike.

A snowflake begins to form when a piece of dust catches water vapor out of the air. Water is created when two hydrogen molecules attach to an oxygen molecule. The two hydrogen molecules are angled from one another in such a way that they form a hexagonal shape when they come together during the freezing process; thus, a snowflake begins as a simple hexagonal shape or as layers of hexagons called diamond dust. The emergent properties that follow from the original hexagon are what differentiate one snowflake from another, as the humidity, the temperature in the air, and many other factors (some of which remain unclear to scientists) allow each snowflake to form in an entirely unique way with a seemingly endless variety of shapes.

However, in 1988, a scientist named Nancy Knight claimed to have located two that were the same while studying snowflakes as part of an atmospheric research project. And it appeared to be so; when put under a microscope, the emergent properties looked nearly identical. But while it is feasible that two snowflakes can appear to be exactly alike on the outside, they are never identical on an atomic level. Deuterium is an atom that appears attached to about one in every 3000 hydrogen molecules in the air. Because there are millions of atoms that make up a snowflake, the random assortment of deuterium in any two snowflakes—even in two that so very closely resemble one another—simply cannot be the same.

Here at Carney Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, we’d like to remind you to grab a cup of cocoa and relax with your family this holiday, perhaps by crafting some unique snowflake creations of your own. We wish you a very happy holiday season, from our family to yours!

How Will Oil to Gas Conversion Benefit My Heating?

December 19th, 2014

If you’re one of the few homeowners that still uses oil in your heating system, you may want to consider making a switch to natural gas. Oil is expensive, takes up space in your home, and tends to be far less efficient at heating a home than natural gas. Let’s take a look at some of the ways an oil to gas conversion can help your heating system.

Oil is Expensive

Compared to natural gas, it costs almost half-again as much to heat a home with oil on an average year. You aren’t really getting any extra benefit for that cost, you’re simply paying more money for a fuel that comes with a bunch of disadvantages and doesn’t even heat the home as well as other options. No homeowner wants to pay more money for no reason. That’s why it’s advisable to convert your heating system to natural gas.

Oil is Inconvenient

Oil must be stored by the homeowner who uses it. This means that it has to have physical space dedicated to it, either in your home or somewhere nearby, where it can be readily available if needed. Oil must also be stored carefully, not next to anything remotely flammable. Contrast this with natural gas, which is piped directly into the heating system with no need for additional safety or storage concerns.

Natural Gas is Versatile and Effective

Compared to oil, natural gas has quite a lot going for it. It is the most widely used fuel source in the country, and that makes it quite a bit cheaper than oil. It’s a more efficient fuel source, which makes it better for actually heating your home, as well as saving you money. It’s also safer than oil, with no need for you to store large quantities of flammable fuel in your home just in case there’s a cold day. For all these reasons, you should seriously consider converting your home heating system to run on natural gas instead of oil.

If you’d like to know more, call Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling. We provide heating services throughout Blue Bell.

How Do Electronic Air Cleaners Work?

December 12th, 2014

The air that you breathe in your home every day may not be as clean as you think it is. Sure, you vacuum and dust whenever you can, but this sometimes just kicks up dust and sends it back into the air. But what about your home air conditioning and heating system’s filter? Most ducted HVAC units contain a filter that can eliminate particles from the air as it passes into your unit. But this filter is only effective at straining out larger particles. A typical home air filter can only remove particles about 5 micrometers in length, while more efficient home air filters with a higher MERV (minimum efficiency reporting value) rating may remove particles of 1 micrometer.

This means that your filter may miss hazardous particles in the air that can aggravate allergies or other respiratory symptoms, such as mold spores, smoke residue, and bacteria like legionella. An electronic air cleaner, when installed by a professional in conjunction with your HVAC system, can help to eliminate over 99% of the contaminants that would otherwise pass by. So how do these highly effective systems work?

Electronic air cleaners depend on an ionization process to give a charge to particles in the air. There are two basic types of electronic air cleaners to help improve indoor air quality in Quakertown: electrostatic precipitators and ion generators. It can be difficult to tell whether these systems are operating properly due to their quiet operation, so you’ll want to have a professional install and test it first.

Electrostatic precipitators charge particles as the air is sucked into the unit. Particles are given an electrical charge from ions moving back and forth in the system, and these particles then accumulate on two flat plates in the unit which have the opposite charge. You usually have to clean these plates every month to three months, depending on usage.

Ion generators are a little different, instead sending out ions to charge particles all around a room. Particles receive a charge so that they can cling to surfaces around the room such as a curtain or the walls. This way you won’t have to worry about breathing in contaminants, and they’ll likely be taken care of during your next home cleaning spree.

The professionals at Carney Plumbing Heating & Cooling can help you make sure you’ve gotten the right type of unit to protect your indoor air quality in Quakertown.