The Comfort Squad

A classic "mixed brand" electrification from us...always trying to find the best equipment for the particular job at hand.

Re-upping this post from a couple of years ago...especially today for folks here in Virginia, the rest of the East + Midwest, and anyone generally who is new to dealing with poor indoor air quality due to wildfire smoke.

These DIY air cleaners, though not as as sleek as many of the HEPA air cleaners you can buy, are, in fact, *more* effective at removing fine particles (such as smoke) from the air than just about any household-size HEPA air cleaner. WHY? Because they move a *huge* volume of air through very good filters, instead of just a small amount of air through a HEPA filter.

If you can't find 20x20x2 MERV-13 filters locally or online, 3M Filtrete 1900 (MERV-13) in the 20x20x1 size are a good substitute, and are often available at local hardware stores.

Link to the Ask This Old House video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw7fUMhNov8&t=300s

Link to Neil's original video, hosted by HVAC School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7eL2OAnqc8

The Comfort Squad updated their address.

The cobbler’s children get some new shoes! (We finally went ahead and replaced the heat pump in our own home.)

After four years of high humidity from the oversized single stage heat pump the centerpiece of our new comfort system is in place! We’ll be going from a 2.5-ton to a 1.5-ton 😬… No worries, we got this! 😉

The Mitsubishi Electric Trane US Hyper Heat SUZ/SVZ heat pump was an easy decision because it’s our most frequently installed system in client’s homes. The performance, efficiency, and reliability at this system’s price-point make it a great value.

Next step is to install a Santa Fe and Ultra Aire by Santa Fe Dehumidifiers.

The dehumidifier is going to live in the crawl space but serve the living space, so I needed to get a duct from the crawl space into the mechanical closet. There was no space for it until I created one when the air handler was swapped-out. I was holding out on installing a whole home dehumidifier until I could do it “right”. By “right” I mean a dedicated return, and the dehumidifier’s supply air ducted to the heat pump supply plenum.

Currently I have a Broan-NuTone fresh-air fan injecting MERV 16 filtered air into the return duct. This relatively recent addition was much needed. Once I started monitoring CO2 I realized we had an issue — levels were consistently in the +1500 ppm range. My target is to maintain

Another home gets a heat pump! No more window shakers and electric baseboard heaters… As usual, the install crew did a great job hitting all the design metrics 💪🏻.

We replaced an aging 2.5-ton heat pump with this 1.5-ton Mitsubishi Electric Hyper Heat yesterday. Today the outdoor temperature will be several degrees above design conditions. 🤞🏻😉 Gotta love instant gratification!

Why join our team?... Because we’re not your typical HVAC company. We are committed to designing and building the highest quality and highest performing HVAC systems in the region.

We feel confident making that claim because we test everything we do — we know exactly where we stand.

We get these results by following a refined process — taking a whole house approach, and giving our technicians the proper amount of time to do excellent work.

This is great opportunity to grow with us — a unique company passionate about comfort.

We’re offering the right candidates:

- Great pay
- 10 days paid time off
- 6 paid holidays
- Paid employee’s health insurance
- Company vehicle for lead technicians
- Opportunities for growth
- Great working environment
- Steady, interesting, meaningful work
- Tool account

Requirements to be considered:

- High personal integrity
- Strong work ethic
- Clean to near clean driving record

Please contact Neil Comparetto at [email protected] for more information.

🚨 We’re looking to hire lead technicians and apprentices 🚨

Why join our team?... Because we’re not your typical HVAC company. We are committed to designing and building the highest quality and highest performing HVAC systems in the region.

We feel confident making that claim because we test everything we do — we know exactly where we stand.

We get these results by following a refined process — taking a whole house approach, and giving our technicians the proper amount of time to do excellent work.

This is great opportunity to grow with us — a unique company passionate about comfort.

We’re offering the right candidates:

- Great pay
- 10 days paid time off
- 6 paid holidays
- Paid employee’s health insurance
- Company vehicle for lead technicians
- Opportunities for growth
- Great working environment
- Steady, interesting, meaningful work
- Tool account

Requirements to be considered:

- High personal integrity
- Strong work ethic
- Clean to near clean driving record

Please contact Neil Comparetto at [email protected] for more information.