Maintaining a comfortable living environment at home is essential to feeling happy and having a poor HVAC system can really make your life miserable. Not only will you incur higher costs it will make your body feel very uncomfortable if it too cold or too hot. Below you will find many good tips on how to make sure that your HVAC system stays as good as new.
Get all of the details regarding a broken system before calling for repair. Know the brand name and model number. It is also helpful to have the maintenance history. This will ensure that you can give your new contractor all the information they need.
Let your friends and family know about the discounts that are possible via ENERGY STAR. Theres a lot of savings that can be had here so why hold this good news all to yourself! You can save those closest to you hundreds of dollars over the course of a year.
Make a circuit around your home before calling for help with your HVAC. Notice the temperature in each room. Are some cooler or hotter than others? If you do this it will be a great help to the future contractor who will now be able to quickly locate the problem issue.
If you do have a good experience with a HVAC product or contractor let others know. Go online and post a review so that people can easily find out who and what brands to trust. At the same time you can check reviews online to learn more yourself about whats available.
Always ask for references before you allow anyone to start doing work on your HVAC system. Call several of them to make sure that they are legitimate. Many people take the word of the contractor when it comes to customer satisfaction and that can prove to be a mistake in the end.
If you currently have a manual thermostat consider installing a programmable one. You can set your system for different temperatures depending on time of day and if anyone is home. Also you can set upper and lower temperature settings to allow for a comfortable range of temperatures so that heating and cooling dont kick in when not needed.
If you have fans in place to help make your HVAC more efficient be sure that theyre turning in the right direction. They should be pushing air downwards over the people in the room to help cool their skin. If its blowing upwards all it does is push hot air into the room.
If you want to turn off your air conditioning at night to save money consider putting a standing fan next to your bed. You can set it to oscillate from your toes to your head blowing cool air over your body and letting you sleep comfortably all night long.
If you want to cool your home in the summer without using your air conditioning on full consider installing fans in your home. An attic fan can blow hot air out while sucking in cool air into your basement and ceiling fans help distribute the air in your rooms evenly.
If you dont want to install ductwork in your home consider a mini-split system instead. They work form the outside in allowing your whole home to cool without a central air conditioner. This allows you to enjoy all of your indoor space in a cool comfortable way all summer long.
The energy efficiency of a unit should be taken into consideration when purchasing a new heating and cooling system. Although you should be concerned about the price of a unit the efficiency of the unit will save you thousands over the lifetime of the heating and cooling system and should weigh heavily on your buying decision.
Contractor set their own prices; this is why you should get many quotes. By calling around and asking a few different contractors you can save a ton of money. Call at least four or five different HVAC specialist to find the best rates.
Be careful of sounds in your HVAC. If the condenser fan begins to make a grating or clicking sound the blades could be hitting an obstruction. If blades get bent dont try straightening them. You could unbalance them and cause them to hit the condenser coil. This could loosen the motor in the fan. Try replacing the bent blades with new ones. Make sure the new blades can freely rotate without wobbling.
Ask any potential contractor about their experience. Make sure they are experienced doing the kind of work that you need. Though some workers with less experience are great you do not want to risk it.
If you are going to use the Internet as a source for good HVAC contractors you need to be very careful. You never know who is behind the glowing reviews that are posted all over the Web. There is a chance that the contractor is posting their own reviews or paying others to do so.
This article has given you some excellent basics on keeping your HVAC system maintained correctly. Dont ignore it or it could fail on you because you didnt give it regular maintenance. These tips will help you keep your unit maintained and should help you if you ever need it replaced as well.