HVAC Tips: How to Keep Your AC Healthy Year Round

It’s a fact. Floridians need their central air conditioners. Whether we’re trying to find relief from the blistering heat we experience about 9 months out of the year or hunkering down to avoid the cool air of winter – you know, anything below 80 – our AC units are used and abused.

If you want to ensure your air conditioner continues to operate properly and you’re comfortable year-round, there are some simple HVAC tips you can follow.

5 Tips to Maintaining Your AC System

1. Change that Dirty Filter

It’s easy to forget about the importance of your AC filter. You don’t see it every day and it’s not on your weekly chore list. But having a dirty filter can make your system run a lot harder than it should — making it ramp up your utility bills and cause problems with the comfort level inside your home. Change that dirty filter and your system, and your family can breathe a sigh of relief.

2. Vacuum the Vents

When dust and pet hair accumulates on or just inside the vents, this contributes to making your filter get dirty faster and degrades the air quality inside your home. If you have a fuzzy friend (or friends), it can build up and cause trouble. Vacuum the vents when you change your filter and you already have taken advantage of two important HVAC tips.

3. Weed Wack around the Outdoor Unit

During the summer, Florida yards can really get out of the hand. Plants, weeds, bushes, and flowers grow quickly — and can encroach upon the outdoor unit of your HVAC system. It needs a good three feet or more of clearance for air circulation to work at top efficiency. The good thing is that it’s a quick fix! Weed wack around the outdoor unit and prune back unwieldy bushes to maintain clearance for good operation.

4. Check Your Thermostat

The setting on your thermostat, for most Florida residents, doesn’t need to be the same in the winter. Depending on your comfort level, you should be able to change it at least several degrees. This can save wear and tear on the system and save money too. Check your thermostat in the fall and adjust as appropriate for the comfort of you and your family.

5. Schedule a Routine Maintenance Service

best HVAC tip to keep your air conditioning system running well and staying strong for the long haul is scheduling routine maintenance. As one of the most valuable systems in any home, it is just smart home ownership to get fins, coils, and other critical parts of your HVAC system checked on a routine basis. Technicians can fix small problems before they become large, expensive ones — and get it working back to prime efficiency.

A dirty, un-maintained system can really spike your utility bills and shorten the life of the system as a whole. If you follow these HVAC tips regularly, you can stay comfortable throughout the seasons and have the peace of mind that your system is running efficiently and effectively.

Contact The Comfort Authority today to schedule a routine maintenance service. Keeping you happy and healthy is our primary concern.