Spring is here, and that means that allergy season is here too. You may have noticed some sneezing and sniffling going on in your household. To help alleviate this, we recommend that you change your HVAC air filter every 1-3 months. But this isn’t the only reason recommend doing so.
Changing your air filter can actually help air flow through your air conditioner with ease and prevent sudden system failure. While this isn’t the only thing you should be doing to care for your HVAC system, its’ certainly at the top of the list.
What Happens if You Neglect Your Air Filter?
Failing to change the air filter in your HVAC system can do harm to the system itself. The air filter collects a good amount of dust and debris from the air throughout your home over the course of even just a couple of months, in order to keep you healthy and to keep particulates from damaging the air conditioner.
When the air filter gets too clogged up, it can continue to block debris, and stop air from flowing through. This lack of airflow impacts your AC system in few different ways:
- It causes discomfort to household members.
- It decreases your energy efficiency since the fan has to run for longer, costing you more in monthly energy bills.
- The cooling system struggles to operate, increasing wear and tear and leading to potential premature system breakdowns.
As we mentioned above, changing your air filter is an important part of caring for your air conditioner. It should be done at least once every three months during periods of use. If you have significant contaminants in your home, however—such as pet dander or cigarette smoke—then you’ll want to upgrade this to once a month. And this isn’t all you should do to prepare your air conditioner for its heaviest period of use.
Schedule Professional Maintenance
During your professional maintenance appointment, our technicians will clean the coils that reside in your HVAC system. These are responsible for the release of heat as it dissipates from refrigerant condensing in the coils.
Some homeowners try to clean these coils on their own, but we don’t typically recommend this. Reason being, you may have a problem with your coils that you don’t realize, and your professional maintenance appointment gives us a chance to check it out and make sure nothing needs repair.
For example, you may have a refrigerant leak that has caused the evaporator coil to freeze over. Removing ice on your own can do more harm than good, plus it doesn’t actually eliminate or resolve the problem of loss refrigerant. Other services conducted during professional maintenance include:
- Completing a thorough inspection of your entire HVAC system.
- Testing the voltage/amp draw of your system.
- Lubricating moving parts.
- Tightening electrical connections.
- Making any quick adjustments as needed.
- Checking for any repair needs.
Each of these steps help prepare your air conditioning system for its heaviest period of use, and help reduce the chance that your system will break down when you need it the most. Maintenance restores your system’s energy efficiency and lowers bills, helping you stay comfortable.
Contact Fresh Air, L.P. today for exceptional Sugar Land, TX air conditioning services.
