About Penny Damper
Short answer
Penny Damper is a cost notebook for US households on heating and cooling: what parts cost, which upkeep is safe to do yourself, which settings trim the bill and where public help is.
Updated
What this site does
Penny Damper explains the money side of heating and cooling a home. The repair cost pages show what a part lists for at a supply house, dated, and what the rest of a repair bill pays for. The upkeep pages cover the jobs a homeowner can do safely, such as filters, thermostat settings and clearing a condensate line. The bill help pages cover LIHEAP, weatherization, rebates and financing traps.
Figures come from federal agencies such as the Department of Energy, ENERGY STAR, EPA, IRS, HHS and CPSC, and from equipment makers' manuals. The sources page explains how they are chosen and dated.
What it does not do
Penny Damper is not an HVAC contractor. It does no installs, repairs, tune-ups or service calls, sells no equipment and has no technicians. It does not give a price for labor or a whole job, because those depend on local rates and on what a licensed technician finds.
Some work is for licensed professionals only, and the pages say so: anything involving refrigerant, gas parts, capacitors or the inside of a furnace or condenser. If you're unsure, call a licensed technician.
Who owns it
Penny Damper is under the same ownership as four businesses: PlumbingSupplyAndMore.com, a plumbing and HVAC supply house; Central Plumbing HVAC, a heating and cooling company in Pennsylvania; and two water-treatment shops, SoftPro Water Systems (under the same ownership as Penny Damper) and Quality Water Treatment (under the same ownership as Penny Damper). Some pages link to them, and each of those pages says so. The ownership page lists every page that links one of them and how those links are written.
How to use it
Start with the question you have. If something has stopped working, the upkeep pages list safe checks to make before a service call and the point where you should stop. If you have a quote in hand, the repair pages show what the main part costs on its own, so you can ask the contractor for an itemized price and the diagnosis in writing.
Prices and program rules change. Each page gives the date its figures were read; check the linked agency page before you rely on a number for a big decision.