Your air conditioner keeps you cool and comfortable, but if you’re like most of us you might not think a lot about your air conditioner until it stops working efficiently. How can you get the most out of your air conditioning and avoid as much air conditioning repair as possible?
Don’t Neglect Those Inspections
One of the most common reasons for AC repair is inspection and maintenance neglect. Any air conditioning company can tell you that you should have your unit inspected twice a year. Your HVAC system will run most efficiently if you ask an air conditioning company to look at it before the hot season begins and again once it’s over. There’s a bonus to regular maintenance, too. People who always call in an AC company and get routine maintenance can expect their unit to last 40% longer than the average.
Use Vents Strategically
If you have an HVAC unit, you can help it work more strategically by opening and closing vents in the rooms depending on how much a room needs it. Let’s say you have a basement room that’s naturally cool. Closing the vents off to this room sends more of the cool air to those hot upper rooms where it’s really needed.
Make Sure Vents Are Not Blocked
Are you noticing that certain rooms are too warm all the time? Before you call an air conditioning company, check that the vents aren’t blocked. It’s very common for furniture and appliances to be set down without any regard for where air conditioning vents are located. Rearrange so that your air can flow freely from place to place in the room. If that doesn’t change things, then it’s time to call one of those air conditioning companies.
Install Ceiling Fans
If you’re looking to maximize the usefulness of your air conditioner and get the most out of it, ceiling fans can be a great way of moving air around the home and minimizing the strain on your air conditioner. A properly placed ceiling fan will push the chilled air back down to the ground where it keeps you cool. At the same time, it will draw the warm air up. It’s important to make sure the fan spins in the correct direction and place it in the rooms you need it most, like bedrooms or living rooms..
Don’t Forget Your Filter
This is something that many people neglect until they have to call in an air conditioning company to fix everything. The filter needs to be replaced every three months. The filter protects your compressor and the main unit from dust and debris. If you let that filter build up too long, you force the unit to work harder and harder until eventually it freezes up or even burns up the compressor.
Keep the Compressor Clean
Whenever you get dirt on the compressor coils of your HVAC unit, that dirt acts like a form of insulation for the heat exchange coils. That makes it a lot harder for your air conditioner to cool anything down. You can buy AC coil cleaner, or you can just keep rinsing it with water if you keep after it regularly.
Don’t Make the Unit Work Too Hard
during those weeks of blisteringly hot weather, particularly if the sun is blazing directly down on your house, don’t force your air-conditioner to do lots of extra work by firing up the oven or other heat producing appliance right when things are hottest. Go outside and do some grilling for dinner on those really hot days and you’ll help your air conditioner do a better job of keeping you cool.
Keep the Doors Closed
Speaking of doing things to help your air conditioner, make sure you’re doing the little things like following up with the kids to ensure their closing doors as they go in and out the house. You’d be surprised how many children have zero awareness of when they’re leaving the front door open, so drill it into their heads like a mantra: close the door!
Your air conditioner is vitally important to keeping you and your family cool through the summer. Take good care of it, and it will take good care of you.