Portman Mechanical

08/16/2025

www.portmech.com helping to resolve air quality, comfort, and efficiency issues one client at a time!

08/05/2025

Heat pumps demystified:

What's a Heat Pump? | Simple Animated Explainer👉 Wondering how a heat pump works? In this short, animated video, we break down the basics of heat pumps--and...

09/13/2024

These guys are rock stars in the hvac industry.....

Send a message to learn more

05/20/2024

Some Ecobee thermostats will loose support from Ecobee this year.

"As of July 31, 2024, we’re discontinuing support for our older Thermostat models EMS and Smart. These models will no longer be able to connect to Ecobee servers and receive firmware upgrades. Please note, Wi-Fi connectivity will still be maintained."

https://support.ecobee.com/s/articles/Connectivity-and-Support-for-Legacy-Products #

Connectivity and Support for Legacy Products, ecobee Energy Management System (EMS) and ecobee Smart ThermostatAs of July 31, 2024, we’re discontinuing support for our older Thermostat models EMS and Smart. These models will no longer be able to connect to ecobee servers and receive firmware upgra...

12/07/2023

TLDR: Same money by locking in lower electric and gas rates. This only takes 5 minutes and costs you nothing.

If you haven't checked your electric rate recently, now's a good time. We just secured 100% renewable for 5.6 cents per kwh for 12 months with no monthly fee and no early termination fee.

The Illuminating Company's residential “Price to Compare” for the generation supply portion of your bill for the period of October 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023 is $0.096/kWh*.

Pro tip: set a calendar reminder to check rates again when your contract ends.

With the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s innovative tool you can easily compare prices, contract terms and other plan differences.

04/20/2023

Just a reminder you can choose who you buy your electric from. First energy current rates are very reasonable and actually lower than most suppliers right now. Coming June they will more than double to 12 cents kwh.

Link in comments where to switch suppliers.

Prices for many FirstEnergy customers will double in June.

03/05/2023

Radon gas is dangerous, prevalent, and reasonably easy to mitigate if you have it so it's worth testing:

21,000 lung cancer deaths per year

#1 environmental cause of any cancer

#1 cause of lung cancer among people who have never smoked

10x risk of lung cancer among people who smoke compared with people who never smoked with same radon exposure

1 in 15 homes in the US have high radon levels

If radon levels are ≥ 4 pCi/L, EPA recommends installing a radon reduction system. This equals … 200 chest x-rays per year or 8 ci******es per day. pCi/L is shorthand for picocuries per liter, the units of measurement of the amount of radon in an air sample.
https://www.cdc.gov/radon/radon-numbers-ld.html

TLDR: ~$16 one time radon test. Test annually if you don't have a radon mitigation system: https://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-RD1-Radon-Test/dp/B00002N83E/

or ideally

$300 Airthings view plus are continuously monitoring your air quality including Radon to help ensure you're safe. We also strongly recommend turning your furnace fan to on as we find co2 (carbon dioxide) levels build up in your bedrooms overnight and are affecting your sleep and overall health. This monitor allows you to keep an eye on most important air quality metrics.

Air Quality monitor(co2 -carbon dioxide, voc-chemicals, particulate matter, radon, temperature, and humidity): https://www.airthings.com/view-plus
https://discount.airthings.com/discount/view-plus.html
10% off @ https://discount.airthings.com/discount/view-plus.html website with promo code: portmech-10OFF

We've been finding high radon levels in both our own homes and our customers homes and wanted to share how and why you should be measuring to find out if your home is affected.

Current guidelines recommend testing
1x per year for homes without a radon mitigation system and
1x every other year for homes with a radon mitigation system

While we don't do install Radon mitigation systems, cost effectively monitoring your homes air quality very much aligns with our mission to keep you and your home healthy.

I saw my home get as high as 19 pCi/L before installing a radon mitigation system. I only tested my home in 2004 when I purchased and then when I purchased an Airthings air quality monitor. I was unaware of the recommendation for testing every year.

My neighbor just messaged me saying they did a radon test and found their levels are well beyond safe (they've lived in this neighborhood longer than I have). They said they tested when they moved in and levels were "safe" then.

Here's a couple good videos on the subject:
"Radon Mitigation" Build Show Build: Boston
https://youtu.be/3TRKpyS-ATQ

How to Hotrod a Radon Mitigation System:
https://youtu.be/NqJ7uSKWn70

and additional helpful resources:
https://www.airthings.com/resources/radon-levels

https://www.cdc.gov/radon/radon-numbers-ld.html

If radon levels are ≥ 4 pCi/L, EPA recommends installing a radon reduction system. This equals … 200 chest x-rays per year or 8 ci******es per day. pCi/L is shorthand for picocuries per liter, the units of measurement of the amount of radon in an air sample.

11/21/2022

Harley and Precious want some heat and lots of petting.

11/15/2022

Standard Carbon monoxide detectors aren't enough to keep you safe.

TLDR. Anything over 9ppm CO (9 parts per million carbon monoxide) and you should evacuate your home. Standard CO detectors can't alarm until 70ppm. Low level CO detectors help to keep you safe and they're available from us locally or Trutech tools in Akron shipped to your door.

https://www.trutechtools.com/Defender-LL6170-Low-Level-Carbon-Monoxide-Monitor-Alarm

There's more info here, including promotional pricing: https://www.portmech.com/carbon-monoxide.html

and the video here: https://youtu.be/e_R9NaTRVFE

You probably completely overestimate what your carbon monoxide alarm is protecting your family from- in this quick 'bump test' demonstration, we prove that y...