As summer temperatures rise, you and your family may worry about the effects of heat stroke and heat stress. If you don’t take extra precautions in hot weather, you or a loved one may suffer from symptoms such as headaches, muscle cramps, nausea, and confusion.

To take shelter from the sun, you may encourage everyone to spend more time indoors in the shady comfort of your living room or kitchen.

But did you know that you can suffer heat stroke indoors as well as outdoors?

As the temperature starts to climb, so does the cost of cooling your home. When warm temperatures hit, you’ll need a way to stay cool while staying on budget. Before you crank up the air conditioning or stand in front of an open freezer, try some of these cost-effective and energy-efficient cooling tricks first.

People in homes and businesses with oil heating systems are in a unique position. By not exchanging their oil furnaces for fancy new electric or gas model furnaces, they help revolutionize heating fuel, create jobs, and reduce harmful emissions related to indoor heating.

The reason for all of this progress is bioheat oil, a mix of biodiesel and oil. It’s safe for use in your furnace and makes it possible for you to have a greener heating system without tearing out your old furnace. Learn more about why you should convert to this heating fuel below.

While most homeowners need a heating system to weather the winter, choosing the right heating system isn’t necessarily a simple decision. You have many heating system options, from heat pumps to furnaces, and just as many fuel choices.

One of the fuel choices growing in popularity is heating oil. In this blog, we discuss eight reasons that homeowners make the switch to heating oil.

1. Cost-Effective

Heating oil is one of the most affordable fuels currently available for household heating because it’s highly efficient. Even if purchasing heating oil costs more than buying natural gas in your area, your heating costs may still be cheaper overall if you use oil.

Your furnace is a vital component of your home’s climate control system. But the average furnace lasts between 15 and 20 years, so chances are that you’ll need to replace your unit at some point during your homeownership.

In our previous blog, “Minor Issue or Total Breakdown: How to Determine If Your Furnace Needs Repairs or Replacing,” we provided the information you need to tell the difference between a small inconvenience and a failing furnace. But what do you do once you know your furnace needs replacing?

In this blog, we list five steps you can take to ensure that your new furnace is installed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In an ideal world, the air treated by your HVAC system would be odorless or at least smell pleasant. However, unusual HVAC smells are fairly common, especially when you turn on your furnace during the winter months.

Some of these odors indicate a serious health risk or issue with the heating unit itself, while other smells are harmless (even if unwelcome).

So how do you tell the difference between a warning sign and a minor annoyance?

In this blog, we list some of the most common furnace odors and discuss which you should worry about.

The fall season brings with it many incredible changes. If you haven’t already, you’ll soon notice the leaves turning color and falling to the ground. The temperatures have lowered, leading to chilly mornings, slightly warm afternoons, and crisp evenings.

And the cooler the temperature, the likelier you are to crank up your furnace.

But if you hear odd noises, feel temperature inconsistencies, or notice other problems, you may wonder if your furnace needs a simple repair or a total replacement.

Read our guide below to determine which solution is the best option for you. We’ve listed a few steps you can take before you call an HVAC professional.

You chose your heating and air conditioning system with the intention of conserving energy, saving money, and keeping your home comfortable. But your system, whether it’s new or old, only works within the settings you choose.

Unfortunately, this responsibility means that many homeowners’ HVAC systems fall short of their optimized performance levels.

In this blog, we provide good general practices for setting your thermostat, as well as seasonal recommendations to help you get more out of your system.

As we wind up the summer, we still have a few hot days left ahead of us. Though we’re through the worst of the heat, it’s not quite time to turn off your air conditioner for good; we could still have another heatwave.

If your area is still feeling too hot for comfort, stay on your guard. Though fall is coming soon, you or a member of your family could still get a heat-related illness if you don’t take steps to prevent it. We’ve written previously about how to avoid indoor heat stroke, but below, we’ll help you learn the differences between the heat-related illnesses and how to treat each one.

Your air conditioner does much more than cool your air. If you follow our blog, you know that your air conditioner can also help you keep your home’s air quality high.

As long as you change your filter regularly, your air conditioner can strain dust and allergens out of the air before it cycles the cooled air through your home. Since air conditioners also remove humidity from the air, they cut down on the possibility of mold and mildew growth in your home.

You can rely on your air conditioner to keep you healthy — but if you take other small steps to clean your home’s air, your air conditioner won’t have to work as hard, and you can count on it to last for a decade or more without wearing out.

One simple way to improve your home’s air quality is helpful house plants. If you don’t have a green thumb, don’t worry. Most of the plants listed below thrive without a lot of oversight, but they still go a long way towards keeping your air clean and your family healthy.