Do you worry about your cooling equipment making it all the way through summer without breaking down? Having a system fail during the summer months can be inconvenient and expensive. We are going to discuss two simple and effective things any homeowner can do now to maximize the chances of having a cool summer time with no broken AC equipment.
Cooling equipment takes a beating during the summer here in Southern Arizona, often running up to 14 hours per day for months. And that takes a toll on your system, especially if you haven’t performed proper care and maintenance on it.
If you’ve ever experienced a broken AC unit when it’s 105 degrees, you’ll know how painful it can be. It typically entails at least part of an uncomfortable day spent at home, while a technician diagnoses and repairs the problem.
Like most things in life, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure….
There are three simple pieces of maintenance you need to take care of before the heat arrives:
1. Change out that old air filter!
Your AC air filter is designed to maintain a good quality of air in your home. Over time, especially in Tucson, it will get clogged up with dust and dirt. When this happens, your AC unit will have to work harder to push the same volume of cool air – putting extra strain on your system, requiring more energy usage and increasing the likelihood of an equipment failure.
Imagine trying to drive your car while one foot is resting on the brake pedal. You can easily see what that would do to your engine.
Don’t forget to check the arrow on the filter to make sure it’s correctly aligned with desired air flow!
2. Your condenser coil is the heart of your cooling system, and when it’s dirty, covered in grime, it cannot properly transfer heat away from the air passing over it. That means the system has to work much harder to bring down the temperature, again, resulting in higher energy usage and a high probability of a broken down air conditioner. In fact, a dirty coil can reduce efficiency by as much as 30%!
Not only that – a dirty coil can lead to higher operating temperature and pressure inside your condenser unit, a common cause of total system failure.
When we at Rite Way clean a coil for customers, we frequently measure unit efficiency before and after a coil clean. That way our customers can be confident that what we are doing for them is both reducing electricity costs and extending the life of their heating and cooling system.
