Ready or not, summer will soon arrive in full force in Greenville. To ensure that you don’t spend a single warm day in discomfort in your home, it’s important to take steps now to prepare your HVAC system for warmer temperatures. The good news is that many of the steps on this list are quick and easy to do. Thus, you can easily get your HVAC system ready for the summer season while taking care of other spring cleaning tasks around your home. Check out these terrific tips from the pros at Allegiance Heating & Air, LLC that will make HVAC preparation a breeze.
Schedule a Maintenance Visit
The easiest and best step to ensure that your system is ready to cool your home effectively is to schedule a HVAC maintenance visit with Allegiance Heating & Air, LLC. During a maintenance visit, a technician will ensure that each component in your system is running correctly. They will also check the pressure in your refrigerant line to make sure your system can adequately remove heat from your home. If they find any dirty components, they also have the tools to clean them properly without damaging any equipment. Another benefit to scheduling a maintenance visit before the summer is that it helps ensure that your system can be repaired quickly if any problems are discovered during the inspection.
Replace the Air Filter
Spring and summer bring many airborne pollutants, many of which can easily find their way into your home. Whether it’s pollen in the spring, dust in the summer, or a combination of both throughout the warmer months, plenty of unwelcome visitors are hiding in the air in your home. You must have a clean air filter in your HVAC system to remove these contaminants. A clean air filter will catch the highest volume of contaminants to help clean the air in your home air as effectively as possible. Furthermore, a clean filter will allow your system to take in adequate air to cool your home efficiently.
Inspect the Outdoor Unit
A long Greenville winter can take its toll on your HVAC system’s outdoor condenser unit. That’s why inspecting this unit before you turn on your air conditioner for the first time is important. During your inspection, look for any debris that has fallen inside the unit that could impede the performance of the fan or compressor. You’ll also want to look for damaged fins around the outside of the unit. A damaged fin could reduce the efficiency of your HVAC system. If you find damaged fins or debris inside the unit, call Allegiance Heating & Air, LLC immediately. It’s also a clever idea to clear away any leaves or sticks close to the unit so that the maximum amount of air can flow over the fins. Finally, make sure to trim away any bushes or other plants, leaving at least 2 feet of space between the plants and the condenser.
Make Sure the Ducts Are Clean
Back inside your home, you’ll want to ensure that the ducts responsible for delivering conditioned air are clean. Dirty ducts can make it hard to cool air from your air conditioner to get to the warm rooms in your home. Furthermore, the extra humidity in indoor air during warmer months can moisten the dust that accumulates on the walls of your ducts. If organic matter is present in the dust, mold, and mildew can grow in your ducts. Professional duct cleaning is a fast and effective process that can dramatically improve the performance of your system. To help prevent further problems with dirty ducts after they are clean, you can have Allegiance Heating & Air, LLC install a whole-home air purifier to remove contaminants at the source.
Check System Settings
It’s important to try and optimize your HVAC system’s comfort settings before the summer heat rolls in. If you have a programmable thermostat, ensure the schedule you set for the winter months still applies in the summer. Also, make sure that the temperature settings you previously selected for your air conditioner last year keep you comfortable this year. Furthermore, if you have other home comfort equipment, such as a whole-home humidifier, make sure that the settings for that equipment are correct so that your HVAC system can operate efficiently.
Clean the Condensate Drain
An important method that your HVAC system uses to help cool the air in your home is that it removes humidity from the air. To remove humidity, your HVAC system uses a cold copper pipe called the evaporator coil. As humidity in the air condenses on the cold pipe, the water droplets collect below the unit in the condensate pan. When the condensate pan is full, the excess water drains away from the unit through the condensate drain line. It’s important to clean this line using a solution of bleach and water to ensure the excess condensate can drain freely without causing water damage to your HVAC system.
Invest in a Hygrometer
It’s important to monitor your HVAC system’s effectiveness throughout the summer. One fantastic way to do this is to invest in a hygrometer, a device that measures the humidity level in your home. By monitoring the hygrometer, you can ensure that your air conditioner removes the correct amount of humidity. If you notice humidity levels climbing to an uncomfortable level, call Allegiance Heating & Air, LLC immediately. If your system isn’t removing humidity, it could be a sign of low refrigerant levels, a dirty evaporator coil, a clogged condensate drain, or a few other problems. By having a hygrometer in your home, you’ll be able to objectively measure the humidity to notice slight changes before you notice any discomfort.
Check for Hot Spots
In an ideal world, your HVAC system would cool your entire home evenly. However, many variables in different homes can cause certain rooms to be warmer than others. To help make the most of your HVAC system, it’s a promising idea to check for warmer areas early in the season so that you can investigate what’s causing these hot spots. Sometimes, it may simply be that you need to move a piece of furniture away from a vent so that an adequate amount of conditioned air can flow into a room. In other cases, you may need to have your ducts cleaned to remove blockages that restrict airflow to certain rooms. No matter what is causing hot spots in your home, it’s important to address these issues so that your HVAC system doesn’t have to work harder than necessary to keep your entire home at a comfortable temperature.
Your Cooling Experts
When you call Allegiance Heating & Air, LLC, you can be sure that we stand ready to take care of your home comfort needs. We offer air conditioner repair, furnace installation, whole-home air purifier maintenance, commercial HVAC services, and more. We’ve been proud to serve this community with excellence for over 15 years. Our consistent commitment to integrity and professionalism is why we regularly receive five-star customer reviews. To learn more about preparing your HVAC system for the summer, contact us at Allegiance Heating & Air, LLC today.
