Happy Holidays from AIR MASTERS OF TAMPA BAY. Last year was a busy year for us and I would like to give you an update. Beverly Bosley our President had a baby girl named Persephone. I hope the kid is an English major to explain her name all her life. This is Beverly’s 6^th and last child. I think she is running out of steam. Not to be outdone, our Vice-President Phillip Gonsalves also had a baby girl named Emma. This is Phillip’s 2^nd child and he feels just fine. Moms and babies are doing great.

 Now on to the HVAC business: Last year we again won Best A/C Company for 2011 voted by the customers of the Tampa Tribune. We were awarded Angie’s List Distinguished Service Award for 2011. Thank you for so many reviews on Google, Yellow Pages, and Angie’s List. We also appreciate the many letters we receive about our workmanship and our employees. If you do have an issue with our workmanship or something one of our employees said, do give us a call so we can resolve the situation. You can also just call and say Hi. You can find us on Facebook and “like us”.

  As we mentioned last year, we had hired Mr. David Horton for commercial sales. This has been a great partnership with our commercial department growing by leaps and bounds. Take a look at our website and click on commercial department for information. If you own a business or know someone who would be in need of a good commercial HVAC contractor, please recommend us.

 So what’s going on for the home owner? If you are thinking of replacing your old a/c system with a 15 SEER efficiency rating or higher, time is running out on the $300.00 Federal Tax Credit. Remember this program was $1500.00 Tax Credit in 2010, then it dropped to $300.00 in 2011. TECO has increased their rebates this year from $125.00 to $275.00 heat pump to heat pump 15 SEER and up. Straight cool to heat pump from $275.00 to $400.00 and if you are changing to natural gas, it starts at $500.00 and goes to $750.00 depending on the configuration. TECO has also come out with a new maintenance and high performance tune-up that they will give a $75.00 rebate once every 5 years if you perform their maintenance and tune-up. This can only be performed by a TECO certified contractor, which we are.

 Well, thanks for listening. We hope this information will help you make informed decisions and save you money in the coming year. Right now we need to go hang our holiday decorations. Before we go, we want to say Thanks for all of your business and recommendations to friends and family. If you do refer someone and they decide to install a new system, we will send you $50.00. Keep yourselves happy and healthy and if you ever need to contact us please call (813) 234-2419 or you can email us at www.airmasters.net

Hope your Holidays are Comfortable and Healthy!

John De Young, CEO

On one of the many places to write a review about Air Masters of Tampa Bay a client of ours questioned the cost of analyzing their problem and then questioned the cost of the quote we gave them. I must say these are commonly asked questions of us, so let me explain how it works.

There are usually 3 separate charges to consider:

1. The initial trip charge.
2. Time to diagnose the problem.
3. Quote to repair.

The Trip Charge: When a mechanic is sent to your home to diagnose an A/C problem, most companies charge a trip charge (as we do) which covers the cost of getting the mechanic to your home no matter where he my be located or what happens to him on the way. Companies average out that cost and come with a trip charge.

Diagnostic Time: Once on site, the technician will check the system thoroughly and charge a rate for every half hour of diagnosis time. Often, they can determine the problem within the first half hour to hour on site.  Then they will give you a quote for the repair that includes the diagnosis charge.

Repair:  If you accept the quote for repair, the mechanic will fix the problem and provide a bill to you for the trip, diagnosis time and actual repair costs (labor and parts). If you don't accept the quote and want the work done by someone else, you should be charged only for the trip charge and diagnosis time. In most cases, we can fix the problem within one hour on the jobsite.  On larger jobs (leaking coils, bad compressors)  additional time may be needed.

If it sounds too good to be true...

Some companies advertise Free Service Calls. As a business owner, I don't know how they can afford this unless their mechanic is told to try and sell you something. I think I will leave it at that.

Now, if a company advertises a Free Second Opinion (like we do), it is thought that we are doing a service for you. If you like the way we handled ourselves in confirming the diagnosis, or our explanation to you of the misdiagnosis and identification of the real problem, we feel you will hire us. Lets face it, the only reason you called for a second opinion was that you did not trust the other company for some reason. When the technician arrives, he is looking for a service ticket showing what the diagnosis was from the other company so he can confirm or deny that diagnosis.  There is no charge for this service.

I hope this helps you when you call for service and I did not confuse you.I also hope I did not make it too personal using Air Masters of Tampa Bay as an example.  But in this case, I can only speak for our company and I can only assume what other companies do.

 OK starting May 3rd 2011 TECO has come out with a new updated Rebate Program.So here we go.

                      For Hillsborough County and Surrounding Counties that TECO serves

If you are adding a New Air Conditioning Heat Pump system to your existing home you receive $400 instant rebate from TECO. What that means is that we subtract the TECO rebate off your contract price and we submit the paper work to TECO who than reimburses us. All other rebates involving TECO will work the same. Here's why this is a big deal. TECO has never given a rebate for a brand new installation before. You get this rebate also if you are adding an addition to your house*. If you are building or buying a new house there is no rebate. The following is the equipment that qualifies for the rebates.

   Heat Pump Old  to  New 15 SEER Heat Pump------------------------------------$275

   Heat Strip Old    to  New 15 SEER Heat Pump------------------------------------$400

   Gas Furnace Old  to  New 15 SEER Heat Pump----------------------------------$400

    Oil Furnace Old  to  New 15 SEER Heat Pump-----------------------------------$400

    Gas Furnace and Air conditioning Old  to  New Gas Furnace and 15 SEER Air Conditioning--$500

    Straight cool or Heat Pump Old  to  New Gas Furnace and 15 SEER Air Conditiong--$750

   *15 SEER mini-split heat pumps now qualify for $400 rebate

    The auxiliary Heat Strip KW for a Heat Pump has changed to the following

             1. Up to 2.5 tons-------------5KW

             2. 3 through 4.5 tons--------8KW

             3. 5 ton-------------------------10KW

This was done because in colder temperatures some customers felt that their home was not keeping warm enough. So they increased the allowable heat strip size and still qualify for the rebate.

OK, so you come home and there is water coming from the ceiling or the closet and you know there's no plumbing in those areas but there is an air conditioner air handler in the ceiling or closet. So what do you do and how do you prevent it from happening again?

Turn your A/C system off at the thermostat but leave the fan set to on. The reason for this is that while the unit was running and cooling the system is taking a lot of moisture out of the air (we are in Florida hot and humid). The evaporator has a lot of water in it when it is cooling and if you shut off the air handler all that water drains off the evaporator coil and causes more water damage because the reason we have a water leak is that there is a drainage problem. 

So lets think and find out what the problem may be. For the Mr. fix-it person who could be a woman as well as a man these days, you would think easy fix, the drain is plugged and if we can blow it out  and discharge the blockage, problem solved. Some times, maybe 20% of the time there is another problem causing the water leak but first lets take the easiest solutions. 

Go outside and find out where your condensate line is coming out from your house. Make sure nothing is blocking the outlet and if you can take a piece of wire or some flexable item and fish it through the p-trap that is normally at the end of the drain line. If water starts coming out, you have fixed the problem. Now lets do a little preventive maintenance at this time. Take a rag and rap it around you garden hose end and the end of the drain line. Have someone quickly turn on the water hose and shut it off immediately or you are going to have a flood in your house. The reason you do this is to wash as much slim as possible out of the drain line. Another thing you might think of doing at this time is to extend the drain line out about 12" from the house. The reason for this is that they have found that if you have water standing at the base of your house it may draw termites to your house. This way the water disperses and dries out. If you made it this far, good job! 

Now if your air handler is in the closet and you can get to it, look to see if there is a cap on a pipe at the drain line leaving the air handler. Remove the cap and pour a bleach solution down the opening. This kills that slime I was talking about. Most units do not have this port installed at the air handler. You must put the cap back on. This procedure should be done once a year if not twice a year here in Florida. 

If your air handler is in the attic you need to get up there to do the same thing. For the more advanced Mr. fix-it person, turn the unit off at the disconnect, open the side panel and remove. Take flashlight, look in drain pan to see if there is blockage or slime in the drain pan. If so, clean it out and then pour a bleach solution in the drain pan and watch it drain out. Put the side panel back on, turn on the disconnect switch. Go to thermostat and set for proper setting.

Now for the rest of us, call for service at (813) 234 2419

  I apologize for being gone for the last 3 months but I'm back and will try to give you some good information that you can use to make some informed decisions about our industry.

  Being that this is the beginning of the year I thought I would start off by bringing you up to date on the Federal Tax credits for Air Conditioning and Heating Systems and comparing them to last year.