Archive for the ‘Safety’ Category
Friday, January 6th, 2012
Winter is plagued by fierce storms in the Chicagoland area. For many, this means that the electrical supply to the home is not guaranteed. One strong gust and suddenly the home is without power. You and your family are then left at the mercy of your power company and their ability to get the power back up and running quickly. Frequent power outages not only disturb the flow of your day to day life, they also disturb the reliability of comfort in your home. No matter how great your furnace may function, it is useless without a source of electricity. Four Seasons’ Home Services division has the answer to your power outage problems: a whole house automatic generator.
Protecting Your Family’s Comfort
Unless you think your family could handle several days without heat in the home, you may want to sit down and seriously consider the benefits of a whole house generator. These systems, when installed by Four Seasons, will automatically switch on in the event of a power outage. They will use natural gas to produce electricity for as much or as little of the home as needed. At the very least you can attach this machine to the furnace, air conditioner, and sump pump. (more…)
Tags: air conditioner, Chicago, comfort, Crestwood, electricity, Four Seasons, Furnace, Generac, generator, Heating, IL, installation, Lynwood, protection, Safety, security, Skokie, Sump Pump, whole house generator
Posted in Boiler, Furnace, Heating, Home Improvement and Repair, Home Services, Hot Water Heater, Safety, Sump Pump, Tips and Suggestions | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 29th, 2011
Your furnace is your home’s source of comfort. As long as that unit keeps running and continues to keep you and your family warm, there is a sense of security in the home. However, your furnace can quickly turn into a source of danger if you don’t take the proper precautions. Having a furnace in the home is like having a well ventilated and circulated fire in the home. It is able to keep everyone warm, but in the process is creates harmful combustion gases that must be expelled from the home. When everything is working properly and well cared for, venting these harmful gases is not a major concern. Yet, when maintenance falls by the wayside, the furnace can cause dangerous problems for your family. Luckily Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning is around to help you keep your furnace in check.
Heat Exchanger Deterioration
Not maintaining the furnace yearly could lead to a variety of problems that will require any number of repairs. But, the problems that a lack of maintenance can cause for your furnace’s heat exchanger are what truly concern us. The heat exchanger expands and contracts with every cycle of the furnace. Over time this will lead to the development of cracks and holes in the steel of the heat exchanger. Nearly all furnaces will meet this fate if they are in operation for long enough, but the goal is to prevent this from happening for as long as possible. That means that you must have yearly furnace cleanings performed on the system along with regular filter replacements. (more…)
Tags: air flow, Alsip, Chicago, comfort, filter replacement, Four Seasons, Furnace, furnace cleaning, Hanover Park, heat exchanger, Heating, heating problems, HVAC contractor, IL, maintenance, maintenance checks, over heating, Safety, yearly cleaning
Posted in Furnace, Furnace Repair, Heating, Safety, Tips and Suggestions, furnace filtration, maintenance | Comments Off
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
The holiday season is a popular time of year for many people to travel. We pack up cars and take planes all over the country to visit family and friends and we leave our homes behind. Every year, without fail, there are hundreds of homeowners in the Chicagoland area that will turn off the thermostat to save some money while they are away, and as a result, they experience a real disaster in the home when they finally get back. We know you want to save some money while you are away, but there is a safer way. Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning is issuing this warning so that you can protect your home this season, and our handymen can help you prepare the home as well.
Frozen and Burst Pipes
Turning off the thermostat when you leave the home can be a big mistake. Sure, you save some money on the energy bills, but you put all of the plumbing fixtures in the home at risk. The winter may have so far been pretty mild, but all you need is one icy cold winter night and suddenly you have frozen pipes. Once that frozen pipe begins to thaw, the water rushing into the pipe may cause it to burst and cause serious water damage to that particular area of the home. The worst part is that if you are out of town, there is no one there to turn off the water supply, so the mess you come home to could be a true home disaster that will cost much more to fix that the little bit of money you were trying to save by turning off the furnace in the first place. (more…)
Tags: 24 Hour Repair, burst pipe, Chicago, Four Seasons, frozen pipes, Furnace, Heating, Hoffman Estates, repair, Safety, save money, service, temperature, thermostat, water damage
Posted in Boiler, Furnace, Furnace Repair, Heating, Home Services, Plumbing Services, Safety, Tips and Suggestions | Comments Off
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
Nothing is more satisfying on an icy cold winter day than taking a nice hot shower or bath. Unfortunately, there are countless people that attempt to enjoy this simple pleasure and find themselves with a scald burn. Many of us will leave the tub or shower unattended while it warms up, but set the dial too far to the left and you could cause some serious damage to your skin. This can be even more so damaging to the skin of small children if they are placed into a bath with too hot water or if they are new to taking showers. It is easy enough to prevent this from happening in your home and all it takes is a simple adjustment of your hot water tank’s thermostat.
Set the Tank Temperature Back!
Go down to your hot water tank and check what temperature you currently have it set at. If it is set higher than 120-130 degrees, here is your potential problem. Roll back the thermostat to 120 degrees and see if you notice a difference. Odd are your showers will be just as comfortable as they have always been, but you will not longer stand the risk of burning yourself or your family members. (more…)
Tags: bath, Chicago, Crete, Crown Point, degrees, energy savings, Four Seasons, Heating, hot water tank, IL, Lockport, protection, Safety, save money, scald burn, shower, temperature, thermostat, winter
Posted in Heating, Hot Water Heater, Informational, Plumbing Services, Safety, Savings, Tips and Suggestions | Comments Off
Friday, November 25th, 2011
Not all furnaces are created equal, and if you have had a high efficiency furnace installed in your home over the past couple of years, you may have already begun to notice some of the differences between your new unit and your old system. The biggest difference is seen every month on your energy bills. Most homeowners that upgrade find that they send much less on energy to heat the home and yet receive more comfort than the old system was ever able to provide. However, Four Seasons wants to point out one difference between the old system and new system that may require you to make one more maintenance check periodically throughout the winter.
Technological Improvements Save Energy
Traditionally furnaces were vented through the chimney of the home. This was an inefficient way of getting the excess combustion gases out of the home, but in the process actually spent more energy than the furnace used to create heat. Hundreds of your hard earned dollars were being wasted in the combustion process and were never actually turning into usable heat for the home. The new high efficiency furnaces sought to improve upon this by creating a more efficient combustion and venting process. (more…)
Tags: Algonquin, blizzard, Chicago, combustion, Four Seasons, Furnace, Heating, IL, maintenance, obstruction, PVC pipes, save money, service call, snow, venting, winter
Posted in Furnace, Furnace Repair, Heating, Safety, Tips and Suggestions, furnace filtration, maintenance | Comments Off
Monday, November 21st, 2011
Very few things are more annoying than when batteries die on a vital appliance in the home. Next thing you know you are digging through drawers or stealing batteries from your children’s toys. Why not be proactive this year instead? There are three appliances in the home that most defiantly need to have their batteries changed twice a year: once before the summer season and again before the winter season. If you haven’t changed the batteries in these appliances in a while, now is the time to get back on top of this home maintenance task!
Beeping, Breakdowns, and Batteries
- Smoke Detectors: These crucial appliances are there to give your family advanced warning in the event of a fire in the home. When the batteries fail in these systems, the unit will beep incessantly until the battery is replaced. You may find yourself tempted to simply disconnect the unit until you get a new battery, but we urge you not to get in this habit! You may forget to replace the unit promptly and you will leave your home and your family vulnerable in the event of a fire.
- Thermostat: The thermostat controls the comfort level in the home, and the majority of these units run on batteries these days. If your thermostat is running on batteries that haven’t been replaced in ages, they may fail without your notice. You will think that there is a problem with the furnace and end up spending your hard earned money to have technician out to tell you that you need to change the batteries. The thermostat may even appear to be working normally, but the batteries simply don’t have enough juice to communicate properly with the furnace. (more…)
Tags: 24 Hour Repair, Alsip, batteries, Blue Island, carbon monoxide detector, Four Seasons, Furnace, IL, Oak Lawn, proactive, protection, Safety, smoke detector, thermostat
Posted in Boiler, Furnace, Furnace Repair, Heating, Home Improvement and Repair, Home Services, Informational, Safety, maintenance | Comments Off
Friday, November 4th, 2011
Saving money during the winter months just isn’t easy. With the icy cold weather, the furnace is in full operation around the clock and some of us may find ourselves looking to alternative heating methods to save some money on the gas bill. Space heaters, stoves, and fireplaces seem like a good option for the homeowner trying to save money, but in actuality they drastically reduce your comfort and many are inefficient with the energy that they use. At Four Seasons, our biggest concern has nothing to do with comfort or energy efficiency. We are much more worried about your safety because these appliances are not nearly as safe to use as your forced air furnace.
The Problems Caused by Alternative Heating
The fire hazard that appliances like space heaters, fireplaces, and stoves pose is our major concern. When used properly, these appliances can be used safely, but one wrong move and you could cause irreversible damage.
- Space Heaters: Space heaters are often a big source of this problem. They can ignite a fire easily when placed too close to something flammable or left on unattended. They can burn the curious hands of a child. Some space heaters burn gas or kerosene and the gases created by the combustion could give you and your family carbon monoxide poisoning if they are not vented properly. (more…)
Tags: alternative heating, damage, fire hazard, fireplace, forced air, Four Seasons, Furnace, Heating, IL, Joliet, Morris, Plainfield, Safety, saving money, space heater, stove
Posted in Furnace, Heating, Informational, Safety, Savings, Tips and Suggestions | Comments Off
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Most heating and air conditioning companies in the Chicagoland area close up shop between 5 and 8pm. Unfortunately, this leaves many of their customers out in the cold when the heat stops working during non-business hours, and instead of having a real person to talk to, the customer has to vent their problems to an answering machine. The icy cold winter temperatures in the Chicagoland area do not close up shop, and furnaces and boilers don’t punch out on a time clock. These systems often breakdown at the coldest and most inconvenient times, and many homeowners simply accept the fact that they are going to have to go without heat until their HVAC company is open once again.
We Understand Your Needs
At Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning, we truly understand the needs of Chicagoans. We know that there are many of you out there that simply cannot allow your home to go without heat for more than a couple hours due to a variety of reasons. Maybe you have someone elderly or an infant living in the home. Maybe you have a medical condition that can be adversely affected by low temperatures. Maybe you are having friends and family over for a get together. Maybe you fear that your pipes may freeze, or maybe you just don’t want to start off the next morning in a freezing cold house. Whatever your reason, Four Seasons is always there for you with 24 hour live customer service representatives that can schedule an emergency service call for your home no matter what time or day it may be. (more…)
Tags: 24 Hour emergency service, around the clock service, boiler repair, Chicago, cold, Four Seasons, furnace repair, Heating, holidays, IL, open 24 hours a day, peace of mind, Skokie, Tinley Park, weekends, winter
Posted in Boiler, Furnace, Furnace Repair, Heating, Safety, customer service | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 5th, 2011
Many homes use forced air heating systems, like furnaces, to heat their homes during the winter months. However, there are plenty of homeowners that still rely upon boilers, either steam of hot water, to keep the home comfortable. These homeowners may be in the minority in the HVAC industry, but they still need to have a licensed serviceman that they can count of to take care of their system. Four Seasons Heating and Air Conditioning has the experts that these homeowners need to keep their system in check on a yearly basis. Neglecting to do so because you think there isn’t someone out there who can care for the system is not an option and it could have detrimental consequences.
What Does the Pressure Relief Valve Do?
The pressure relief valve on your boiler is probably the single most important device on the system. This one part is what could save you from a boiler disaster. All heating systems have built in safety devices and the pressure relief valve is a key safety feature of your boiler. This valve is what prevents a dangerously high pressure level from building up within your boiler. Pressure within the boiler can build up for a variety of reasons and without a properly functioning relief valve, the boiler could blow, and at the very least, the high pressure could cause some serious damage to the inside of the unit. (more…)
Tags: Bellwood, Blue Island, Boiler, Chicago, cleaning, comfort, Four Seasons, Highland Park, IL, leaks, maintenance, pressure, pressure relief valve, repair, safety device, testing, water, winter
Posted in Boiler, Heating, Hot Water Heater, Informational, Safety | 3 Comments »
Friday, September 30th, 2011
The Chicagoland air quality this time of year can vary. The local weather report may indicate that the ragweed is at a moderate level or the mold count level is high. The same may be true of the air quality in your home. Mold and contaminants can affect the air in your home and your health. It may also interfere with your heating and cooling system. A germicidal light such as a Healthy Climate UVC-24V from Four Seasons can help to produce cleaner air in your home. The germicidal light produces strong rays of ultraviolet light to help reduce harmful pathogens in your home.
Do More that Just Get a Flu Shot!
As any mom knows, flu season can be an exhausting time of the year. It usually hits around the Holidays, right when you have the most going on. You can protect your family from harmful viruses like the flu by getting more than just a flu shot. Do more to protect your family by having a Four Seasons germicidal UV light installed. The UV light operates whether your heating and cooling system is running or not. It continuously destroys bacteria and viruses before the pollutants enter your duct system. You can give your family peace of mind knowing that this same technology is used in operating rooms and clinics across the U.S. Call and ask one of our friendly representatives about what you can do to protect your family’s health this winter, and get a free quote on one of our germicidal UV lights today!
Tags: Air Quality, Chicago, contaminents, Four Seasons, free quote, germicidal light, IL, installation, mold, UV Light, viruses, winter
Posted in Air Quality, Air filtration, Health, Informational, Safety | Comments Off
