Konrad Heating and Air

10/31/2025

Experts say an average of 30% of conditioned air is lost through leaking ductwork. You can easily check: if your registers are in the floor, your ducts are under your house. Pop your head through an access and see if it feels significantly warmer under your house than the outdoor temperature. If your house is insulated, it should be almost as cold in there as it is outside.
If your ducts are in the attic, it is harder to tell because attics are generally warmer, and sometimes the ducts are buried in attic insulation. Turn on the heater, then watch in the attic for fluttering insulation around where the ducts branch off of each other. If your insulation is light in color, then darkened areas around duct joints are a telltale symptom of an air leak.
For more ideas, go to our page.

10/30/2025

Heating season has finally arrived in NorCal! Start by giving your system a DIY 10-minute check-up.
• Clean or change the filter if you haven’t done so in the last 30 days. Take an extra 30 seconds to dust the filter grille.
• Make sure there is nothing piled against a furnace inside the house, or leaves and yard debris against the unit outside if you have a packaged unit.
• Turn on the heat. Walk through the house and make sure EVERY register is open and unobstructed, with air coming out, even in unused rooms.

10/28/2025

First in a series of tips for saving on your heating bill, as promised:
• It may seem obvious, but if the house takes longer to get cold, you'll spend less heating it. Adding insulation might be optimal, but there are plenty of things you can do cheaply or for free. Make sure windows are fully latched, weatherstrip doors, close blinds and curtains against the cold and drafts, push a rolled-up towel against the bottom of a drafty outside door, close dampers on unused fireplaces, run exhaust fans (bath and kitchen) only as long as is necessary (since they send out warm air as well as smoke and smells), cover drafty dormant evaporative coolers…you get the picture!

07/05/2025

05/16/2023

Ready for fire season and smoky air? Allergies or asthma acting up? For little more than the price of a good large-room portable air purifier, we can install an Air Scrubber in your central heating and air conditioning system that will clean the air in your entire house.
We have installed these in private homes and medical offices, with noticeable and immediate results. Watch the video to see ActivePure technology in action, and see the link to the specific air scrubber we use in the comments.

This is "Living Proof Demonstration (06/18)" by ActivePure® Technologies on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

05/02/2023

Don't kill the messenger!
The new regulations that went into effect January 1 not only added substantially to the cost of equipment, but once again disrupted product availability. Manufacturers scrambled to change over and ramp up production to have new product ready in time for the regulatory changes, while distributors cut back on stocking older models early in order to not be stuck with equipment that became illegal to install on Jan 1. It's left a supply void that we are still waiting to see filled.

Fixing an air conditioner or buying a new one is getting costlier, thanks to climate change regulations added over the past two years. And more bad news is on the way.

02/22/2023

Replacing your filter monthly with an inexpensive pleated filter (not high filtration!) is the single most effective way to consistently save money on energy while extending the life of your heating and cooling equipment. It's $$ well spent!

A reminder to change your filter regularly, so love is the only thing in the air.

10/16/2021

Keeping your filter(s) clean is THE most important thing you can do to keep comfortable, save energy dollars, and extend the life of your heating and cooling equipment.

09/18/2020

If only this were a joke...

06/15/2020

We suggest to customers that you use your power bill as your monthly reminder to change your filter.

12/13/2016

We all enjoy a beautiful fire on cold winter evenings. But remember, while it is heating the room directly around it, the combustion of that fire draws a huge volume of air out of your home. This creates a vacuum of sorts, and that same volume of combustion air is being continually replaced as cold air drawn from outside...through leaks under doors and baseboards, around windows and electrical outlets. This might make your house feel extra-drafty, or outlying rooms feel even colder than usual when you have a fire burning. The simple solution? Open the window closest to your fireplace or woodstove, just a crack! That rush of air drawn through that little crack will go directly to the fire...eliminating the breeze flowing throughout the house!

12/12/2016

Experts say an average of 30% of conditioned air is lost through leaking ductwork. You can easily check: if your registers are in the floor, your ducts are under your house. Pop your head through an access and see if it feels significantly warmer under your house than the outdoor temperature. If your house is insulated, it should be almost as cold in there as it is outside.
If your ducts are in the attic, it is harder to tell because attics are generally warmer, and sometimes the ducts are buried in attic insulation. Turn on the heater, then watch in the attic for fluttering insulation around where the ducts branch off of each other. If your insulation is light in color, then darkened areas around joints are a sure symptom of an air leak.
For more ideas, go to our page.