There’s not much to running an air conditioner, right? Don’t you just “set it and forget it?”
For the most basic operation, yes—there’s really not much to running an air conditioner. However, when we talk about owning an air conditioner, it’s a completely different story. Homeowners need to exercise more responsibility in order to keep their air conditioners lasting as long as they possibly can.
The owner of an air conditioning system is typically not an HVAC contractor themselves, of course, so it’s no wonder that they sometimes make mistakes in operating their AC. In this post, we’ll go over three mistakes. Avoiding these will help you keep your cooling bills low and help avoid the need for air conditioning repair in Homestead, FL.
1. Setting the AC Too Low
“What’s the point of having an air conditioner if you’re not allowed to make it as cold as you want?”
While you totally can use your air conditioner in this way, we speak for most homeowners when we say that what they’re really looking for is how to run their AC without it costing a fortune.
One way to avoid this is simply by keeping the temperature as close to the outdoor temperature as possible. The closer the indoor temperature is to 78°F, the less work your AC will have to do. This can help save money and prevent excessive wear-and-tear on the system.
The second way to avoid this is by recognizing that a lower temperature does not equal faster cooling. Some AC owners fall under the misconception of believing that they can cool their home faster by setting the temperature far lower than they intend. All this does, in reality, is waste more money and create more wear on the system.
2. Not Cleaning the System
The problem with the phrase “duct cleaning” is that duct cleaning is actually more than just cleaning the ducts. It also includes the act of cleaning the coils and other sensitive components that make the cooling process possible. After all, these components won’t operate nearly as efficiently if they’re covered in a layer of dust.
Having the system cleaned is not the most obvious thing, so it’s not surprising to find that many homeowners neglect this service entirely. However, a thorough cleaning can provide a nice boost in efficiency.
3. Getting Maintenance At the Start of the Season (Instead of After)
There’s really no such thing as getting AC maintenance too late—it’s always better to get it later than never. But if we did have to choose a less-than-ideal time, it would have to be just after you begin using it regularly.
This is because a big factor in maintenance is that it’s a preventive service. You want maintenance before you start using the system regularly so you can catch any big AC repair problems before they happen. It’s not uncommon for minor issues to exist in the system, unnoticed, all the while hampering efficiency and contributing to a larger problem.
To learn more about caring for your air conditioner, contact Air On Demand today.