As you know, the Comfort Now Team has been giving away a FREE heater to a person or family with the greatest need and most compelling story in the Atlantic County or Cape May County since we opened in 2014. Over the past 6 years we've been able to provide heat for the holidays to 8 very deserving families, in addition to our other promotions and giveaways. After all the submissions are in, we get together as a team and decide which people or families we feel have the greatest needs after reading all the submissions and going out to meet with the nominees.

Last year, we needed a little help selecting the most deserving family because it would be impossible to help every one of the nominees submitted; so we asked the public to help us select a winner. After all the input from the public last year, we still didn't have a clear choice of whom we should help, so without hesitation and in the true spirit of the holidays, Bob blurts out, "why can't we help more than one family this year?!?" So there you have it, in 2019 we decided to help 2 families get heat for the holidays last winter season!

But this year is not 2019...it's 2020! And we all know what that means...if nothing else, this year's been unpredictable!

As the nominees started rolling in this year, we quickly realized we had more heartbreaking stories than we've ever heard before! This year's giveaway brought in requests to help over 20 families! As we had in years past, we starting contacting these deserving families to try and determine which people were most in need of our services. Well, the stories just kept getting more dire and we realized we needed to help more than just one family again this year! But which one? Internally, our team felt Leon of Galloway had the most compelling story; but how could we not help Dan, Denise, Suzanne or Vicki? It was now up to Bob to choose...of course, he wanted to help every one of them, but that's not possible - or is it?!?

Hey South Jersey Shore Homeowners, was your air conditioning system installed earlier than 2010? If so, it's likely to have the refrigerant commonly referred to as R22 helping keep your home cool and comfy...but that may become an issue during your next repair visit! Let me explain...

In recent years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began phasing out all hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) because they were determined to be compounding the depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer. R22 refrigerant is the most common HCFC is use today. The process of phasing out these substances began to raise the price of R22 refrigerant as it became more and more difficult to acquire.

As of January 1st of this year, R22 refrigerant can no longer be produced or imported. Although the phasing out of R22 will eventually be a good thing for our planet, if your air conditioner is older than 2010, your next repair bill may surprise you! But as your go-to resource for HVAC related solutions, we have a few options for you to consider...

Let's face it, a temperature of 60 degrees on January 11th is kinda nice! Ah heck, it may even get up to 70 degrees tomorrow...but is that a good thing?

On January 5th, 1904 the State of New Jersey experienced a low temperature of -34 degrees...that's NEGATIVE 34 degrees people! This was the lowest temperature ever recorded in the Sate of New Jersey. In contrast, on July 10th, 1936 the State of New Jersey recorded it's hottest day on record when the temperature reached a scorching 110 degrees! But don't worry, the first air conditioner, designed and built in Buffalo, New York by Carrier, began working on July 17th, 1902. Thank God for Willis Carrier, am I right!?!

But this is January in Southern New Jersey, isn't the temperature supposed to be somewhere between 29 degrees and 42 degrees? Well, there may be many reasons why the temperatures are so warm today (which we could debate for hours), but ask yourself this...

If it's this warm in January, how hot is it going to be in July?

As you know, the Comfort Now Team has been giving away a FREE heater to a person or family with the greatest need and most compelling story in the Atlantic County or Cape May County area for a few years now, but this year's giveaway was a very difficult one...let me explain!

When the nominees started rolling in, there were some truly heartbreaking stories being told! As we had in years past, we starting contacting these deserving families to try and determine which people were most in need of our services. Well, it wasn't long before we had more than one deserving family to choose from. So we narrowed the field of nominees down to a very deserving 5 finalists to receive the FREE heater.

Just getting the list down to 5 finalists was a very difficult task for our team. So we put our heads together and thought the best approach would be to ask the public to help us decide...WHEW, as it turns out, passing the buck was a great idea...or was it?

Let's face it...it's been freakin' hot out this summer! It's only the early part of July and we've already had a couple of solid heat waves...and the worst is yet to come!

According to many indicators analyzed by the U.S. Global Change Research program, current heat wave frequency and the length of our recent heat waves have increased since the mid 1960's. The average heat wave season is now 45 days longer than it was 50 years ago! But there IS a way to beat the heat during a heat wave!

The unusually high temperatures reached during a heat wave are often a challenge for many air conditioning systems. Now don't be surprised if your AC unit never turns off on extremely hot days and the temperature inside your home starts to creep up beyond where you set your thermostat...this can be a normal occurrence. But don't worry, the air conditioner will eventually catch up overnight - or maybe towards the morning hours when it's cooler outside. Below we have some tips to help you cool your home more efficiently during a heat wave! First, we need to make sure your air conditioner is functioning properly...here are some quick problems to look for!

Why is my air conditioner not cooling my house below 80 degrees?

Certain issues or problems can often prevent your air conditioning unit from properly cooling down your home on extremely hot days. These issues or problems may include:

What do you think?

Do you agree with Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction of an early Spring? The people of Punxsutawney, PA sure do believe Spring is on the horizon. If history has anything to with it, who knows what will happen since that furry little prognosticator has only been right 40% of the time over the last ten years. Some people believe that Phil’s predictions are always right, but have been misinterpreted because of his native tongue Groundhogese. Only time will tell if we can put those winter coats away for the season!

Groundhog Day, originally called Candlemas Day, first came about in 1886 when the local newspaper captured February 2nd as a religious Christian holiday. The Christians thought if they brought their candles to church and had them blessed on this day, their households would be blessed throughout the winter. There was even an English folk song that evolved for the holiday, check this out...

As an Atlantic County resident for most of my life, I have always felt like serious crimes were something I only saw on the news; especially since I live in Linwood! But that all changed last week...I got robbed! Let me tell you how it happened and how I was able to catch the crook red handed...well, on video anyway!

On Friday, January 4th, 2019 I got a notification from my an app on my phone that there was an "unauthorized person" on my front porch. At 7:49pm our Nest Camera caught this kid, in his 20's, stealing a package off my front porch. This happened on Country Club Drive in Linwood. Pretty scary, huh?

Check out the video below...

We get this question a lot — Summer & Winter. When a home or larger area is controlled by a single air conditioning system, differences in temperature are common. This can often occur because of an imbalance in the air flow to rooms. It frequently occurs when a two story house is served by a single heating and cooling system having just one thermostat.

What do you need to know to understand why this happens, and what do you need to do to fix this issue once and for all? In our world, this is known as a temperature differential and it can be caused by any one of the reasons mentioned below. But don't worry, there is a solution!

It’s almost May! Another beautiful, but hot summer is just around the corner. Your air conditioner is waiting patiently to be turned on and not turned off until October. The last few years you noticed your air conditioning system was not working as efficiently as it could be; but you’ve been waiting to replace that old inefficient air conditioning unit. Well, it’s time to STOP waiting!

In the past few weeks, HVAC Contractors from all around the country were startled to be told that prices are expected to increase on all air conditioning units by as much as twenty percent...YES, that’s 20%!

On January 10th, the Comfort Now Team visited 82 year old Joe Gallagher of Rio Grande, New Jersey to inform him about winning our 2017 Holiday Heater Giveaway.  Joe, a Korean War Navy Veteran, was overjoyed to learn he and his 58 year old handicapped son would be the 2017 recipient of Comfort Now’s Holiday Heater Giveaway.