Group deals are an interesting concept but they carry a fair bit of risk for the merchant. Not only must we very heavily discount our offer in the hopes that some of those new customers become repeat customers, the remainder left over is then shared with the group deal provider, usually to the tune of half. That leaves us with only 25% which becomes a pretty heavy loss while fingers are crossed it works out in the long term.

We’ve read some of the horror stories, as well as some of the successes by merchants that have tried group deals. We’ve been tempted but, boy oh boy, some of those risks are just too risky.

How then could we make a group offer while controlling some of that risk? *light bulb, eureka moment* Let’s just run it ourselves on our own website! Cut out the middle man as it were. So that’s what we did! You can see our group deal offer here;

50% Off Furnace Check Up Service – Houston Metro
Our Group Deal – Just in Time for Heating Season

Admittedly we do not have the built in reach that Groupon or Living Social have with their massive user base and email list, but we can build our own reach, and maybe just enough to make the offer a success. Between social networking through Twitter and Facebook, pay-per-click advertising on Google and Facebook, this blog post, existing search engine traffic to our website, etc… we hope to get just enough reach to pull it off.

So, if you’re in the Houston Metro area and need your gas furnace serviced to ensure it’s running safely and at peak efficiency for this winter, you should take us up on our offer. If you’re interested in how we make out with rolling out our own group deal, make sure to check back as we’ll write another post in our blog about how it went.

Space Center Houston

1601 NASA Road One
Houston, TX 77058
(281) 244-2100
http://www.spacecenter.org

Houston, we have a problem. It’s hot, kids need something to do for the day, and did we mention it’s very very hot. Space Center to the rescue!

Lots to see, lots to do. Impressive visuals of launches and views from space on the 5-story tall screen in the theater. Tram tours through NASA facilities. View the large collection of spacesuits in the Astronaut Gallery. A presentation on how astronauts live in a space environment in the Feel of Space Exhibit. See rockets, spacecraft, modules, landers, rovers and more in the Starship Gallery. Let the kids play in the large space themed playground – Kids Space Place. There are day camps for kids, education programs for school groups, and much much more.

Houston Museum of Natural Science

5555 Hermann Park Drive
Houston Texas 77030
713.639.4629
http://www.hmns.org/

Sugar Land Location

Includes the Space Observatory and Dinosaur exhibits, Earth Science exhibits and more.
13016 University Blvd
Sugar Land, TX 77479

Dinosaur bones, Ancient Egypt gallery, Gems & Minerals, Texas Wildlife, Energy Exhibits, the Butterfly Center, IMAX Theater, Planetarium, Space Observatory. Wow, so much to see and do, and so much cool stuff to learn about. The kids will absolutely love this.

Houston Galleria

5085 Westheimer Rd., Suite 4850
Houston, TX 77056
(713) 966-3500
http://www.galleriahouston.com

It’s a shopping mall and like most others it’s air conditioned. Most the shops are higher end brands, perhaps out of reach for many families budgets, but here’s the kicker – it has a skating rink! Spend an afternoon gliding over ice while it’s 100 degrees outside. How’s that for a cool Houston summer activity.

Houston Tunnels

The downtown core has a large underground tunnel system connecting many of the office tower buildings. Primarily used for business people to get around it is also full of small shops, cafe’s and restaurants. It’s underground and air conditioned so it’s cool and comfortable. Access to the Tunnel System is normally on weekdays, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Maps of the city with buildings, streets and tunnels can be found online here.

Downtown Observation Towers

Near the tops of the The J.P. Morgan Chase Tower and the Wells Fargo Tower, both accessible via the tunnels, are observation floors. Ride the elevator up and look out over the entire city. It’s free.

Museum of Fine Arts

1001 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX 77005
713-639-7300
http://mfah.org/

Home to the largest art collection in the Southwest United States! Even if you’re not a huge art fan you cannot be not impressed with with some of the amazing pieces in the collection. Summer Fun programs for kids too.

The Menil Collection

1515 Sul Ross Street
Houston, TX 77006
713-525-9400
http://menil.org

As stated on their website: A Museum & A Neighborhood of Art. Free of charge, always.

One of the greatest private art collections in the U.S. featuring such surrealist works as those by Salvador Dali and Max Ernst, and others. Spend a contemplative day of quietly viewing inspiring pieces of art.

The Weather Museum

5104 Caroline Street
Houston, TX 77004
(713) 529-3076
http://www.wxresearch.org/wpmuseum/

Summers are hot and humid in Houston, go learn exactly why. See how high the storm surge would be on the upper Texas coast during Category 5 hurricane. Help make your own Tornado. Play Weather Facts and Fun. Summer camps or birthday party groups for the kids.

More to Do, while staying cool

There are the public libraries, restaurants (many have ac), other museums, shopping centers, swimming pools, and more.

Suggest your favorite places to go AND keeping comfortable in the summer heat in the comments below.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to knock a particular home warranty company or person within. This was written as a glimpse of what goes on with home warranties and how it effects the home owner. Our experience of home warranty companies might not reflect what happens in other areas of the country.

As contractors, when we first start out learning the trade, it is drilled into us to never talk bad about other contractors or anyone else in the industry. However, it is very difficult for us as air conditioning professionals to be in the business of serving people while experiencing all the negative that surrounds home warranties and stay completely silent about it.

False Sense of Protection

Most consumers first get a taste of a home warranty because it was sold with their home when they moved into it. They then renew every year with the assumption of when something goes wrong with their home, it will be covered. Homeowners pay a service fee (deductible) the first time a service provider is dispatched by the warranty company to make a repair.

Every week we get many calls from uncomfortable homeowners who have a home warranty and they are in a panic. Most have been without air conditioning for 3+ days because the home warranty company and the approved contractor they recommend to come out can’t get to them for several days.

The devil is in the details.

Home warranty companies are not on the consumers side (nor the contractors side). They are NOT in business to spend money. They are simply an insurance company looking to protect their interests and reduce claims.

On the home warranty contract, there is some very fine print. Most of it states obvious reasons that a claim would not be approved. But a lot of people don’t see the deeper motives and issues surrounding their business model. Here are some helpful points you should consider before moving forward with signing a home warranty contract.

If you keep in mind the true cost of the warranty (contract premiums, deductibles, time spent on the phone arguing, delays and lack of quick resolution, dealing with less than stellar service companies, the fine print, agent kickbacks), you might want to rethink how to spend your hard earned money.

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Re-authorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 was signed into law December 17, 2010. Section 25c tax credits (the official name of the energy tax credits) are available to taxpayers who make energy efficient retrofits to their homes. The tax credits are extended through 2011, but at a significantly reduced value compared to the previous tax credits of 2009-2010.

Starting on January 1, 2011 and through December 31, 2011, an eligible homeowner can claim 10% of the costs, capped at $500, for the installation of qualified energy efficient improvements, subject to certain limits.

Under the new law, for HVAC, the maximum a homeowner could claim is $300 for a qualified central air conditioner or heat pump, and $150 for a qualified furnace or hot water boiler, and $50 for any advanced main air circulating fan. Those 3 add up to the $500 maximum.

Beyond the change to the tax credit values, the new law will increase the qualifying standards for natural gas hot water boilers, propane hot water boilers, oil furnaces, and oil hot water boilers to 95% AFUE. The qualifying standards for natural gas furnaces and propane furnace remain at 95% AFUE.

The qualifying standard for central air conditioners and heat pumps, which were modified by the Stimulus bill in 2009, are not changed. Therefore, a central air conditioner must meet or exceed 16 SEER and 13 EER; and an air source heat pump must meet or exceed 15 SEER and 12.5 EER and 8.5 HSPF, in order to qualify for the tax credit.

Finally, the new law reinstates the lifetime credit caps, which disqualify any homeowner who has claimed more than $500 in Section 25c tax credits since January 1, 2005, from any further credits.

Qualifying HVAC Equipment Tax Break Down:

• Central Air Conditioners: 16 SEER and 13 EER = $300 credit
• Heat Pumps: 15 SEER and 12.5 EER = $300 credit
• Natural Gas Furnaces: 95% AFUE = $150 credit
• Advanced Main Air Circulating Fan: ECM Blower = $50 credit

Information on the process for applying for the tax credits can be seen here.

Source: ACCA
Houston Air Conditioning & Heating -  2011 HVAC Energy Tax Credit

You’ve probably seen the ads that promise a “Complete Air Conditioning or Furnace Tune-Up for $19.95″ and you’ve probably wondered things like:

“How can companies offer air conditioning & heating tune-ups for $20, $30 or even $40″

OR

“Wouldn’t it cost more than that just to drive a service truck to my house?”

Well guess what? It does!

The answer is, many customers end up paying a lot more in the end than that low, hard-to-resist advertised price…

There are some honest companies that use a low price to attract new customers. They’re willing to do a great job and take a loss on their first contact with you in the hope that you’ll continue to use them again and again. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But some companies have a different agenda. Some offer the ridiculously low priced tune-up and then send a “technician” to your home to perform a very basic clean and check. That tech is trained to up-sell you on often unnecessary repairs or even a complete replacement of your system. At best you end up with a shoddy “tune-up”. At worst, a big repair bill.

Our Tune-up is different. When you call us, we’ll send a NATE certified technician to your home for a complete and thorough tune-up that will ensure your system is in peak operating condition. If we discover any problems, we’ll quote you an up-front price from our price book and even offer you a seasonal guarantee. We can’t do what we do for $19.95, but we can promise you a fair price for an honest service.

Save this coupon and take $5 off our Clear Advantage Membership that includes 2 seasonal tune-ups (one for your air conditioner and one for your heater)

Copyright © 2010 Service Roundtable ®

We just launched a mobile version of our website to make it more compatible for those using smartphones. No more zooming into a portion of our full-sized site.

We’re not a giant company, but we have a small mobile website

We have mobile specific pages just for those users. And because mobile phone screen sizes are small, and users are looking for quick information, we made the mobile site very small too.

It’s only a handful of the essential pages. Each page only has the bare bones info for quick loading and quick reading.

We’ve got a home page, and an air conditioning page, an AC repairs page, indoor air quality and commercial hvac pages. We’ve also got a contact page, a service area page with a little map and some pages about our guarantees and upfront pricing policy.

If you are browsing from a full sized desktop or laptop you can view the mobile pages from those links above, but to get an idea of what it would look like on a phone shrink the size of your browser window till its about as wide as an iPhone.

Oh, and see those links on the phone number… on a smartphone with touch screens, they are “click to call” buttons. Tap on it and it calls us.

So Houston, next time you have a problem (of the air conditioning sort) just head on over to our website via your smartphone.

Here are a few things you can check:

Do they have heat in the home?
Do they have hot water?
Are all their appliances working properly?
Are their pipes, sprinkler system and faucets protected against freezing?
Is their phone operational?
Do they have the phone number of someone they can call for minor emergencies? Yours?

Please don’t wait until something tragic happens. Take a few minutes to help a neighbor. It’s well worth your time.

With passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, consumers can upgrade to more energy-efficient HVAC equipment and save on their energy bills now, and also save on their taxes next year. The new law makes important changes to existing tax incentives for homeowners who make qualified improvements of higher efficiency HVAC equipment.

(For more information on how higher efficiency equipment can save you more money, please see our previous post here.)

Houston Metro Residents should contact us about applying this tax credit to new HVAC equipment. Outside Houston contact your local HVAC contractors.

Residential Tax Credit Details

For qualified improvements, homeowners may be able to claim tax credits equal to 30% of the installed costs (up to $1,500).

• Furnace to qualify 95% AFUE
• Boiler to qualify 90% AFUE
• A/C to qualify 16 SEER + 13 EER
• Heat Pump same as A/C plus HSPF 9
• Water Heater energy factor .8 (tankless)

Please ask your comfort adviser for details on qualifying equipment.

• The new tax credits are retroactive to January 1, 2009, and expire on December 31, 2010. The $1,500 limit is for all improvements made during the two year term, not $1500 each year.

• Per-Appliance Caps Removed – Homeowners may use the entire $1,500 tax credit limit on a single qualifying improvement. The previous per-appliance caps that limited the homeowner to just $150 for a high efficiency furnace or $300 for a high efficiency central air conditioner or heat pump have been removed.

• Lifetime Limit Removed – Homeowners that previously claimed tax credits in 2006 or 2007 are eligible for the full $1,500 limit.

• Expanded Geothermal Tax Credits – Homeowners who install geothermal heat pump systems may be able to claim up to 30% of the installed costs in tax credits in the year the system is placed into service. The $2,000 tax credit limit has been removed. The geothermal tax credit has a longer term, from January 1, 2009 and expires December 31, 2016.

• Consumers should be aware that the $1,500 limit applies to many types of energy efficient home improvements, including windows and doors, roofing shingles, and insulation. You can use the $1500 on just HVAC improvements or on a combination of above home improvements.

Frequently Asked Questions About the New Tax Credits

Can a homeowner claim $1500 in tax credits for improvements made in 2009 and again for improvements made in 2010?
No. Taxpayers may only be eligible for a total of $1500 in tax credits for improvements made in the combined two year period of 2009 and 2010.

Can a homeowner use the entire $1500 limit as a credit toward the installation of one appliance?
Yes. A homeowner may use the entire $1500 in tax credits for installing a single appliance, such as a qualified furnace, air conditioner, heat pump, or hot water heater.

What happens if the 30% of the installed costs is less than $1500?
The homeowner can “bank” the the remaining available tax credit for other qualified improvements. Any single installation that costs more than $5000 will instantly reach the $1500 limit.

Does the tax credit apply to the cost of the equipment or equipment plus labor?
The tax credit applies to the installed costs of the qualified equipment, which includes labor.

How will a taxpayer claim the credit and receive their money?
In the past, the IRS has directed taxpayers to use Form 5695, Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit. Taxpayers are not required to file anything more than the form, but are instructed to keep records of their installation.

What’s the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction?
As a tax credit applies against the taxpayers’ liability. A tax deduction applies against a taxpayer’s income, lowering the adjusted gross income and possibly moving the taxpayer to a lower tax bracket. Tax credits have a greater benefit to a taxpayer.
With a tax credit, if the taxpayer owes $2000, in taxes, their liability is reduced to $500. If they owe nothing, they can expect a $1500 refund.

What if the homeowners already claimed $500 in tax credits in 2006 or 2007?
The “lifetime caps” that used to be in place have been removed. Any previous claims do not count against the current $1500 tax credit limit.

Can a homeowner claim the credit for improvements to a second home?
No. The tax credit is only available for improvement to the taxpayer’s primary residence.

Can a small business that operates out of a townhouse and installs residential equipment in a commercial setting claim the credit?
No. The tax credit may only be claimed by taxpayers on their personal income taxes for improvements to their primary residence.

What other types of energy efficiency improvements qualify for the tax credits?
Homeowners may be able to qualify for the tax credits if they make qualified improvements to: windows and doors including skylights, storm windows and storm doors; roofing including metal and asphalt roofs; and insulation. All of these improvements qualify, but homeowner may only claim $1500 in total for any improvements.

Will every homeowner definitely qualify for the tax credit?
No. Each taxpayer’s situation is different. Please consult with a tax professional if you have questions regarding your tax situation in regards to these new credits.

It’s hard to find good news for your wallet these days, but these new tax credit changes can help you keep your cool in terms of both comfort and savings!

But the Financial DOOM & GLOOM in the News Got You Down?

LET US BAIL YOU OUT!

Save 12.5% on a New Air Conditioning System, RIGHT NOW!

That’s right! We’re easing the strain on your wallet by offering a significant discount on all new central air conditioner installations. Same goes for heat pumps, air handlers, even gas furnaces.

**UPDATE!** Take advantage of this offer before it ends, and we’ll also include a new digital thermostat with your system at no extra charge!

Don’t Wait! This Sale Ends in 2 Weeks

Contact Us Today and tell us you need a bailout package.

Energy Savings Too!

The technology in today’s heating and cooling equipment makes for highly efficient energy use. The Trane units we sell are the industry leaders in efficiency. You will enjoy added savings on your monthly utility bills. The average savings are 30% and can go as high as 60%. That adds up to a lot of money, every year.

What Credit Crisis?

We have two financing providers should you need to make a purchase on credit. Both are still actively taking finance applications and approval rates are normal.

Weathering the Financial Storm

At Clear the Air we are well positioned to ride out the credit crunch and any oncoming recession. As a leading central A/C dealer and contractor in the Metro Houston market we have excellent purchase agreements with our suppliers and can ensure our products will continue going out.

We will always be the company that is here to service your home comfort system and continue to service manufacturer warranties, as well as back our installation guarantees.

Take advantage of this Bailout Sale now. By the time the dust settles in the stock markets this sale will be over.

Give us a call at (281) 992-7866 or click to our contact page and send an email.

Full Time Employee’s

We are seeking a highly motivated team player for an HVAC service technician position in the residential & light commercial market. Excellent pay and benefits, company truck, cellphone. We are a high tech, progressive HVAC company that services the Clear Lake, Friendswood, Pearland, South Houston areas. We provide you with 80+ hours of paid training per year.

Qualified person will have 3+ years experience troubleshooting HVAC systems. You must be able to work in our service area and work overtime when necessary. You also must be EPA certified w/ valid drivers license and a clean driving record.

Pay is dependent on experience level. $2000 sign on bonus. We pay by the hour with bonus incentives based on performance.

Potential employee’s can check out our employment opportunities page and send us a job application.