Envirotech Air Quality Services Blog : Archive for December, 2013

The Ball in Times Square

Monday, December 30th, 2013

New Year’s is a time for parties, fun and great traditions, some of which go back more than a century. Among them is the famous “dropping of the ball” in Times Square, an event which is broadcast to millions of people every New Year’s Eve. With 2014 nearly upon us, we thought we’d take the opportunity to look at the history of this popular New Year’s Eve festivity.

The idea began in 1907 at what was then the New York Times building at One Times Square. The newspaper’s owner, Adolph Ochs, had been celebrating the New Year with fireworks since 1903. He wanted make the event even more remarkable, and added the ball in December of 1907 to welcome in the New Year. The first ball was designed by Artkraft Strauss, who made it out of iron, wood, and light bulbs. It took six men to hoist the ball up the building’s flag pole; once midnight struck, the tremendous ball was carefully lowered, and all were allowed to marvel at it.

Since then, the ball has undergone many changes in materials and design, and even the New York Times has moved to another building. But the tradition remains and the ball has dropped over One Times Square ever since. Today, the ball is electronically controlled, and uses LED lamps for its construction: designed by Waterford Crystal and weighing in at over 1,200 pounds.

A number of television broadcasts have helped carry the event over the years, but by far the most famous is “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” which first ran in 1972. The show was created and hosted by Dick Clark, who became a staple of the event as much as the ball itself. Clark hosted the show every New Year’s Eve from 1972 until his death in 2012. Since then, it has been hosted by Ryan Seacrest, who shared hosting duties with Clark starting in 2005.

Whether you’re watching the ball drop on TV or have some other New Year’s Eve plan in mind, we here at Envirotech Air Quality Services wish you nothing but the best for 2014. Have a safe and happy New Year!

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Happy Holidays!

Monday, December 23rd, 2013

Holiday greetings from Envirotech Air Quality Services! We hope you are having safe and pleasant season, enjoying your favorite traditions for this time of year. We wish you the very best, and we thank you for your business this year.

In honor of the season, here are some fun facts about one of everyone’s favorite holiday movies: It’s a Wonderful Life.

For years, one of the enduring December traditions in the United States was watching the movie It’s a Wonderful Life playing almost nonstop on numerous television stations. No matter the time of the day, you could turn on the TV set, flip through channels, and discover It’s a Wonderful Life playing. Whenever you needed him, you could find Jimmy Stewart shouting, “Hello, Bedford Falls!”

But now… It’s a Wonderful Life only appears on broadcast television a few times during December, and most families instead choose to watch the movie on video. What happened?

The reason goes back to the film’s initial wide release in January 1947. (That’s right, it opened after the holiday season. It was not even promoted as a holiday film.) It’s a Wonderful Life was a box-office disappointment at the time, and its studio, RKO Radio Pictures, lost more than half a million on it. The movie’s production company, Liberty Films, was sold to Paramount to avoid bank foreclosure. (A bit ironic, considering the movie’s plot.) In 1955, the National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to It’s a Wonderful Life, which included the television syndication rights.

However, NTA failed to properly renew the copyright in 1974 because of a clerical error, which allowed the film’s images to enter into the public domain. Although the movie’s plot was still under copyright protection because it was adapted from a published story called “The Greatest Gift,” television stations across the world could now broadcast it with only minimal royalty payments.

In 1993, Republic Pictures, which now owned the NTA library, tried to enforce their claim to the copyright of the film, as they possessed the rights to “The Greatest Gift.” Republic Pictures succeeded, and licensed exclusive television rights to NBC. Suddenly, It’s a Wonderful Life vanished from local television stations, and NBC made the movie’s broadcasts—usually twice during December—into major events. As of 1998, Paramount again has the rights to It’s a Wonderful Life… 43 years after they lost them.

It’s still easy to make It’s a Wonderful Life a part of whatever traditions you observe during the holidays, whether through home video or television broadcasts. Despite its lackluster initial reception in 1947, Frank Capra’s film is now an inseparable part of December in the United States.

Have a great holiday week!

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Heating Installation Problems to Avoid

Tuesday, December 17th, 2013

There are numerous steps involved in installing a new heating system in your home, starting with deciding which unit is the best fit for your needs. As with any complicated process, there are multiple pitfalls to avoid along the way. We’ll look at three specific ones in this post.

You can make the right first step easily: contact Envirotech Air Quality Services to take care of your heating installation in Wellington, FL. We are committed to delivering the quality in our name with every job we do.

Incorrect sizing of the heater

A heating system cannot be too large or too small for the space it is supposed to warm. A heat load calculation (which requires a technician to perform) will determine how much heat your house needs in order to keep you comfortable. Without this knowledge, it’s likely you’ll either have a heater that is too small (running constantly) or too large (turning on and off continually)—both situations which will lead to your heater prematurely breaking down.

Miscalibrated or incorrectly connected thermostat

The thermostat is a physically small component of your heating system, but it’s a giant as far as its importance. If a thermostat gets installed poorly, it will affect the whole system. If miscalibrated, the thermostat will read the wrong temperature in your house and turn the heater on and off at the wrong times. A poor connection between the thermostat and the heater will also threaten to make your heating inefficient and inadequate.

Amateur installation

We can’t emphasize this point enough: heating installation requires hiring licensed professionals. Having amateurs handle installation will lead to numerous problems. Poor connections to ducts, leaks in valves, poor soldering, and ineffective wiring are just a few of the troubles that can result from having a non-professional install a complex heating system. This will not only lead to poor heating performance and repair needs, but it can also be dangerous due to the risk of electrical fires or gas leaks.

If you are seeking top-tier professionals for your heating installation in Wellington, FL, look no further than Envirotech Air Quality Services. Our knowledgeable technicians always stay on the cutting edge of heating technology, and they will help you pick, size, and install the ideal heater for you. They will get the job done fast but accurately, leaving you to enjoy your new heating system for many years to come.

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Steps to Take if Your Heater Breaks Down in West Palm Beach

Monday, December 9th, 2013

Although a heater breaking down in the middle of a Florida winter isn’t as deadly serious as it breaking down in the middle of a Wisconsin winter, it isn’t something you want to happen on the coldest day of the year no matter where you live. You’ll want to find a way to get it back working as soon as you can. We’ll show you the steps to take to first see if the heating system breakdown is a simple malfunction you can fix, and then what you should do if steps these fail.

For West Palm Beach, FL heating repair you can depend on, look to Envirotech Air Quality Services. We have developed a reputation for quality work since we started in business in 1987.

  1. Check the thermostat: Since your thermostat tells your heating system when to turn on, a malfunctioning thermostat can be a big problem. Make sure you thermostat is set to the right temperature, that is the reading the temperature of your home correctly, and that it has power.
  2. Check the circuit breakers: If you have an electric heater (or a natural gas heater with an electric ignition), look to see if any of the circuit breakers have been tripped. Sometimes a sudden power surge can cause this, and you only need to reset the circuit breakers to restore power.
  3. Contact professional repair technicians: Although you may next feel tempted to go to the cabinet of your furnace or heat pump and try to work through the issue on your own, don’t give in to this impulse. Without training and advanced tools, you could only hope to stumble on the right repair accidentally—and the consequences of causing damage to the heater and to yourself are too high for you to risk it. Please call up a trusted local HVAC company and schedule a repair.

If you need West Palm Beach, FL heating repair on the double, contact Envirotech Air Quality Services and take advantage of our 24-hour emergency service. We also recommend that you enroll in our preventive maintenance program, which will help you avoid breakdowns in the future with a yearly visit that will check up on the components of your heater to make sure it is working at its best. If we find anything amiss, we can repair it before it turns into something more serious.

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What Kind of Pollutants Can Duct Cleaning Get Rid Of?

Monday, December 2nd, 2013

“Do I really need to get my ducts cleaned?”

We understand why you might think this: not only does duct cleaning sound like a lot of work, but because your ducts remain mostly out of your sight, they never seem like priorities. So your ducts get a bit dirty—so what?

Plenty, actually. You definitely need to have your ducts cleaned—yearly, if possible. Ducts can gather a variety of contaminants that will endanger your heater and air conditioner’s performance and also lower your indoor air quality. Dirty ductwork can lead to your indoor air quality being almost 100 times worse than that of outdoor air.

Here are a few of the common duct contaminants that professional cleaning can remove from your ducts. For top-quality duct cleaning in Lake Worth, FL, call on the certified specialists at Envirotech Air Quality Services today.

Dust

Dust is the most common and insidious contamination that can enter ducts. No matter how well sealed your ductwork is, dust will enter through the vents and begin to settle inside; even a dirt layer only an eighth of an inch thick on your ductwork can result in a 30% loss of heating efficiency. Effectively removing dust requires special powered vacuums, so it isn’t something you should try to get rid of on your own.

Bacteria

One of the most dangerous pollutants that can enter your ductwork is mold and bacteria growth. In Florida’s humid climate, this is unfortunately a common occurrence. However, duct cleaners have different tools for mold remediation, such as special sanitizers and UV germicidal lights that use ultraviolet light to destroy the cellular structure of bacteria and prevent it from returning.

Corrosion

This is another unfortunately common occurrence in Florida, where humidity brings the metal inside ducts into contact with moisture, leading to the oxidation that creates corrosion. Corrosion will eventually eat through the ducts and lead to numerous problems from air leaks.

Duct cleaning requires extensive work, not only to apply the appropriate methods and tools to remove specific pollutants, but also to safely access the inside of your ducts without causing damage to them or other construction material. You should hire only trained duct specialists to handle this task. Envirotech Air Quality Services has on staff NADCA-certified duct cleaning specialists, so you know we have the experience and training necessary to get your ducts the cleanest they can be. Contact us today to set up an appointment for duct cleaning services.

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