construction zone

The earlier the better!

When construction starts on a new building (or a reno of an old one) getting advise early on could save you a lot of trouble later on.

Don’t just rely on your architect – have  your HVAC company come to the site early on. A good HVAC contractor will be able to look over the space and let you know what will and won’t work. They should also be able to recommend the best equipment to use and advise on the prevention of future conflict with other trades. For example: where the duct will run, controls placement, electrical requirements, fresh air intake and general layout of the system. We worked on one job where they had not taken any advice. As each trade arrived on site they found the sprinklers were in their way and had to be moved. Eventually they were moved FIVE times!

With this basic info at his fingertips, the site foreman doesn’t need to be an HVAC expert. The system will be planned out from the beginning so, as each trade arrives, their part of the job is already planned out.

Caledonia Integrated Services is an Energy Management, HVAC and Electrical company, serving Vancouver and BC area.
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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.

Did you know….?
The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty to protect the earth’s ozone layer and phase out the production and importation of ozone depleting substances. As of January 1st 2010 the next phase out took effect, from now on, no new R-22 equipment can be manufactured or imported, and the annual allowable amount of HCFC’s is reduced by 75%.
What is R-22?
R-22 is a gas, which is the main refrigerant used in air conditioning equipment.
What does this mean to you? Does your equipment use R-22?
95% of the Air Conditioning equipment in use today is using R-22.
What can you do?
Maintain your equipment properly and professionally, use some of the many energy management ideas to cut down on run-time with, and reduce the load the best you can (i.e. keep windows and doors closed etc).