Spring 2015

warmcool

thoughtsideas

Two locations to serve you better!

PERSONALLY SPEAKING

Steve, Brenda and Brad Ohl

Win a Weber grill!

Cool rebatesup to $1,200

are available!

Jeff Fisherhome comfort specialist

Good riddance, winter!Cool savings this summer

Make this the year to replace your old A/C system! Not only will your new system save you hundreds of dollars on electric bills, it will do a better job of keeping your home cool and comfortable.

Need another reason? We can help you take advantage of as much as $1,200 in rebates, available through PPL Electric Utilities, for qualifying air condi-tioning systems and heat pumps.

The cooling experts at R.F. Ohl, including Jeff Fisher, will help you choose the ideal system for your home, perform a quality installation and then assist you with the rebate process. We carry a range of great trusted brands, including Trane, Bryant and ductless Mitsubishi mini-split air conditioners and heat pump systems.

Call, email us or visit rfohl.com to learn more.

Dear Friends,

This winter was extraordinary, especially during the month of February, which turned out to be one of the coldest on record. The extreme temperatures, coupled with snowstorms, created challenges for everyone in the home comfort business. Throughout these diffi cult weeks, our service team worked tirelessly to take care of our customers. We salute their efforts.

As we now enjoy the warm weather, remember that we can help you this season, too. Because of falling fuel prices, many of our EZ Pay customers will get big fuel credits at the end of the budget year. We encourage you to invest these fuel savings back into your home so you can save even more money.

We’re ready to help! We’ve added more technicians to our staff, which lets us get to work early on getting all of our tune-ups done, for both heating and cooling systems.

If you are ready to replace your system, we have more options than ever — we recently added Bryant to our lineup of top manu-facturers. We are also the state’s leading installer of Mitsubishi mini-split ductless heat pump systems. Stop by our showroom to see how they work!

Please don’t hesitate to talk with us about some of the ways we can keep you more comfortable and save you money.

Warmly,

Steve, Brenda and Brad Ohl

Mark your calendars for the fi rst weekend in May! Come visit our booth at the Carbon County Home, Business and

Outdoor Expo. The annual event takes place May 2–3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Jim Thorpe Memorial Hall.

If you plan to visit us, please bring a donation of nonperishable food items to support the Carbon County Food Bank. You can also sign up to win thousands of dollars in prizes, including a $900 Weber grill that we are donating for the event.

Visit CarbonCountyExpo.com for more details. See you soon!

HSPR

15-1

3825

Don’t need a new cooling system?

Schedule your annual A/C tune-up

by May 31 for just $99.

© Copyright 2015 Warm Thoughts Communications, Inc. Reproduced with permission of Warm Thoughts Communications.

Staying comfortable in 1985 and 2015

How will home comfort evolve?

Life may seem more complicated today than 30 years ago, but there’s no question that technological advances have made

it easier to stay comfortable and safe in your home while conserving energy. Here’s a look at how far we’ve come.

Environmentally friendly air conditioning More energy efficient than ever

Healthier homes

In the 1980s, an international treaty emerged to eliminate numerous substances that were deemed harmful to our ozone, including R-22 refrigerant (Freon). Freon is considered a green-house gas and harms the environment when released into the air. That’s why it is slowly being phased out and will no longer

be manufactured after 2020.

Because of the impending phase-out, less Freon is being made. This has resulted in rapidly dwindling supplies — and skyrocketing prices.

Are you losing Freon?Some people need to add more Freon because the contractor

who installed their system did not properly charge it with refrigerant (about 7 out of 10 systems in the United States are not charged properly).

In older systems, Freon can start leaking due to years of wear and tear, which causes valves, seals or metal components in the air conditioning coil to fail. Even a small leak can reduce efficiency dramatically and shorten equipment life. If you lose too much Freon, your system cannot generate cool air.

If you’re not sure what type of refrigerant your air conditioning system has or you have not had maintenance done recently, please contact us. We’ll tell you about your options in new systems. All a /c systems we install use an economical and environmentally friendly refrigerant instead of expensive and scarce Freon.

Decades ago, builders started constructing homes that were more air tight so cooled and heated air wouldn’t escape because of gaps and other defects, like poor insulation. But a side effect of this was that ventilation was limited and stale air got trapped inside. More problems were caused by the products people were bringing into their homes. Carpeting, disinfectants, fragrances, cosmetics and other common household items all were found to emit harmful toxins.

Since that time, there has been a troubling rise in the rates of respiratory illnesses like asthma. At one point, it was believed that a primary cause was outdoor air pollution. But more studies confirmed that the real problem was indoor air pollution.

Today, the home comfort industry has techniques for analyzing indoor air quality, including the collection of air samples and computer modeling of airflow inside a home. This allows companies like us to understand

the reasons the air inside a home is unhealthy and helps us to offer strategies for improvement, including air cleaning systems, air purifiers and humidification systems. Stale indoor air can also be replaced with fresh, clean air from outdoors by a device called an air-to-air exchanger. Please contact us if you would like us to analyze your home’s indoor air.

Improvements and innovations will continue in the home comfort industry! Here’s what we think will be among the hottest trends.

➤ Home Performance services will continue to rise in demand because homeowners want to make their homes as energy efficient as possible. (Making recommended improvements after a home performance audit saves the average homeowner 30 % on annual energy costs.)

➤ The emphasis on “green design” will continue with a strong focus on indoor air quality throughout the design and construction of new homes. This includes a technique known as demand controlled ventilation, which reduces energy consumption while maintaining proper indoor air quality.

➤ Mobile wireless programmable thermostats will become a common feature in homes. Many homeowners are already using their smartphones to program their thermostat when they’re away from home.

➤ What’s old is new again! Thousands of years after the Romans used geothermal energy to produce heat and hot baths, more homeowners are installing energy-saving, earth-friendly geothermal heat pumps.

➤ Integrated controls — combining heating, cooling and indoor air quality with electronic air filters and zoning — will be another common feature in the home of the future.

Bigger and louder is definitely not better in 2015. Today’s technology has enabled manufacturers to produce furnaces, air conditioners and heat pumps that are not only smaller and exceptionally quiet, but highly efficient as well.

The high-efficiency heating and cooling systems of today use substantially less energy — 30% or more — than the less efficient models from the 1980s. These modern systems have gone a long way to making a home more energy efficient and, as a result, more environmentally friendly.

Chris Hardy, our home comfort specialist,

explains an “EZ” way to control heating costs.

Control your heating costsOil prices fell sharply in the fall and early winter, reaching the lowest point in six years. However, one of the coldest Februaries on record pushed up demand and prices ticked upward again. This goes to show that there is still volatility in the energy markets.

It’s also the reason many of our customers — both oil and propane — enroll every year in EZ Pay, our monthly payment plan. You’ll never pay a big delivery bill again. It’s easier to plan ahead when you know what your monthly fuel expenses will be. There is no fee to join the EZ Pay plan!

EZ Pay also gives you the option of adding a price cap. There is a nominal fee for this option, but many people think it’s well worth the peace of mind.

Enrollment begins soon. Please call us or return the enclosed card to request more details. You can also go to rfohl.com to learn more and to sign up.

As propane has become a more popular energy choice, more fuel dealers are springing up and offering cheap rates. But beware — often those lowball prices don’t include delivery fees and other hidden charges. And although propane is extremely safe, it requires properly trained and licensed technicians to install and deliver the fuel — it’s not something you can pick up in a one-day certifi cation course.

The team at R.F. Ohl has years of experience in installing propane appliances and delivering propane, always with a safety-fi rst philosophy. And we are committed to fair, transparent pricing. So keep the big picture in mind when a new dealer comes to town and offers you a price that seems just too good to be true.

Put your trust in a propane expert

Bookmark rfohl.comDoing business with R.F. Ohl is easier than ever! When you create an online account with us, you can pay bills, check prices, order fuel and track deliveries anytime it’s convenient for you. You’ll also have all your account information in one place, reducing paper clutter — and with online bill pay you can save on postage, too.

You can also take advantage of our other digital services to keep up with the latest news and special offers: Check out the blog page on our website, “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Here’s another way to stay connected with us: Make sure we have your current

email and cell phone number so we can reach you immediately with important information, especially during weather emergencies.

Beat the rush!Schedule your heating

and cooling system tune-ups this spring.

Call us! (610) 377-1098 • (800) 297-4242

Visit us at: rfohl.com

Two locations to serve you better:400 Interchange Road • Lehighton, PA 18235

2625 Rt. 115 • Effort, PA 18330

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