For 50 years our customers have counted on us to provide the services and information required to maintain safe, healthy and comfortable homes. Below is some home help information we'd like to share with you. Some of the tips will help you fix things yourself, some will help you save money and others are just plain interesting.
Air Conditioning Maintenance Tip You Should Know
The Easiest Way to Improve Your Home's Air

Quality
11. Blog: Life @ Mahoney - Life @ Mahoney Plumbing was created to provide periodic tips, tricks & insights that the plumbers & HVAC technicians know and leak out in small doses to the rest of us. The following posts contain lessons learned from these hard working professionals.
1. Maintenance Reminder - Air Conditioning Maintenance Tip You Should Know
Annual maintenance of your air conditioner is critical to both enhancing its performance & extending its life. But, you shoudl know performing your seasonal maintenance when the temperature is below 65 degrees doesn't allow accurate gauged reading of refrigerant (Freon). For this reason, Mahoney Plumbing schedules according to the weather so we can properly test your equipment. Our belief if companies who perform maintenance without being able to properly check this major component do it at a disservice to the customer.
2. Quick Fix Tip-o-the-Month - The Easiest Way to Improve Your Home's Air Quality
Regularly changing your home’s filters is THE best way to keep your air quality high. Not changing your filters can seriously affect your systems performance – in extreme cases even destroy the unit. Keeping a fresh filter in your HVAC system is the easiest way to improve your home’s air quality. Depending on the type of filter you have, changing your filter every 30-60 days is recommended.
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3. Tax Stimulus Information
As part of the recently passed tax bill, the 25C tax extension for residential high efficiency property has been extended for one year. This legislation included several significant changes in the 2011 tax credits compared to the 2009-2010 tax credits. The maximum tax credit that can be claimed for 2011 has been reduced from $1500 to $500. In addition, the 2011 tax credits have placed maximum amounts that can be claimed for the various components of the HVAC system, such as a $150 maximum tax credit for a 95% gas furnace and $300 for an air conditioner or heat pump. These component maximum amounts are additive to a $500 maximum lifetime tax credit.
Most of the HVAC qualifying efficiency levels have remained the same. The only exceptions are boilers and oil furnaces, where the qualifying efficiency has been increased from 90 AFUE to 95 AFUE. For high efficiency furnaces the max credit is $150 (based on 10% of installed cost) and for air conditioning units it is $300 (based on 10% of installed costs).
4. Natural Gas Rebates
* Please note, this program has limitations to its budget so check with our team to make sure these funds are still available. The program was extended past January until funds are exhausted.
5. Back Up Sump Pump Troubleshooting
Special thanks to Pro Series Pumps for
providing us with these troubleshooting
tips that can help you with better
understanding the messages your
back up sump pump gives you. Of course,
we are always glad to come out and help
get your pump running again.
Remember, it's actually a good thing your back up sump pump alerts you to trouble. The beep can be frustrating, but at least you know about potential trouble BEFORE your home takes on water.
If you have questions on information covered here or other plumbing and HVAC questions, don't hesitate to let us know.