Your air conditioning system is one of the core components of a comfortable home. Homeowners often find out the hard way how important the air conditioner and HVAC system are when they experience a breakdown during the height of summer or the incredible chill of wintertime. Waiting to get your air conditioner serviced can be a disastrous mistake, but learning how your air conditioner works will help you to identify problems before they arise. That way, you can fix them quickly and effectively in order to provide your family with year-round comfort.
The Air Conditioning Unit
Your air conditioner unit lives outside. This piece of equipment acts as a powerful fan that blows air into your home’s HVAC system so that it can be processed and pushed throughout the house at the perfect temperature. This unit is like the engine that makes the entire system work. Maintaining this segment of the HVAC system is crucially important and will extend the life of your home’s air conditioning services by many years.
Cleaning debris from the fan blades and checking for any wear on the mechanism’s small and moving parts is the most important part of an air conditioner’s servicing, and this is often where an air conditioning technician will begin his or her inspection of your property’s HVAC system.
The HVAC System
Your home’s HVAC system is typically located in the attic. This is the condenser, coil, ductwork, and other key components that temper the incoming air before blowing it in through the vents in your home. The HVAC system is comprised of a central unit and a long series of ductwork that will bring the air to each of your vents. Leaks in your air ducts will rob your home of the air your HVAC system uses, so keeping this in good working order is crucial for maintaining a fully functional system.
Whether you are a new homeowner starting over after rehab in a brand new location, or a longtime resident of your property, good maintenance habits surrounding the care and cleaning of your ducts, HVAC system, and all of its corresponding parts is essential to maintaining a comfortable home that you can take pride in.
The Ventilation
In order to provide your home with clean and temperature-controlled air, the HVAC system pumps a breeze through your vents and into the living space of your home. These vents live in the walls and insulation space of your home and are not typically seen unless you are conducting a remodel. But the vent system is just as important as the rest of your overall air conditioning makeup.
You will want to put filters in each of these vents in order to clear the incoming air of any debris leftover from the fan blades outside or picked up in transit through the various other components. Depending on the quality of air filters you have placed in each of the vents, it may be a good idea to change these once a month or as little as every six months. In order to give you and your family the best possible indoor air quality, make sure that you read the packaging on your filters and understand how long your particular model will last.
The air conditioning system in your home is made up of a number of moving parts and takes a lot of work to maintain. However, getting ahead of any repair work that might need to be done with routine services gives you a good chance to extend the life of your air conditioning system and see the greatest overall benefit to your health and comfort in the process.
