Carney All Seasons Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Fountainville’

How to Prevent Sewer Problems

Monday, April 8th, 2013

While we spend countless hours of time fiddling with the latest electronic gadgets, we often overlook the basic infrastructure of our Doylestown, PA homes. Our plumbing usually taken for granted—that is, of course, until we run into a problem. Along with the water supply system, our sewerage system comprises our basic plumbing, and provides the rapid and efficient disposal of wastewater out of the home and into the septic tank or municipal waste management system. Occasionally, whether due to age or damage, our sewerage system may require repairs. Let’s take a look at some causes for sewer repair. When you need professional service, call Carney Plumbing, Heating & Cooling!

  • Clogging. Hair, grease, food scraps, and even toys may find their way down the drains and into the sewer line. Such substances may not completely block the passage of wastewater in and of themselves, but when they accumulate with other substances, they can form a thick wall that may clog your plumbing entirely. The use of harsh chemicals to break up these blockages can often damage your plumbing, and will be useless in the case of a serious sewer line clog, which is far from the fixtures and drains within your home.
  • Inefficiency. While you may not have encountered a total blockage, there may be times when it seems as though your wastewater is very slow to drain. When a plunger or auger doesn’t seem to do the trick, the problem might be deep in your sewer line, well out of the reach of the homeowner’s tool-set. The problem may be accumulated organic waste or even mineral deposits, which have significantly reduced the aperture of the piping.
  • Root penetration. While we often think of trees as static, if slow-moving, objects, they are incredibly powerful. In an area of large trees with complex and extensive root systems, the risk of a root penetrating your sewer line is high. While roots move at relatively slow rates, they exert incredible pressure, and may crush or crack your sewer line. This can cause sewage to leak into your backyard, or significant reductions in the efficiency of wastewater disposal.

These are just a handful of possible problems in your sewerage system. For exceptional Doylestown, PA sewer repair, call Carney Plumbing, Heating & Cooling today! 

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Mechanical or Forced Ventilation v. Natural Ventilation

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

Just about everyone can agree that effective ventilation is essential to maintaining a healthy indoor living environment. But exactly what does this entail? There are quite a few ways to circulate air throughout your home, and each method is appropriate for a specific situation.

Benefits of Natural Ventilation

Natural ventilation, of course, can be achieved simply by opening a window. But there’s actually a lot more to it than that. If you really want to ventilate your home through natural means, then you’ll have to learn to take advantage of the differences in pressure in different areas of your home.

One way to do this is to use cross ventilation. This means opening windows or doors on both sides of your home and allowing the outdoor air to blow through, carrying stale, indoor air out the other side. A more sophisticated version of this is stack ventilation.

In a two-story home, stack ventilation can be achieved by opening the windows on the bottom floor on one side of the house and on the top floor on the opposite side. Because of the differences in outdoor air pressure, air will be sucked in through the lower floor windows and out through the upper ones.

Why Natural Ventilation Is Not Always Practical

These types of natural ventilation can be extremely effective when it comes to both cooling an indoor environment and removing indoor air contaminants. Unfortunately, allowing outdoor air inside unimpeded allows outdoor contaminants easily as well.

On particularly hot or humid days, natural ventilation can’t reduce the indoor temperature enough to make it comfortable indoors. While a light breeze is enough to take the edge off on a moderate spring or summer day, more is needed when the weather is extreme.

Types of Mechanical Ventilation

When you think of mechanical ventilation, you probably jump right to large central air conditioning systems. But that’s certainly not the only type of effective mechanical ventilation available. In fact, mechanical ventilation can be performed by just about any type of fan on the market, and while operating a fan is certainly more expensive than opening a window, it’s still much more affordable than running an air conditioner all day long. Fans can also be used in combination with natural ventilation to achieve better results than either system could on its own.

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