Easy AC maintenance tips for every home
As a homeowner (or renter, for that matter), it’s always a good idea to learn a few home maintenance tips that will make your life easier and help you save money.
While many jobs will still need to be carried out by trained professionals (after all, not everyone can be all things to all devices), just having a basic understanding of what to look out for so you can diagnose before things go completely awry, can save you a considerable amount of stress and money.
For many, their AC units are things that live in the background and don’t really ever need to be thought about too much… that is until things go drastically wrong and you’re left sitting in your underwear sweating like crazy and rueing the day that you didn’t make an effort to learn some basic maintenance skills.
Schedule professional maintenance
The easiest and most effective maintenance tip you will hear throughout this post is one you might already know about. We are discussing scheduling regular maintenance performed by those who live and breathe AC upkeep. This might not be DIY in the strictest sense of what you might consider a “maintenance tip,” but it is a tip that will save you a lot of stress in the long run.
These air conditioning repair Rockwall TX based pros note that setting up a regular maintenance schedule can ensure that your machine operates smoothly and efficiently. They will do most of the heavy lifting regarding the other tips in this post while ensuring it’s done to the highest possible standard and using parts designed for your specific AC manufacturer.
In fact, the fee you pay for this service far outweighs what you would have to pay if something more significant went wrong and caused you to need an entire HVAC system replacement, which can set you back thousands of dollars.
Regular filter changes
If you consider yourself to be somewhat of a handyman or woman and want to save yourself a few bucks by doing the basic things yourself, then you might want to look up how to replace your AC filters. In most instances, it will be your filter that is holding your AC back from reaching peak efficiency. You can think of it like the fuel or oil filters of your car. If they are blocked or worse, you will see a marked decrease in their operational efficiency, causing them to use more fuel and burn more oil than necessary.
The same is true with an AC, whereby a dirty filter can cause it to run inefficiently, thereby boosting your utility bills to levels you really don’t want to deal with. It might take some time the first time you replace the filter, but once you’ve done it once, you will be confident enough to replace it regularly according to the manufacturer’s guidelines.
Keep the outdoor unit clear
If you want a simple tip that any healthy and able adult ought to be able to achieve, it’s to spend perhaps once per month checking your outdoor unit for debris that might be an issue. Not only is keeping this unit clear of obstruction vital for peak operational effectiveness, but it’s critical to reduce the risk of fire. If too many things block the hot air from escaping, it could cause a buildup that results in a fire, which could be catastrophic if you happen to be at work or otherwise absent from your home.
Clean the indoor vents
If you operate a full-home HVAC system, then you will likely have a raft of vents that snake around your home and exit into each room that needs either heating or cooling, depending on the seasons. Many people tend to leave these spaces alone out of fear of breaking things and not knowing what to actually do with them.
As a result of this, the “what I don’t see can’t hurt me” attitude is the possibility of a buildup of all kinds of nasty things that obstruct airflow or even cause health issues if untreated over time. If you are really unsure what to do to keep these vents clean, you ought to call up the experts who can do it for you. Otherwise, for those of you who are a little more adventurous and curious, you can look on YouTube for a how-to guide, of which there are plenty.
Far too many people ignore their AC units and then reap the results of this ignorance. However, with a bit of understanding of what usually needs checking, you can minimize the propensity that they will break down and save money by doing most of the basic maintenance yourself.
