Keep Your Family Warm This Winter – With Trustworthy Care from Shemtov Systems!
Fall is the perfect time to make sure your home is ready for the colder months. At Shemtov Systems, we treat every home like our own – with honest service, no upselling, and a real commitment to your family’s comfort and safety. A fall HVAC tune-up prevents last-minute breakdowns, keeps your system running efficiently, and gives you peace of mind before winter arrives. We’re a local family-run company trusted by Maryland families for reliable heating and cooling, year after year. Book your fall check-up now and stay warm all season, with people you can truly trust. Shemtov Systems: family values, professional service! A fall heating tune-up is mostly a combustion safety check, not a filter swap. On a gas furnace the technician inspects the heat exchanger and combustion chamber, checks the venting, tests for carbon monoxide, adjusts fuel input and flame, and cleans the blower. NOAA’s current climate normals put the median first 32F night on October 19 at Dulles and November 17 at Reagan National. Shemtov Systems books fall heating work across Silver Spring and Montgomery County at 240-355-3333. Key takeaways A heating tune-up is mainly a safety inspection: heat exchanger, venting, carbon monoxide. Maryland’s alarm law covers rentals and newer fuel-burning homes, not most older ones. A furnace idle since spring fails on dull faults: a filmed flame sensor, a plugged condensate trap. Below its balance point a heat pump runs on strip heat; long cycles and defrost are normal. If heat quits overnight, never warm the house with a gas oven, and protect exposed pipes. What does a fall heating tune-up actually include? The Department of Energy’s furnace and boiler guidance is a fair yardstick. Every system gets the vent pipe and chimney checked, plus the physical integrity of the heat exchanger. Forced-air work adds a crack check on the combustion chamber, a carbon monoxide test, fuel input and flame characteristics, blower control and supply-air temperature, blower cleaning and oiling, soot removal, and duct-joint sealing. Ask what a quoted furnace service covers. Why does an idle furnace fail on the first cold night? Nothing about a furnace improves while it sits. Over a humid Maryland summer a film forms on the flame sensor, so the burner lights and drops out seconds later. Blower bearings stiffen. A cracked ignitor finally opens. On a condensing furnace the condensate trap dries out, then plugs on the first run. Run the heat for an hour in early fall, while parts are still easy to get. How do you know the heat exchanger is not leaking carbon monoxide? Not by smell. The heat exchanger separates combustion gases from the air you breathe, and the Department of Energy warns that a leaking one mixes those gases into house air and can cause carbon monoxide poisoning. Cracks are not always visible, so a technician watches the flame as the blower starts and measures carbon monoxide in the flue and living space. An alarm is a backstop, not a substitute. Where does Maryland require carbon monoxide alarms? Maryland’s Public Safety Article covers rentals and hotels, plus dwellings permitted since January 1, 2008 that burn a fossil fuel for heat, ventilation, hot water, or a dryer. Rentals have needed an alarm outside each sleeping area and on every level, basement included, since April 1, 2018. Older owner-occupied houses often sit outside it, so follow the CPSC: battery backup, every level, outside sleeping areas. How does a heat pump behave differently in a Maryland winter? Every heat pump has a balance point, the outdoor temperature where its output equals the house’s heat loss, which DOE puts well below 40F for code-built homes. Below it, electric strips cover the gap at roughly 3,400 Btu per kilowatt-hour against 10,300 for a 10.3 HSPF unit, now labeled as a lower HSPF2 number. Defrost cycles are normal; strip heat in mild weather is not. DOE says many controls fire the strips on any thermostat change over three degrees. What should you do if the heat fails overnight? Call it in; the 24-hour answering service takes no-heat calls at 240-355-3333. Do not improvise heat: Ready.gov says never heat a home with a gas stovetop or oven, and to run generators outdoors, at least 20 feet from windows, doors, and attached garages. Then the plumbing: pipes in crawl spaces, garages, and exterior walls freeze first. Open cabinets under sinks on outside walls, let one faucet drip, and find the main shutoff. Frequently asked questions What can I check myself before calling? Thermostat batteries, the switch from cool to heat, the service switch, and the breaker. Then the filter: the EPA treats MERV 13 as a floor, capped by what your blower and slot can pass. See our thermostat settings guide. Why does my furnace smell like burning dust on the first run? Summer dust burning off hot metal; it usually clears within an hour. A lingering smell, or an electrical, oily, or gas odor, is different: shut the system down and read our signs your HVAC needs repair guide. What are the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning? The CPSC lists headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, sleepiness, and confusion, easy to mistake for a winter bug. Get everyone outside to fresh air, then call 911. Should I switch a heat pump to emergency heat when it gets cold? No. On an all-electric system it locks out the compressor and runs only costly strip heat. Save it for an outdoor unit that is dead or iced solid. To book heating service in Silver Spring, Olney, or anywhere in Montgomery County, call Shemtov Systems at 240-355-3333. Book the inspection before the first freeze, not after it.
5 Common AC Myths – Busted!
Many homeowners believe things about their AC that just aren’t true – and those myths can cost you money and comfort. Let’s clear things up! “Bigger units cool better.” Actually, oversized ACs short cycle, wasting energy and wearing out faster. Proper sizing is key for efficient cooling. “Change filters only when they look dirty.” Your AC’s airflow drops long before you see dirt. Changing filters every month keeps your system healthy and efficient. “Turning the thermostat way down cools the home faster.” Your AC runs at a fixed speed no matter the setting, so setting it lower just makes it run longer. “Closing vents in unused rooms saves energy.” Closing vents disrupts airflow, creating pressure problems that strain your system. “If it’s working, skip maintenance.” Routine maintenance catches issues early and extends your system’s life, saving you from costly repairs. The five myths above miss the same thing: an air conditioner is a dehumidifier as much as a cooler, and each myth shortens the run time that removes moisture. Here is what happens inside the equipment, plus three more myths worth knowing. For a straight answer in Montgomery County, Shemtov Systems is on 240-355-3333. Key takeaways Removing moisture takes run time, so anything that shortens run time costs comfort and money. No thermostat setting changes how fast equipment removes heat, only how long it runs. A fan makes people feel cooler without removing heat, so one in an empty room is waste. Refrigerant is not a consumable, so a system that wants charge every summer is leaking. Why does extra capacity leave a house cool and damp? Water leaves the air only once the indoor coil has been running long enough to be thoroughly wet. Too much capacity reaches the setpoint before that, so the temperature drops and the moisture stays. Test it on a 90 degree afternoon: right-sized cooling runs in long stretches, not eight minute bursts. Our guide to sizing the equipment properly covers the load calculation. Why change a filter that still looks clean? Pleated media loads through its depth, not just at the surface, so resistance climbs well before a filter looks dirty. The blower answers by moving less air over the coil, which stretches cycles and can frost it. Replace on a schedule and write the install date on the frame. Intervals are in our guide to how often to service a system. Does setting the thermostat to 65 cool the house faster? No. A single stage compressor has one capacity, so it removes the same heat per hour at 65 as at 74. The lower number changes only how long it runs. Variable speed equipment modulates, but never above its rating. A house that never reaches its setpoint has a capacity, airflow, or charge problem, not a thermostat problem. The setpoint guide has the numbers. Does shutting a spare room’s register save anything? Closing registers does not lighten the blower’s job; it raises static pressure in the ducts, and that pressure forces more air out through seams and joints. Where ducts cross an attic or crawl space, that air is lost outdoors. The closed room still trades heat through its walls, so you never stop paying for it. Balancing, zoning, and duct pressure testing are the real fixes. Why does a system that seems fine need maintenance? Because performance drifts rather than fails. A tune-up is measurement: motor current against the nameplate, static pressure across filter and coil, and the drop from return air to supply air, which commonly sits near 16 to 22 degrees and runs lower in humid weather. Numbers outside those bands flag what kills compressors; see what shortens equipment life and Shemtov Systems service agreements. Do ceiling fans actually cool a room? No. A fan removes no heat from a room; the electricity its motor uses ends up there as heat. It moves air across skin so perspiration evaporates faster, which is the cooling you feel. Used well it lets you sit at a higher setting, so the compressor runs less. Check the reversing switch too: in summer the blades should push air down. Is a higher MERV filter always better? Not always. MERV scores how much of the 0.3 to 10 micron range a filter captures, on a scale of 1 to 16, so a higher number catches finer particles. EPA puts the target at MERV 13. The ceiling is what your equipment can breathe through: whistling at the return, weak airflow, or a filter bowed inward means it is too restrictive. Does an AC need refrigerant topped up every year? No. Refrigerant is not consumed; it circulates and returns. A system that wants charge every summer is leaking, and adding a pound a year is not a repair. A proper fix means finding the leak with a detector or a nitrogen pressure test, sealing it, pulling a vacuum, then weighing in the nameplate charge. See air conditioning service in Silver Spring. Frequently asked questions My air conditioner is icing over. Can I keep running it? No. Switch cooling off, run the fan until the ice melts, then look for a loaded filter, closed registers, or low charge. An iced coil sends liquid refrigerant back to the compressor. Does shading or covering the outdoor unit help it work better? Very little, and only if the shade never blocks airflow. The condenser pulls air through every side of its cabinet and discharges upward, so keep it clear and never run it covered. Can I buy refrigerant and top up my own system? No. Since January 1, 2018 the EPA sales restriction has covered refrigerants such as R-410A, which may be sold only to a Section 608 certified technician or an employer of one. If one of these myths shaped how you run your system, measurement beats opinion. Shemtov Systems has worked out of Silver Spring since 1981, with NATE-certified technicians, licensed and insured in Maryland and Washington DC, and a 24-hour answering service on 240-355-3333.