Tag: HVAC Tips

5 Ways to Prep Your HVAC System for Spring and Summer

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HVAC tips in Spring, TX

If you’re preparing for spring cleaning and maintenance, consider prioritizing HVAC unit maintenance. Spring HVAC maintenance can help get your equipment clean, lubricated, and ready to go after the cold winter weather subsides. It’ll also prevent unnecessary breakdowns, which you want to avoid during the hot summer months.

Prioritizing your HVAC unit during spring cleaning also helps your system perform better and operate more efficiently, which can help you reduce your energy expenditure and associated costs. Below are some useful tips that you can implement to ensure your HVAC is ready for the spring and summer seasons.

1. Change the Filters

A clogged filter is among the main causes of HVAC unit breakdowns. It puts extra strain on your HVAC, causing it to fail faster. You must change the filters regularly to get the most out of your heating and cooling equipment while maintaining efficiency. According to HVAC experts, you should regularly check your filters and clean or replace them every 30 to 90 days, depending on the type or model you use. The beginning of springtime is the ideal time to change your HVAC filters so that your system can work more efficiently during the warmer months.

2. Inspect Your Ductwork

Blocked or leaky ductwork can force your HVAC system to overwork, decreasing its life span and efficiency. Your air filters play a significant role in trapping dust and other allergens. However, they don’t block 100% of the particles. Some of the allergens still go through the filter and continue into your ductwork. When your ducts accumulate these contaminants, the HVAC must work harder to push air out and inside your home, which can increase your energy bills.

Dirty ducts can also become perfect breeding grounds for rodents, pests, and dust mites. They can even impact indoor air quality. Ensuring your HVAC unit’s ductwork is in top shape at the beginning of spring allows the unit to cool your living space more effectively during the hot summer months and produce cleaner indoor air.

3. Seal Air Leaks

As the weather warms up, it’s important to seal any air leaks throughout your home. Openings around your windows and doors can make it more difficult to maintain a steady temperature in your home in the warm summer months. When your air conditioner is circulating conditioned air, even the smallest openings allow large amounts of that cooled air to seep outside. As a result, your AC will need to run for longer durations and expend more energy to cool your house efficiently.

If there are any leaks in your home, they’ll negatively affect your comfort during the warmer months. In addition, the extra stress on your AC unit will increase the probability of serious HVAC problems in the long run. Use caulking and weather stripping to seal any openings around your windows and doors tightly to ensure your home is tightly sealed for efficient HVAC use.

4. Clean the HVAC Outdoor Unit

Your outdoor unit, or condenser, can become dirty over time, which impedes airflow and minimizes efficiency. Keeping the outdoor unit clean is among the most cost-effective ways to have reliable HVAC performance.

Consider hiring a licensed technician to inspect and clean the condenser to prevent coil-related HVAC problems in the warm months. Also, if there are bushes near the outdoor unit, clear them to prevent them from covering or blocking your system.

5. Inspect and Adjust Your Thermostat

Your thermostat regulates your home’s indoor temperatures and can impact your energy bills. So, it’s important to ensure that the thermostat is working well and set to the correct temperatures for the warm months. In this case, you’ll need to adjust your thermostat’s settings to reflect the warmer weather.

Apart from adjusting the thermostat settings, you can benefit from upgrading your thermostat if you still have a manual one. Many programmable thermostats have many settings and self-correcting functionalities that can help you lower your energy costs. Besides, they give you more control over your indoor environment’s temperature.

Schedule Your HVAC Unit Tune-Up

Spring is the best time for preparing your HVAC equipment for warmer weather. Incorporating the abovementioned into your home’s spring cleaning list can help boost indoor comfort and reduce energy costs. Additionally, it’ll help prevent emergency HVAC repairs, and it can extend the life of your air conditioning unit. Our HVAC specialists at North Point Air Conditioning & Heating can examine your unit and perform maintenance tasks to keep the HVAC in top shape and your home comfortable all year-round.

We also offer smart thermostats, mini splits, air quality, insulation, and commercial HVAC services to the residents of Spring, TX, and the surrounding areas. Contact our representatives now to schedule your HVAC maintenance appointment.

3 Simple Ways to Keep Your Furnace Clean

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You depend on your furnace to keep your home warm throughout the winter, but it often goes neglected. Being it is in the basement or in a utility closet of some kind, it’s easy to forget about it until something goes wrong.

Unfortunately, that neglect can cause significant problems. One of the easiest things you can do is keep your furnace clean. Let’s explore why this is important and how you can easily keep your unit clean.

Why Do You Need a Clean Furnace?

Most people know it’s important to keep their home clean, but they might not realize that the state of the home can affect that of the furnace. When it comes to your furnace, keeping both your unit and your home clean will help minimize repairs and improve efficiency.

A furnace works by circulating air. It draws air in through the intake vents. That air is then warmed and then pushed back out into the home.

If there’s a restriction to the airflow anywhere in that system, it reduces its ability to circulate warm air properly. Most restrictions are caused by clogs in the system from dirt, dust, and other airborne contaminants that build up over time. The better you clean things, the better your furnace will end up running.

Any restrictions in the system will cause extra strain on the entire system. You may first notice it because of less air coming through vents. This means that the circulating fan is working harder to move the air. Consequently, this means all of the electrical components are also experiencing more resistance, increasing the heat they create. That extra heat makes them wear out more quickly. All of this is because of an airflow restriction.

Here are the three easiest ways to keep your unit clean throughout the year.

1. Change Your Air Filters

Just inside the intake side of your furnace is your air filter. This helps reduce the number of contaminants entering the more sensitive areas of the furnace. This is the most common area to experience a clog and cause a restriction.

Air filters typically need to be replaced every 60 to 90 days. The kind of air filter you use and how clean you keep your home otherwise will determine how often you should actually change them.

As a matter of practice, plan to check your filters once a month. This ensures you know when they’re starting to get clogged and can get them replaced. When you do check them, consider gently vacuuming the intake side of the filter. This will help extend the life of your filter.

2. Vacuum All Accessible Areas

Next, vacuum all the accessible areas of the furnace. When you do, be sure you turn off the power to the furnace, so it doesn’t turn on while you’re cleaning it.

The easy areas to clean are right around the furnace itself. You probably don’t need to scrub this with any sort of cleaner. However, vacuuming or sweeping it thoroughly is a definite must.

Also, be sure to clean around all of your registers, especially around your intake vent. This will help your filters last longer and will also reduce the contaminants in your ducts. The fewer contaminants in your air ducts, the fewer issues you’ll run into with respiratory problems, so there’s an added bonus.

Finally, if there’s a faceplate on your furnace, remove that so you can see the circulating fan. You want to vacuum this fan off regularly. If you plan to do it when you replace your furnace filters, that should be sufficient. While in this area, vacuum any additional dust or dirt you see that’s collected.

3. Schedule a Fall Maintenance Visit

Fall maintenance visits are always a good way to keep your furnace clean as well. During these visits, a technician will clean some of the more sensitive areas, including the burners and the heat exchanger. In addition to cleaning, they’ll inspect and test your system to ensure there are no early signs of wear. If they do find that something needs to be replaced or needs more servicing, then it allows you to plan for it rather than deal with it in an emergency.

North Point Air Conditioning & Heating has been the trusted provider for heating and cooling in North Harris and Montgomery counties since 1978. Our team is expertly trained and experienced in all makes and models of air conditioners and heating systems. Whether you need repairs, a new system installed, or regular maintenance to keep your system working efficiently, call us to schedule your appointment with one of our expert technicians today.