Winter time in the Dallas area can be brutal as we have seen in the past couple of years. Making sure your air conditioning and heating system is set up for the winter is crucial. If you’re like me and do everything at your home yourself I have a few things you can do to make sure your air conditioning and heating system will make it through the winter. The best is to hire a licensed and insured air conditioning and heating company in the Dallas area to perform your winterization every year in the fall. These tips will help the do-it-yourselfer get the same type of maintenance performed all the way up until you have to check the freon. This will have to be done by a licensed technician.
Making sure your air filter is changed for the winter is crucial. Some air conditioning and heating systems have very limited return air capacity and in turn are very sensitive to dirty filters in the winter time. When your filter gets too dirty in the winter your heater overheats and it will automatically shut off due to safety switches in place. Check to make sure your filter is changed regularly, most filters are required to be changed every 30 days thicker filters go up to 6 months. If you have an electronic filter you are going to want to make sure this is cleaned twice a year. Electronic filters have a pre-screen and require the elements to be wiped down yearly. The prescreen may need to be cleaned twice a year, this is why a 1-year filter will have to be checked twice a year.
Sealing up air leaks on your indoor unit can be extremely beneficial for your utility bill, not to mention an increase of comfort inside. Making sure your unit is not sucking in air from the attic or blowing out air into the Attic can reduce your utility bill considerably. If you are struggling with maintaining temperature inside make sure all duct work is sealed and the equipment also. No air should be leaking and everything should be insulated well. A small 1 in by 1 inch hole can leak out a considerable amount of air over the course of the day.
Installing a programmable thermostat can also be helpful to ensure that your home saves as much money as possible. When you are not home it is always beneficial to adjust the temperature three to seven degrees in order to save utilities. Alternatively in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep the temperature can adjust two or three degrees to accommodate higher efficiency. New programmable thermostats almost always come with a motion sensor that can also sense when there is more activity in the home. If these are set up correctly they can learn when you are active in the house and when you are not there. This can benefit your utility cost even further. Check new digital learning thermostats to find out more.
If you are getting your furnace changed out this winter, it may be a good idea to make sure you are getting the correct size. When we are discussing a newer type of furnace that will be paired with an air conditioning unit it will have two ratings. One rating will be for the air conditioning capacity of the fan motor and the other will be the actual heating capacity of the heater measured in British thermal units or BTUs. A technician working for a good air conditioning and heating company will always run a manual J test on your house to determine the proper size heater needed for the winter time. You can estimate this with other tools just remember it cost a lot of money to install a new furnace.
Other common winter time problems include dirty flame sensors broken igniters and clogged drain lines. When your flame sensor is broken or dirty it will not return the proper millivolts to the control board. If the proper millivolts are not returned to the control board while the gas valve is energized then the control board does not know if the flame is lit. If your igniter is broken for your furnace it will run an entire cycle and get to light the flame, the gas valve will open but the flame will not light. If your control board is broken many possible things can be broken on it. If you are missing just one feature of the safeties or parts that are required to run Heat the circuit board is effectively 100% broken. Circuit boards are no longer repaired in the field as they were a long time ago. If your gas valve is broken that means it is getting electricity at the correct time it has gas pressure but the valve is not opening it is bad.
One of more important things you can do as a homeowner is schedule a tune-up or maintenance visit in the fall with a licensed and insured air conditioning and heating company in Dallas. This will help make sure your air conditioning and heating system is in good working order and that any potential problems are caught before they become actual problems. If you have an older system you may want to consider upgrading to a new or more energy efficient model while the initial cost may be higher you will most definitely save money on your utility cost in the future and help reduce your carbon footprint. It is important to be proactive in dealing with any issues that may rise with your system. If you notice that your heater or air conditioning system is not working properly don’t wait to get it fixed. The longer you wait the more likely the possibility that your air conditioning and heating system will break. By following these tips and knowing when you need to call an air conditioning and heating company, you will survive another year in your home with a functional air conditioning and heating system.
