Some Key HVAC Facts You Should Know

If you’re like a lot of people, you take for granted the equipment that keeps your home comfortable. Most of the time, you probably get no closer to it than the knob or button on the thermostat in the hallway on the main floor.

But the fact is, the more you know about your home’s forced-air furnace or air conditioner, the better equipped you’ll be to troubleshoot problems that arise, and to make informed decisions about repairs, maintenance, and the eventual replacement of your HVAC system. Perhaps you can even fix the issue without calling in a Cincinnati based HVAC repair contractor if you feel confident in your knowledge of the system.

Here are five things you should know about the cooling and heating systems that keep your home comfortable.

How a Home AC System Works

1. The most important thing to know about your air conditioning system is how it works. In a typical split-system AC, a chemical solution that boils at a very low temperature, called refrigerant or coolant, is pumped through thin copper or aluminum tubes between two units.
2. One of them (the evaporator) is inside the house and the other (the condenser/compressor) is outside, usually right next to the house. When the refrigerant is pumped through the evaporator coil, the solution boils, transitioning it from a liquid into a gas.
3. This process extracts heat energy and moisture from the air. This results in cooler and dryer indoor air. The cool air is distributed throughout the house via a blower, ductwork and registers.
4. The AC system pumps the now-very-hot refrigerant outside to the condensing coil and compressor. There, it’s compressed back into a liquid.
5. As this happens, a fan distributes the released heat energy (from inside) into the surrounding outside air. The refrigerant then begins its cycle again.
6. Heat pumps work similarly, except the condensing and evaporator coils switch their functions when the system converts from cooling to heating (with the help of a reversing valve).

The Importance of Your Air Filter

The HVAC air filter in your home plays a key role. In any forced-air HVAC system, whether cooling or heating, air filtration is essential. The filter extracts dirt and dust (and pollen, mold spores, pet dander, bacteria and other contaminants) from the air before it’s pulled into the furnace or AC, thus keeping this debris from circulating throughout your home.

This protects sensitive equipment from getting dirty and breaking down. It also cleans the air before it’s distributed to rooms in the house. An air filter that’s allowed to get clogged with dust and debris will erode system efficiency.

This is because the blower fan has a harder time circulating air through the system. It also will allow more contaminants to get on sensitive equipment and in the household air that you and your family breathe.

Check the filter every month and change it when it gets dirty. Avoid buying the very cheapest flat-panel filters. Their efficiency is relatively low. For such an important function in your house, it’s well worth the expense to pay $10 instead of $2 for a more efficient air filter.

Why Maintenance Matters

Don’t cut back on HVAC maintenance. Regular professional maintenance from a trusted, local AC and heating repair company in Cincinnati (in addition to the simple jobs you can do as a homeowner, such as changing the air filter) will make your cooling and heating equipment last longer and operate more efficiently, while delivering optimum comfort and performance.

Regular maintenance also will reveal small, inexpensive problems before they morph into big, costly ones. Use an HVAC repair company with a stellar reputation, such as Jansen Heating & Cooling.

Schedule service on your AC in the early spring and your furnace in the early fall – before the busy season for each system. Consider joining a Maintenance Club like the one we offer at Jansen. Among other benefits, we’ll remind you when it’s time for seasonal professional maintenance.

Give Your Furnace or AC a Break

There are plenty of ways you can reduce the heating and cooling loads in your home (in other words, the amount of heating or cooling that’s required to keep your home comfortable):

1. “Weatherize” your home, including sealing air leaks in the home’s outer envelope with weather-stripping, caulk or spray foam.
2. Upgrade insulation in key areas such as the attic, outer walls, ductwork and basement.
3. Repair or replace defective and leaky ductwork.
4. Use a programmable thermostat to avoid heating or cooling the home when nobody’s home.
5. Employ ceiling fans to provide a cooling effect in the summer and circulate warm air in the winter.
6. Open curtains and drapes to the sunshine on sunny winter days, and close them to the sun on hot, sunny days in the summer. When the outside weather allows it, open windows and turn off the AC. (Just make sure you close up the house once it gets hot outside.)
7. Finally, try a day or two when you lower the thermostat two to four degrees in the winter or raise it two to four degrees in the summer. This way you can see whether you and your family can get accustomed to more energy-saving, system-preserving temperatures.

Remember to Ventilate

Ideally, your home should be exchanging stale inside air with fresh outside air several times a day, with both passive and active ventilation.

Whatever your home’s heating and cooling system needs, we’re here for you at Jansen Heating & Cooling. We provide expert service, installation, and maintenance for all types of HVAC systems, all throughout the Cincinnati area.