It’s likely that you don’t think about your air conditioning unit much until it stops working. Here are 3 facts about air-conditioned homes.
Once temperatures inside your home start to match or exceed temperatures outside your home while your A/C wheezes, you might not have any recourse besides calling in the professionals.
With a little knowledge and forethought, however, you can help maintain your unit yourself to ensure it keeps running through those hot summer nights. Here are three things you probably didn’t know about your air conditioning unit.
IT WORKS WELL WITHOUT OTHERS
You can increase your air conditioner’s efficiency by lowering your carbon footprint. Turning off the lights and shutting off electrical equipment that’s not being used boosts your unit’s oomph, as does waiting until cooler times of day to do laundry or run the dishwasher. But do use your home’s built-in exhaust fans: They help carry away heat and humidity, giving your A/C unit a little less to do.
DON’T CLOSE YOURSELF OFF
A common myth about air conditioning units is that closing or even sealing off rooms in your home will reduce your bill. Shutting doors and vents, though, backfires because most systems have one of two kinds of blowers: An electronically commutated motor, typically found in high-efficiency systems, will respond to closed rooms by working harder. The more prevalent permanent split capacitor will simply move less air. Both can cause duct leakage. And neither will save you money.
If it’s a matter of privacy, closing your door until just before it’s shut completely will help your air conditioning unit continue to hum.
ONE NEW FILTER, PLEASE
And then another, and yet another. Changing your filters on a regular basis is the most important thing you can do for your air conditioning unit’s health. Your A/C needs a clean filter not only to operate properly but to preserve the air quality in your home.
A dirty filter slows down airflow, decreases the unit’s efficiency, and increases pollution as the filter gets covered in the gunk that flows from your ducts.
If you decide to remove instead of replacing the filter, that gunk will latch itself onto your evaporator coil, which is bad news. Swap your filter about once a month during warm seasons to help keep your cool.
Don’t delay. Give Rosenberg Indoor Comfort a call at (210) 987-5587 to save money and lower the carbon footprint of your San Antonio home!