What is A/C?

A basic question, but a good place to start.

Air conditioning is basically the movement of heat from one place to another. Heat pumps, ice rinks, geothermal systems and even your home refrigerator all use this principle.

An air conditioning system is a sealed system with refrigerant in it, which is pumped around a loop. There are 4 basic parts in the system:

1. the compressor, which is basically a pump to push the gas (refrigerant) around the loop;

2. the metering device, which is just a valve which controls the flow of gas;

3. & 4. an inside coil and an outside coil. One gets hot and one gets cold. In the case of a heat pump, the system can change which ones are hot or cold.

There are also endless lists of parts that can be added depending on your needs, but these 4 make up the basis of all systems.

 Caledonia Integrated Services is an Energy Management, HVAC and  Electrical  company, serving Vancouver and BC area.
We actively encourage feedback, comments and questions. You can leave a  message here, or look us up on Facebook and Twitter. Of course, you can always e-  mail us too!

Pulley on HVAC

I Hear Squeaking!

Does my Heating or A/C need oiling? I Hear Squeaking!

In a word – no! Many heating or cooling (HVAC) units use belts and pulleys to move the air around the building. There is a belt that goes between the pulleys on the electric motor and the blower wheel. When this belt is adjusted correctly the system will work for a long time with no problems. However, if this belt is loose, the pulleys and belt will wear much faster than they should. If the belt is too tight there is too much tension causing excessive wear on the bearings in the motor and blower. Both scenarios will produce a squeaking noise.

Newer equipment now uses variable speed motors which ramp up slowly and adjust speed depending on demand in the system. This is easier on the equipment and saves power.

Caledonia Integrated Services is an Energy Management, HVAC and  Electrical company, serving Vancouver and BC area.
We actively encourage feedback, comments and questions. You can leave a message here, or look us up on Facebook and Twitter. Of course, you can always e- mail us too!




When do I need an Energy Management system? Not a question we ever hear, but it’s very obvious to us when people should be asking!

It’s now that time of year again….it’s cold, it’s busy, and staff are run off their feet. This is the season when there is no time to check any of your equipment; and that’s unfortunate, because this is when it is working at its fullest capacity. This is where a building control system or an energy management system really starts to pay for itself, especially if you have many locations or many units. All of them can be set or checked remotely…..easy!

With a properly set up system in place for the winter you will be maximizing your savings in several ways. You will only be using energy (heat) when the space is occupied. One member of staff (or your service provider) can quickly go on-line and check any problems, and either fix it there or call a technician to the problem if needs be. These systems can pay for themselves very quickly and, not only will you save money, you’ll also make huge savings on time.

Wishing you all a peaceful Festive Season and a prosperous New Year.

I didn’t know I could do that….

“I didn’t know I could do that” – the most common response we get  when explaining energy management systems to new customers!  Energy Management is simple…from turning off a light switch to full,  integrated systems; it’s all intended to make your life easier and save  energy.

In the bad old days energy management systems needed a dedicated  computer, lots of expensive software, and tied you into a contract  with  one company who held all your information. These days all you  need is  a box that plugs into your router. This is combined with easy  to use  graphics, which can be customized just for your building or  business.  And, because it’s web based, replacement parts are easy to  come by  and can be serviced by any company. Of course, all of this  makes the  costs much less, which opens up an opportunity for  smaller businesses  and buildings to use this system. With  programmable thermostats,  motion sensors for lights, and entire  building control systems – your  options today are much greater, and  more affordable, that ever before.

Let us show you something you ‘didn’t know’!

Caledonia Integrated Services is an Energy Management, HVAC and  Electrical  company, serving Vancouver and BC area. Our focus is Energy   Management –  saving you money whilst saving the environment.

Just a gentle reminder that a lot of companies close  down at Christmas/New Year or work with minimum  staffing levels. You can easily pay more than double for  a call out during the festive season, so make sure you  schedule all required electrical or HVAC work as soon as  possible….or be prepared to leave it until next year!

Caledonia Integrated Services is an Energy Management, HVAC and  Electrical company serving Vancouver and the BC area. Always putting  customer needs first, we constantly look for ways for you to save energy  and money.

Sometimes the simple solutions are the best ones.

A small company were spending a fortune on heating and cooling, so they  came to us for advice. As they had the older style mercury thermostats on  their equipment, we advised that they update the equipment to  programmable stats. All that was required for the changeover was some  additional wire for the rooftop units so, after a little wire pulling, the new  system was installed.

Well, they were stunned with the difference this simple solution made to  their bills. The fans were not running all night, and the heating and  cooling came on only when it was needed. And, with the savings they  made on their energy bills, the new equipment was paid off in just a few  short months.

Sometimes small alterations equal big savings!

Caledonia Integrated Services is an Energy Management, HVAC and  Electrical company serving Vancouver and the BC area. Always putting  customer needs first, we constantly look for ways for you to save energy  and money.

Where’s the Breaker?

Sometimes we receive service calls where we turn up and just have  to turn the breaker on to get everything working again. This is hard on  the home owner or business owner, to pay a call out fee when it was  so easy to fix, but there are many reasons why this happens. Maybe  they couldn’t find the breaker panel, or the breaker looked switched  on, or they just didn’t think about the breaker. Of course, the  opposite can happen too, where we need to work on a circuit or  equipment and we just can’t find the breaker to switch the power off  to make it safe to work on.

There are a few ways you can save yourself money in this regard.  Make sure YOU know where your breaker is so that you can check it  before calling someone out, or you can direct someone to it if you do  need a professional (remember, most call out jobs charge by the  hour!). There is also a simple tool you can buy at any of the big DIY  stores. It’s called a circuit tracer – you can plug it into a 120v socket (or  jumper leads), hook it to the equipment and, with the power still on,  you go to the panel box with the other half of the tool. It will bleep  when you get to the appropriate breaker. Simple!

Caledonia Integrated Services is an Energy Management, HVAC and  Electrical  company serving Vancouver and BC area. “There is no knowledge  that is not  power”  – giving power to our customers.

We hate to be the ones to point it out….but the temperatures are starting to drop, and fall is just around the corner. Get ahead of the crowds  – get your furnace serviced now, so that when it’s time to turn the heating on you can do so straight away….knowing that it is safe and in perfect working order!

Super busy this month….trying to keep everyone cool!

Take care in sun, have a great summer and we’ll be back with more tips next month!

Why is there water on my ceiling?

HVAC technicians probably aren’t your first choice when this happens! Usually when someone sees water leaking from their ceiling they will call a roofer, assuming that rain is coming in somewhere (especially living in Vancouver!) or a plumber for a leaking pipe. It can be expensive to call out a professional, only to have him tell you that there’s nothing he can do and you need to call someone else. So, if you have an air conditioning unit here are some things to be aware of so that you can make an educated decision on who to call if this happens to you.

Think of your air conditioner like a glass of iced water, where water beads collect on the outside of the glass. In the same way,  your air conditioner unit will pull water out of the air and cause it to condense. Over time, if the unit is not well maintained, the drain on the unit will plug with dirt, leaving the water with nowhere to go. It will overflow and cause a water leak.

So, make sure you have your machine regularly cleaned and checked to ensure this never happens to you.

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Photo by: reditall