AC and HVAC are the two acronyms that tend to be used interchangeably to describe any air conditioning or heating device. There are many benefits of keeping your home AC (Air-Conditioning system) maintained. Primarily would be saving your money on the electricity bill. Other beneficial aspects include prolonged HVAC’s lifespan, healthier air, cooler air and avoidance of costly repairs. So if you want your Air conditioners working on their full capacity be it a room AC system or your building’s centralized HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioners) system, do not make it work harder than they should.
Before recognizing the best ways and tips for maintaining our AC and HAVC let us have a better understanding of what these are made up of. AC (Air conditioners) usually comprise of either a heat pump or furnace and an AC, which provides both warm and cold air. These two types will have an inside unit and an outside unit made up of evaporator, blower, condenser, loop compressor, and HVAC air filters.
Following are the tips to maintain your Air Conditioners:
Replace Air Filters:
Changing your air cleaner is the easiest way to maintain your air conditioner unit in your home. Although there are certain timelines and conditions, one should always keep in mind when changing the filters. People without children and pets in their houses should change their air filters every 90 days. However, people with pets and/or kids should change their air filters every 60-90 days. On the other hand, factors that can have an effect on the frequency one should change their air filters include allergies and nature of your residence. If you have some serious allergies like dust allergies and the nature of your residence is permanent so you should change your air filters every 15-30 days.
Flush your Drain Lines:
Sometimes water from the condensation builds up and jams the drainage lines. This water funnels down a drain line that exits your home and dumps this water outside, wherever it belongs. Over time, alga or maybe mold will build up and clog this drain line. It is easier to clean the drainpipes from time to time and prevent the clogging rather than changing these pipes. One of the efficient and most ways to clean these drainpipes is to combine hot water and bleach in a 50:50 ratio. Pour this mixture down in the drain line but before pouring down the mixture make sure that your Air Conditioner is off. Do it once a year to avoid molds and algae in your drain lines.
Straighten and Cleaning the Fins:
Clean the fins by removing the outer covers and use a brush with a vacuum to get rid of all outside dirt. Then, apply light stream from a hosepipe, spray through the fins from the inside intent to take away any dirt between them. Do not use a pressure washer, since the pressure can harm the fins. If the fins have a lot of dirt, use a commercially fin clean up spray.
Reduced Airflow:
Since any reduction in airflow through the fins will decrease the potency, carefully straighten the bent fins with a table knife or a commercial fin-straightening tool. Be very careful and make sure that the tubing between the fins is not damaged during this process.
Installing Programmable Thermostat:
A programmable thermostat is very important now a good AC health. Programmable thermostats enable you to line temperatures for varied times throughout the day and it mechanically lowers the temperature when needed the most maintain the temperature throughout the day according to the need, which helps you to save cash and manage your cooling while not hovering over the dial.
Solar Screens on windows:
Windows can be the biggest culprit to attracting heat. If you live in one of those cities that get a fair share of sunlight throughout the year, you would have experienced that it brings tons of warmth, unless you’ve customized your windows. You may install solar screens on the exterior side of windows that would help in keeping heat out. You can additionally add some temporary shading for the east- and west-facing windows on those super-hot days.
Seal the air leaks:
Most of the quality energy-saving recommendation tells you to seal your windows and weather-strip your doors. The matter thereupon is you are ignoring a number of a lot of larger leaks, like, say, crawl area vents that open into a conditioned house or a hole within the room ceiling that acts as a refrigerator vent. Go searching in your attic, crawl house, or basement, and you will notice the worst offenders.
Improved Airflow:
Apart from the air cleaner, your AC might also produce other kinds of airflow issues. For example, a dirty evaporator coil will not allow enough air to move across it which means your house will not cool off efficiently. If the condenser coil is dirty, it will not dump enough heat to the surface. If your condenser coil is crowded with vegetation or different obstacles, clear it out. You’ll be able to trim the bushes yourself, however, you must most likely decision a professional to scrub the coils.
Other than maintaining our Air conditioners there are some common mistakes we make during the purchasing and installation of our AC and some are them are operation faults that can be corrected. Correcting those mistakes will not only increase the life of our AC but will also help save you tons of money. Those commonly made mistakes are:
Buying the incorrect size:
It’s suggested that the dimensions of cooling ought to be in accordance with the area of your room so that your AC should not be overworked.
Incorrect Installation:
The AC ought to be put in in such a way that that rear end is an inch below the front. This helps in water draining properly. However, many times this essential demand is missed by the installer and leads to leaking of water from front and sides.
Incorrect positioning of AC:
This can be another common mistake that’s typically made during AC installation. The location of AC in your home has a nice impact on its cooling potency. It ought to be put in at a shady spot where there’s less or no direct daylight.
Running AC 24/7:
Making your AC work full day long without break decreases its operational potency at the end of the day so we should switch off the AC once your temperature becomes cool and comfy. This may additionally cut back your utility bills.