Samsung’s Wind-Free™ Technology Brings New Levels of Innovation to Air Conditioning

The latest product of a decades-long history of air conditioning innovations, Samsung’s Wind-Free™ Cooling technology optimizes airflow to bring new levels of comfort to home climate control.

In 1903, Niels Finsen won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his use of ultraviolet light in the treatment of tuberculosis. Since then, ultraviolet lights have been widely adapted for all kinds of uses: sterilizing hospitals, sterilizing water, germicidal lamps in food establishments, and even curing nail polish faster. If UV light is so effective, how can it be applied to improving indoor air quality for residential HVAC systems? Will it kill mold and bacteria in HVAC systems? Yes, but you need to understand the priorities of indoor air quality and the types of UV lights available for residential HVAC systems.

If you know a little building science, you've no doubt seen a lot of problems that occur with air distribution systems. Ducts just don't get anywhere near the attention they deserve in most homes, partly because they're hidden from view. I've written about ducts quite a bit here and have shown problems resulting from poor design and installation. We all know how stupid some of those problems are. So today I'm going to talk about a problem that seems to be invisible: the inadequacy of duct insulation even when the design and installation are perfect.

Each year, hundreds of people are killed and thousands hospitalized by exposure to carbon monoxide — an invisible, odorless gas that can seep into homes from faulty furnaces or poorly ventilated generators.

Your air conditioner, heat pump, or furnace probably uses a lot of energy. Heating and cooling makes up about half of the total energy use in a typical house. For air conditioners and heat pumps using electricity generated in fossil-fuel fired power plants, the amount you use at home may be only a third of the total. A question I get asked frequently is whether or not it's OK to close vents in unused rooms to save money. The answer may surprise you.

Drafty windows make it harder and less efficient to heat and cool a home throughout the year. Windows are not maintenance-free, but with regular cleaning, caulking and glazing they can be kept in good condition. 

Your Ceiling fan can be a powerful tool to save money on your heating bills and help your house be more energy efficient this winter.  Check out this advice from the Alabama Power Company. 

It's not that hard really, at least in principle. You want to reduce the air leakage in your home so you keep the conditioned air inside and the cold air outside this winter. What's the advice of all those stories that are so plentiful in the media this time of year? Caulk your windows and weatherstrip your doors. Every year it's the same story. And every year it's misguided.