A healthy HVAC system is important in your home, and so it is important to take care of it. They are expensive to fix or replace. A little maintenance, though, can keep things in good working order for longer. This article was designed to help you learn as much as needed about HVAC systems to properly care for them all year long.
If your HVAC is giving you problems, tour your home before calling a technician. Make a list of the rooms which are comfortable and which just aren’t. This can help the contractor determine the problem areas quickly and fix the problem easily.
It is important to have some knowledge of your present system and needs before calling a contractor. It’s hard to get an estimate since they haven’t look at your system. It will be way more hard if you can’t figure out what they need to do. Learn this information to start with.
Each spring, try cleaning the fan blades and coils on the condenser fan. Start by turning off the power to avoid having anything move when you work on it. Next, pop the grill off, put the blades out and start to gently clean them along with the unit.
When you cut the grass, make sure your mower isn’t tossing clippings toward your outdoor units. Direct the grass clippings in a direction away from the HVAC unit. This also applies to blowing leaves or moving debris. Just be careful with that exterior HVAC unit.
If you have a fan condenser with oil ports, it needs to be lubricated every year. You can find these ports covered with rubber or metal caps. Pick out a SAE 20 type of oil because it has no detergent, is lightweight, and you should put around 10 drops in the ports but make it to where they don’t get too full.
If you are choosing where to place your outdoor compressor device, try to put it in a place where there is plenty of shade. The unit will operate more efficiently to cool your home if the intake air is cooler to begin with.
If possible, put your HVAC in a shaded area if it is outside. You save money this way because the air conditioner is now pulling in cooler air, which is easier to cool further.
Get your HVAC unit serviced two times per year. This should happen in the fall and the spring. It doesn’t matter if your unit seems to be properly working, it is still advisable that you perform maintenance and resolve any potential problems.
Putting in a programmable thermostat is a smart way to cut back on air-conditioning costs. These convenient thermostats may shave ten percent or more off of your bills, because they significantly cut energy use when you’re not around. Also, you’ll find that you can program your thermostat from a computer or anything connected to the web.
If nobody is home, turn off the AC. This will save you money on your energy bills. If it’s left on all day, it will fight the heat all day, which uses quite a bit of electricity.
Do not allow your house to get extremely hot. Air conditioners can cool a home by just twenty degrees in a short time. A home that is over one hundred degrees will only be cooled to around eighty. When you factor in humidity, this can still be dangerously hot for the human body at rest.
If you want to ensure you choose a trustworthy HVAC contractor, invest a little time in researching a few different companies, checking out their reputations. Check them out at the BBB and look for reviews posted by former customers. These steps can help ensure you make the smartest and most informed choice.
Look online for a/c sizing calculators so you can really understand the unit size needed for your home or room. While you might think that a larger HVAC system is always better, in fact, larger systems sometimes are not the best choice for a particular space. To get the right information, look in the manual to find out the rating the manufacturer gives the unit for cooling.
The Internet can really help you out when it comes to finding someone to work on your HVAC unit. Many online review sites provide an avenue for this information. This is useful for finding people that you wish to work with and those that you don’t.
The HVAC system is arguably the most important appliance in your house. Without this, living conditions can become unpleasant. These tips will help you save your money by not spending on repairs. Remember that not following them could end up costing you thousands of dollars.