First of all, we’d like to wish all of our customers, friends, family and followers a wonderful & exciting year ahead in 2019.
With that said and 2019 now fully upon us, let’s take a quick look at the year ahead and review some of the latest trends to look for in the world of HVAC and how you can stay ahead of the curve with your heating and air system.
1. Connected/Smart HVAC Systems Continue To Increase In Popularity
Most homeowners in the Lowcountry who have gone through with an HVAC upgrade the past few years or so most likely are familiar with some of the newer “smart” HVAC apps & devices on the market.
For those unfamiliar with “smart” or connected technology, it essentially gives you a way to interact remotely and collect usage & diagnostic data of your HVAC system. Using apps on your phone, tablet or PC, you can control your system anytime, from anywhere and using advanced data, allow you to granularly optimize run-times.
This freedom of control, operation optimization and diagnostic information allows you always know you’re getting the best performance from your system and if something should go awry, allow your local HVAC company to quickly resolve any issues.
This technology is not only available for residential air systems, but is also rapidly being adopted by commercial HVAC needs.
2. Variable Speed & Ductless Solutions
Every year in the HVAC industry, manufacturers continue to refine ways of increasing efficiency and creating solutions to non-standard applications.
Two kinds of HVAC systems that check both of those boxes and are rapidly being adopted by Lowcountry homeowners are variable speed air conditioners and ductless mini-split systems.
Most traditional HVAC systems operate in with one or more different operating speeds. They either run at 100% power and/or multiple stages at less than 100%. Multiple stage operation is intended to help with efficiency as your system doesn’t always need to operate at full power, so to speak.
While multi-stage systems can help efficiency, a newer operating mode on newer systems called “variable speed” can be significantly more efficient.
Variable speed operation allows your system to run more granularly, or more precisely, to meet the cooling & heating needs of your home. Instead of operating at a “high 100%” or “low 50%” mode, a variable speed HVAC system can adjust its operation to finite percentages. This means your system will consume energy more precisely, ultimately allowing you it to really optimize your energy consumption (and energy bill for that matter).
Along with the rise of variable speed adoption, ductless mini-split air conditioners are on the rise for many homeowners across the Lowcountry.
Ductless mini-splits allow homeowners to cool & heat areas of their home that either don’t have ductwork running to them, or if they want more unique temperature control over different areas of their homes.
In fact, even homeowners that have existing ductwork in their home are making the switch so they can cut out ductwork upkeep from their list of home maintenance tasks. This is especially true for homeowners that have recurring flooding issues (which can devastate an under-home ductwork system).
3. The Rise of Geothermal Heating & Cooling
In 2018 we’ve heard from more and more Lowcountry residents interested in geothermal heating & cooling options and we believe it will continue to rise in popularity in 2019.
State and federal tax incentives, along with longer operational lifetimes and significantly higher efficiencies, geothermal HVAC systems are being adopted now more than ever by forward-thinking Lowcountry homeowners.
Things can change quickly over the course of the year, but we believe the 3 HVAC trends above will help shape the Lowcountry’s HVAC needs for 2019 and beyond.
