Heating and Air Conditioning...call now 1-877-247-6426

• Obtaining air conditioning at a discount
• Keeping your furnace - heating costs down
• Is Freon dangerous? I have a leak.
• Freon - Puron - R22 - R410a huh?
• Can you help with allergy - asthma control?
• The FAU aggravates my allergies. Why?
• How much will high efficiency lower my bill?
• What about tax incentives and rebates?
• Is one brand more reliable than another?
• Is mixing brands of equipment okay?
• What if I only replace the outdoor unit?
• How long does an air conditioner last?
• How long does a furnace last?
• What is video heat exchanger inspection?
• Can you fix a cracked firebox?
• What are cracks around the base?
• What is an inoperative millivolt system?
• I want a price over the phone?
• Is 13 SEER high efficiency?
• How much does it cost to run my A/C?
• Is 80% AFUE high efficiency?
• Can I really save gas with a new furnace?
• What is variable speed technology?
• What is multi-stage gas heater?
• What is a multi-stage A/C system?
• How does air conditioning cool the home?
• Guarantees - warrantees - our promise
• Do you offer discount maintenance plans?
• Money saving coupons

• Obtaining air conditioning at a discount.
Air conditioning systems are not free and rarely does the lowest cost system produce the best or most comfortable and cost effective results. The most effective systems are systems that are installed by factory trained professionals and are maintained by factory professionals. Each and every heating and air conditioning system is required to be inspected by the city or county by law. Don’t let your A/C repairman talk you out of a permit. The work that does not get inspected is generally very low quality and can cost you as much as twice as much to operate. Air conditioners and cooling systems that are installed perfectly to the manufacturer’s specifications will cost far less month after month to make your home comfortable. Don’t rely on the super duper discount installation (unless you are using one of our coupons) and think you are getting a deal. Chances are good that the wool is being pulled over your eyes.
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• Keeping your furnace - heating costs down.
All furnaces require yearly maintenance. The maintenance is required to keep them clean and trouble free as well as maintaining your factory warranty. The number one reason for breakdown in furnaces is lack of maintenance. The motors get dirty, the filters get dirty and the ducting gets dirty contributing to the pollution of your indoor air. A clean furnace not only helps to lower your utility bills, it extends the life of the system as well as helping to keep pollutants out of your family’s lungs.
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• Is Freon dangerous? I have a leak.
Yes. Overexposure may cause dizziness and loss of concentration. At higher levels, central nervous system depression and cardiac arrhythmia can result. Vapors displace air in the lungs and can cause asphyxiation. At higher temperatures decomposition allows the Freon to turn into hydrofluoric acid and carbonyl halides.

If your system has a leak the best thing you can do it get it fixed. Freon is becoming more expensive year by year and a leak on your system decreases it’s performance, can lead to a compressor failure, can lead to an ice buildup and electrical failure in the furnace or air handler as well as damaging your lungs.

We have a method of leak detection that is simple and inexpensive. We inject a fluorescing dye into the Freon system and as it leaks out we can pick up the source of the leak using a high powered ultra violet light. Your system operates the entire time and you are not inconvenienced by having a system down for days or weeks using old fashioned intrusive methods.
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• Freon - Puron - R22 - R410a huh?
There is a transition change happening right now. Freon R22 is no longer being produced for installation in new air conditioning systems in the United States. The replacement Freon is R410a. Freon R22 and Freon R410a (Puron is Carrier’s name for it) cost about the same amount right now and installation is not any different. Servicing the system is a little different as R410a is more susceptible to the problems caused by moisture contamination than R22 has been. Neither R22 or R410a is more efficient than the other. The measurement of efficiency is the SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) and the EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio) or if it is a heat pump, HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor). Newer systems are at least 30% more efficient than systems installed as little as a couple of years ago.
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• Can you help with allergy - asthma control?
Yes we can. Many of our clients rave about the affects of variable speed technology, HEPA filtration, duct cleaning and humidity control. We can filter the air in your home every bit as clean as a hospital and keep it that way. Humidity control in the summer lowers your air conditioning costs while making your family feel more comfortable at warmer temperatures. Humidity control in the winter enables you to help prevent nasal dryness, dry skin itch and sore throats. Ultra violet light technology allows us to purify your air the same way a hospital cleans the air in an infant intensive care ward. We can do all this and still make your system affordable.
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• The FAU aggravates my allergies. Why?
This is caused by dirt and debris in the furnace and in the ducts coupled with air dryness. While the furnace has no ability to dry the air out in the winter time and aggravate your nasal passages and your lung passages, the added heat does. The already dry air becomes like a sponge pulling air away from your tender nasal passages and lung alveoli. This dryness coupled with the ability of the furnace blower to stir up dirt that has accumulated during the year in your furnace and ducting causes these allergy and asthma problems. The solution is duct cleaning, HEPA filtration and increased humidification. At about 35% humidity your lungs and nasal passages will relax. It will be like turning your living room into a little tropical paradise in the midst of winter and we can do it, while still lowering your monthly utility payments.
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• How much will high efficiency lower my bill?
If you are asking this I am taking it for granted that your air conditioning system started at no more than 10 SEER and your furnace started at about 72% AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency)

The air conditioner generally loses about ¼ to ½ SEER each year of operation on copper coiled units with aluminum fins. This combination of dissimilar metals causes electrolysis and this creates an insulating layer that inhibits heat transfer. Since your unit is probably more than 10 years old, we can generally predict that your unit is probably about a 6 SEER. If your monthly electrical bill attributed to air conditioning is a fixed amount of, say $200, then we just have to multiply 6 times 200 and then divide by 20 (or new SEER) to get the new electric bill. (6 x 200 ÷ 20). This equals $60 a month on a 20 SEER upgrade.

On a furnace, the same is true. Your furnace started at about 72% AFUE and with wear and tear it is probably around 60% now. If your gas bill is $100 a month then your new gas bill would be (72 x 100 ÷ 95.5 (new AFUE)) and this comes to $62.82 demonstrating a savings of $37.18 a month.

The average homeowner will save about $550 a year on utilities on the majority systems that we install. Calculate that out over the next ten years and your new system is savings you $5,500 in utility costs assuming that the utility rates don’t go up. What do you think the chances of that are?
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• What about tax incentives and rebates?
Don’t even give it a thought. We are here to help you get the most out of everything that we do. The way we figure it, the government is taking your money and passing it around. Youmight as well get as much of it back as possible. Here are some helpful websites that enable you to maximize your rebate potential:
Federal EnergyStar Rated
California Solar Initiative
Southern California Gas Company Rebates
Southern California Edison Rebates
San Diego Gas and Electric Rebates
Anaheim Utilities Rebates
Metropolitan Water District Rebates
Database for Renewable Energy
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• Is one brand more reliable than another?
Yes, or rather I really should write some brands are more unreliable than other brands. We will only install the top rated brands period. We will not install garbage here today gone tomorrow off brands or discount brands. I would rather lose your business than have you disappointed with me for the next ten years. Ten years? Yes, because that’s how long we guarantee the work that we do.
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• Is mixing brands of equipment okay?
No, and don’t let anyone tell you any different. If you are having an entire system installed you should be able to get the ARI (American Refrigeration Institute) rating number for it. This can tell you how efficient the system really is. Just because the outside of the unit says 16, doesn’t mean that it is a 16 SEER. It could be as low as 13 SEER. Evaporator coils, condensing units (the outside unit) and the furnace need to be matched perfectly to achieve the cooling btu’s promised and the energy efficiency stated.
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• What if I only replace the outdoor unit?
This is a major issue. You may not only replace an older outdoor unit with a new unit. At the very minimum, the evaporator coil must be replaced. The reason for this is simple. The way that the manufactures increased the SEER, or efficiency ratings, of the units was to add coils and fins to the outdoor unit, down size the compressor and increase the coils and fins in the indoor evaporator coil. If you couple a new outdoor unit, say 3 Ton, to an older 3 Ton evaporator coil the result is a system that will only put out about 2.5 Tons of cooling. A Ton of cooling is the amount of heat it takes to melt one Ton of ice in a 24-hour period. It is 12,000 btu’s (British Thermal Units) and 1 btu is about the amount of energy in a wooden match. It gets even worse. That new 13 SEER system you just paid for ends up really being about 8 SEER. It will cost you more to operate and will be less comfortable.
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• How long does an air conditioner last?
The effective life span of a residential air conditioning system in our climate here in Southern California is about 12 years. It is generally understood, that after about 10 years, should defects or breakdowns start occurring, that the system replacement becomes cost effective to replace.
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• How long does a furnace last?
Most furnaces in our climate last about 20 years. Some much more, but keeping them is not a wise decision. Newer furnace burn far less fuel, cost less to operate on electricity (some as little as 40 watts when circulating air, and are much safer to operate. Older furnaces are little more than a big tube of steel with a burner underneath them. No safety controls. No monitoring of airflow. No monitoring of combustion gases. Many older furnaces can pump carbon monoxide into the home hurting or killing the occupants and those furnaces will keeping on running. Newer furnaces, when venting is not correct, will shut down saving the lives of the people in the home.
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•What is video heat exchanger inspection?
Our service technicians, aside from being factory trained and subjected to regular update classes, are fully equipped with the latest tools to diagnose safety situations quickly, accurately and affordable. So affordable, that we do not even charge for it. We use a new hydro scan technology (invented back east a few years ago) coupled with ultra violet technology to identify weak cracked fireboxes before they dump carbon monoxide into your home and injure your loved ones. This ultra violet procedure was invented right here in Southern California by the Owner of Jim & Stephanie Enterprises, Jim Eichman. No one else in Orange County has this sophisticated and accurate method of testing fireboxes. You get to see the problem and seeing is believing. You can diagnose the problem. You know proof positive if the heat exchanger is cracked. Never guess and never believe anyone, unless you can see it.
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• Can you fix a cracked firebox?
No. It is not within the manufactures specifications to fix a crack in a firebox or heat exchanger. The reason is that the weld is made out of a different material than the firebox itself. The expansion and contraction of the metal will form a new crack right alongside the weld and could endanger the occupants of the home subjecting them to carbon monoxide poisoning.

If the furnace is within 10 years of age we normally get a heat exchanger from the manufacturer, but why? It obviously is a bad design and why would you want a poorly designed furnace in your home. We normally can negotiate with the manufacturer and obtain a significant discount on a quality furnace installation for you. Give us a call first and find out why we were named, National Contractor of the Year. We really are better.
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• What are cracks around the base?
This is the gas company term for a lack of separation between the return air cavity and the furnace intake or return air plenum. Normally, this is very minor fix that is handled on a minimum service call. Just give us a call at 1-877-247-6426 and let us take care of the problem for you.
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• What is an inoperative millivolt system?
This is a gas company term really meaning “I don’t know what I am doing.” This could be a thermostat, a wire broken, a thermocouple malfunctioning, a pilot generator not getting hot enough, vent switch activated, a gas valve not opening or any number of other things. This type of nomenclature really is meaningless in itself. The gas company is great in what they do, but their employees are not trained to diagnose furnace problems, are not equipped with the proper tools to diagnose furnaces and are prohibited from actually7 diagnosing these complicated system by the gas company itself. Give us a call, you’ll be glad you did. Don’t trust your life and the lives of your family to someone whose isn’t fully trained and equipped to handle all situations involving your furnace.
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• I want a price over the phone?
I do understand and I know it can be frustrating, but our estimate are free and they encompass all the situations that you, your family and your home will be in. I can’t see across the phones (at least not yet), and it isn’t possible for you to give me enough information to fill in all the blanks to give you an accurate estimate. I probably can’t even come up with all the questions that I need to ask in order to fill in all the blanks. Give us a try. If you are not happily satisfied with our diagnosis and you ended up paying any money at all, we will refund it. If you are not satisfied with us, then we didn’t do our job properly and I don’t think that you should pay anything.
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• Is 13 SEER high efficiency?
NO. It is the minimum efficiency allowed by law. It is bottom of the line. High efficiency is 20 SEER.

• How much does it cost to run my A/C?
Asking this question tells me that you are paying too much. The average American household pays about $2000 a year in heating and cooling energy bills. Roughly, we can save you about $550 of that on average. In some cases, we can cut those energy bills by more than half. Give us a call at 1-877-247-6426 and let us demonstrate to you how you can stop overpaying those utility companies month after month after month.
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• Is 80% AFUE high efficiency?
No. It is the minimum efficiency by law. It is bottom of the line. The top of the line is more than 95% AFUE. Couple this with a variable speed indoor blower motor and you really have a machine that not only will save you money month in and month out, but you have a machine that can filter and purify your air to the standards that hospitals use.
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• Can I really save gas with a new furnace?
Yes, but the savings on gas is small compared to the increase in comfort. Invest in a new furnace for safety, comfort, peace of mind and then….gas savings. Your new furnace can be so quiet that you will call me and complain that it will not run. Yes, every year I get calls from customers perfectly comfortable complaining that their furnace does not operate because they cannot hear it turn on. Your furnace is working at its best when you do not have to think about it.
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• What is variable speed technology?
This is greatest breakthrough in furnace air handling technology in my lengthy career, and I didn’t even believe it when it came out. It took a “whoops” furnace for me to acknowledge the unbelievable superiority of this furnace. A “whoops” furnace is one that we installed and had to remove for some reason. The one in my home in Huntington Beach is one that we installed in Corona Del Mar in a home that had underground ducting. The ducting was defective, collapsed, and so we installed an up flow furnace and dropped a couple of ceilings adding ducting. We also put in some exposed decorative ducting in the home to distribute air more freely in the home. The furnace sat around my shop for 2 years before I decided to install it in my home to see if I was being told the truth about these revolutionary furnaces. It is the single best furnace that I have ever had. It is silent and cost effective. I am now probably the biggest advocate of variable speed technology there is. Every installation should be variable speed. You will not regret it. Clean air, great filtration, slow quiet ramp up of the motor and superior airflow. It truly has it all.
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• What is multi-stage gas heater?
The highest efficiency furnaces have the latest technology allowing the furnace to achieve the desired level of comfort according to the demand in the home. I am sure that you will agree with me that if you have been away from your home and your furnace is off on a day that is 45 degrees outside that when your furnace turns on it will require a high demand to reach the desired set point (say 72 degrees) on the thermostat. For this occurrence, the furnace will turn on full force and heat the home up quickly. What happens after the home is heated and the furnace only needs to raise the temperature one or two degrees? A normal run of the mill furnace will turn on full force and blow an enormous amount air heating the home up in a minute of two only to turn off just as fast. This creates uncomfortable temperature swings in the home. A multi stage furnace does not do this. It will turn on at a lower fan speed and a lower heating btu speed. The home will gradually achieve the moderate gain in temperature achieving a much higher level of comfort and a much lower amount of noise.
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• What is a multi-stage A/C System?
Look at multistage gas heater and simple replace heating with cooling. Awesome equipment.

• How does air conditioning cool the home?
The air conditioning system is actually a married system, the indoor unit, the evaporator coil, and the air handler, the furnace, are coupled together with the outside unit, the heart or pump, via the copper line set, the arteries or veins. Freon is pumped by the heart of the system, the compressor, through the outside coils of the outdoor unit. Heat is given up to the air outside and the cooled Freon (technically it is now called “subcooled”) is pumped through the arteries (copper line set) to the evaporator coil. The evaporator restricts the flow of Freon allowing it to become cold in the coil, you could call it the lungs of the system, where it absorbs the heat of air blowing by it pushed by the air handler (furnace). The Freon (technically called “superheated”) then flows through the arteries (line set) back to the heart of the system (the outdoor unit-compressor) to start the process all over again. As this process is repeated over and over again the home’s indoor air becomes cooled and the home cools down.
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• Do you offer discount maintenance plans?
Yes. Let us come to your home and go over your individual needs. We can fashion a system of maintenance that best suits your preference and your systems maintenance needs.
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• Money saving coupons
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10-10-10 Guarantee*

If we perform the maintenance on your heating and coolng system for the first years then you will have no out pocket repairs costs whatsoever. If anything breaks, we'll fix it or replace totally at our expense. You may never pay for a repair again. Isn't that peace of mind.

SEER Guarantee*

At The Empire Family of Services, we are confident in our system design skills, the equipment we offer, and the quality of our installations. We guarantee that we will design and install your new air conditioning or heat pump system in accordance with the requirements of the Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Institute’s Standard 210/240. Your system will be designed with a matched coil giving you a certified combination engineered to achieve the manufacturer tested SEER rating. Certified combinations are required for any applicable utility rebates. We will install the equipment, can test the air flow, and we will charge the refrigerant levels to operate in accordance with the manufacturer's design specifications. This guarantee reflects the unusual commitment to engineering detail, diligence, old fashioned craftsmanship, workmanship, and pride we put into every Home Comfort System we install.

*For complete warranty and guarantee details see your invoice or give us call at 1-877-247-6426. Guarantees are in writing on each invoice.

Our main office is in Garden Grove. We serve all of Orange County. Southern Los Angeles County as well as Diamond Bar, Norco and Corona.

Cleanliness brought to your home by caring technicians, quality heating and cooling equipment and lifelong maintenance.

Your heating and cooling system is more than a box that warms and cools the air. It is a system that, if installed and maintained correctly, can lead you and your family to a higher degree of control over your indoor air environment.

One of the ways we weed out the bad technicians is by performing criminal background checks and civil background checks. You be safe with Empire. we won't let a criminal into your home.

When it comes to saving you money by reducing your month after month utility overayments we are the company of choice. We specialize in reducing your bills. This is accomplished through proper sizing, proper installation and perfect equipment selection. Give us a call @ 1-877-247-6426 and find out why we named National Contractor of the Year.

How about turing your home into cool dry air, like Colorado Springs, in the summer time. How do you think you'll feel when your home this winter feels like your vacationing in Hawaii?

If we are so much as one minute late for our service call appointment we will waive any minimum fee. That is a promise. Your time is valuable and we will do everything we possibly can to repect that value.

• Guarantees - warrantees - our promise

100% Satisfaction Guarantee*
What our 100% satisfaction guarantee says is that if you are not 100% satisfied with what we’ve performed, then we’ll make any modification necessary, any modification required, to gain your 100% satisfaction, up to and including replacing the equipment or refunding your money, all of your money. It’s not just our goal, 100% Satisfaction; it’s your right as a consumer. If you’re not satisfied, were not satisfied.

What our guarantee says is that on a minus 10 degree day, your home will maintain, plus or minus 3 degrees of 70 degrees. That’s right, we put it in writing on the invoice. On a 95 degree day, your home is going to maintain, plus or minus 3 degrees of 75 degrees. We are the only company in town that guarantees that our systems will do exactly what we say.

No Lemon Heating Guarantee*
If the heat exchanger or firebox fails in the first 10 years we will replace the entire furnace for you at no charge. No shipping, no handling, no waranty and no labor charges whatsoever. This includes code required upgrades. No charge means absolutely no charge. No other company offers this rock solid guarantee.

No Lemon Cooling Guarantee*
If your compressor, the main component is your A/C, fails two times in the first 5 years we are not just going to replace that compressor with a new one, something just about every company does, we are going to remove the complete outdoor condensing unit and replace it with a brand new complete unit. No one deserves a lemon.

Property Protection Guarantee*
If anything is accidentally damaged, a professional will repair it. We’re not going to be driving down to the Home Center parking lot and pick up someone to bring to your home. You will have a properly licensed, a properly insured and properly bonded professional perform the repair. Once the repair is done to your satisfaction, then and only then do you have to make your investment in your new Home Comfort System. With a guarantee like this do you think that we will be sloppy or do you think that we’ll Treat your Property Carefully? We're the only ones making this kind of guarantee.

365 Day Test Drive*
We want you to test drive your New Home Comfort System through all four seasons to make sure that it meets and exceeds all of your expectations. You’ll be using your new Home Comfort System through the cold and clammy winter season, you’ll get to drive through the sneezing, sniffling asthma season, spring, you’ll get to cruise through the hot and muggy "I can’t sleep at night" summer season and finally your going to be able to triumph through the cold and flue season, fall. After you’ve passed through all of these seasons only then do have to make a decision. If you're not satisfied with the performance of the system, if for any reason or if for no reason whatsoever you are not satisfied with this system, give us call and we will refund 100% of your investment and we’ll give you interest. Why do you think no other company will give you this type of guarantee?