At the core of a comfortable home is its central heating and cooling system, often referred to as HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning).
A well balanced system with up to date equipment that is regularly maintained and serviced by qualified engineers is one that will repay you with longevity, efficiency and reliability.
Of course the main reason for having a whole house, central HVAC system is to maintain an even, comfortable temperature year-round. All at the touch of a button and a sensible setting on the thermostat!
The general idea is that what is a comfortably warm temperature in winter should equate to what is a comfortably cool temperature in summer. Personally, my comfort zone temperature is around 74°F.
At 74°F, I feel warm in winter but also cool in summer when I come in from outside. If it's cold outside as in winter, then stepping into a home at that temperature feels beautifully warm without being too hot.
Likewise, stepping inside from the heat of the summer sun to that same temperature feels cool without feeling too cold. For me, that's the sweet spot on my thermostat!
I know that most folks say that running a big, central HVAC all year can work out very costly. Of course it is a large expense, but a necessary one for that level of comfort. Yet it doesn't need to cost quite as much as some folks are paying for theirs.
Why do I say that?
I know from visiting the homes of friends and family that on almost every occasion, I did not feel comfortable. I was either too hot in winter or too cold in summer! Now, I know that sounds nuts, but it's true!
They simply don't grasp the simple practicality of thermostat control and how getting it wrong ends up being far more costly than it needs to.
A home that is too hot in winter is wasting a huge amount of fuel energy to maintain that extra heat. A home that is too cold in summer is also wasting a ton of electricity energy to force the air conditioning to keep it so cold!
Those are the people that say their HVAC is too costly to run!
Well, I'm pretty sure that you have seen the obvious flaw in their strategies if that's the case. The sensible, practical person will take a look at where energy is being wasted and leaking money away and plug the hole!
Settling on a "sweet spot" temperature for all-year is the way to do that. Common sense will tell you that if your home is too hot, you should turn the thermostat down a few notches until it levels out at a more comfortable temperature. If it's too cold, turn it up a few notches.
That strategy holds firm for all seasons. If you get it right, your system is not working so hard, using so much extra energy and... drum roll... it's costing you less to run!
One of the other big factors in my own system running efficiently and costing me less than my neighbors is that I have it serviced regularly by a local HVAC service company engineer. He comes over twice a year and checks all the vents and ducts to make sure they're not blocked and tests the system to make sure there are no components that need replacing or that are wearing out and may fail without warning some time down the road.
This is money well spent in my opinion. Prevention is not only better than cure, it is cheaper too!
For starters, if a piece of equipment fails, it will not only shut down my system leaving me either too hot in summer or too cold in winter, but it will also cost me extra to get an emergency call out guy to come round and fix the problem. Catching a potential component failure before it happens means only paying for a replacement part and having peace of mind that my system will keep working when I need it most.
Plus, the cost of calling out an emergency repair guy can be astronomical compared to an annual maintenance contract. So for me, it's a no-brainer!
By way of providing a graphic look at a heating and cooling solution, here's a handy short HVAC/R related video I came across that just puts it before you: