Try These Monthly HVAC Maintenance Tips to Prevent Expensive Repairs
The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system of your home or HVAC is probably the most expensive single appliance or piece of equipment your home contains, and that’s for a good reason.
This is the environmental control system that makes it possible for every person in the residence to live, work, eat and sleep in comfort, regardless of how hot or cold, it is outside.
And that means it’s got a lot of parts and, like any piece of equipment, needs some periodic maintenance to work as intended. Fortunately, that maintenance is not that hard, and it’s easy for you to implement.
Change the Filter Regularly
The filter of your furnace and/or A/C is there to keep larger particles of contaminants out of the air so that whatever comes through your vents is safer, healthier and free of potential health risks.
That’s why it’s important in every quarter of the year to replace the filter with a new one.
However, if you want to be more proactive, there are a few things you can do.
Some parts of the year will be busier than others in terms of how hard your HVAC has to work.
So try inspecting your filters every month, and if you see them already getting quite dirty, replace them early.
Inspect Vents & Condensers Outside
Your HVAC system needs to both take in the air as well as purge air your house doesn’t need, and that’s where vents and the condenser of your A/C come in.
These parts all require clear, unobstructed flow to work properly, but of course, being outdoors, that can be a bit more unpredictable when it comes to maintenance.
If your condenser has some of its airflows blocked, that is going to impact the performance of your air conditioner, which eventually affects how much you end up paying in utilities.
Keep your vents clean and your costs lower with a little bit of routine inspection and clearance.
Get Some Annual Maintenance
Little problems can crop up everywhere in an HVAC system, from components in the furnace to coolant in the A/C to an issue somewhere within the ventilation itself.
But if you make the effort to get some HVAC experts in for an annual tune-up—just like with a car—they can find small problems and address them now, before they become larger, more expensive ones.
By taking the time to bring the experts in for an inspection and maintenance, they can:
- quickly cover all the important aspects of your HVAC system
- clean out the ventilation for more efficient operation
- fix some things you might not have been aware of, like adding more coolant to your A/C
