April 2017

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Sizing a Room Air Conditioner Before buying a room air conditioner, check its BTU rating to make sure you buy the proper size. Room air conditioners perform best when they are sized properly. Pick a unit with a cooling capacity that is right for the room where it will be installed. A too-small unit won’t cool a room adequately, but an over-sized air conditioner will cycle on and off, wasting energy,...

Hard water comes from aquifers and other underground sources that collect dissolved minerals from rock—particularly calcium, magnesium carbonate, and manganese. These minerals give water undesirable characteristics that collectively are dubbed “hardness." The severity of hardness is measured by grains (of mineral) per gallon (GPG) or, in some cases, by parts per million of mineral (PPM). One GPG equals...