When it’s time for your annual spring cleaning, it’s important to do a thorough job. Dusting indoors and cleaning out your garage simply aren’t enough. Schedule seasonal HVAC maintenance and ensure your home gets the overall cleaning it deserves to run as efficiently as possible.
HVAC Maintenance: Things to Look for
General Professional Maintenance
- Check system controls for safe and proper operation. Observe the starting cycle to ensure the system starts, operates and also cycles off.
- Review thermostat settings and make sure your heating and cooling system reduces energy use while your home is empty and maintains comfortable temperatures when you’re at home.
- Lubrication of motors as directed by manufacture to reduce friction, maximize longevity and decrease utility usage of the system it serves.
- Tighten electrical connections and measure current and voltage on all motors. Loose and corroded connections and electrical inadequacy can be a safety hazard that will shorten the life of any systems crucial components.
- Check the condensate drain in your furnace, central A/C unit or heat pump. Plugged drains can increase indoor humidity, cause undo harm to HVAC components and also cause water damage.
Heating:
- Check your furnace’s oil and/or gas connections, burner combustion, heat exchanger and gas pressure. Malfunctioning oil/gas connections can be a health and safety hazard. Dirty burners and cracked heat exchangers causes poor operation while reducing efficiency. They’re also a safety hazard.
Cooling:
- Clean the air conditioner coils. Dirty condenser and evaporator coils reduce your A/C or heat pump’s ability to properly cool your house, causing it to run for longer periods than necessary.
- Check your central A/C’s refrigerant levels and adjust them accordingly. Keeping refrigerant at the manufacturer’s suggest levels allows your system to run with greater energy efficiency. If the level is low, your technician should check for leaks in the system.
- Adjust and clean parts of the blower for better airflow and increased indoor comfort. Problems with airflow can reduce efficiency in your system by approximately 15 percent.
Do-It-Yourself Tasks:
- Clean or change all air filters in your furnace, heat pump and central A/C unit every one to three months, depending on the type of filter, how much you’re running your equipment, and other factors unique to our household. An HVAC contractor can teach you how to change the filter properly. Dirty filters reduce the life of your HVAC equipment and degrade energy efficiency, as well as indoor air quality (IAQ).
Contact Overland Park Heating and Cooling, Inc. to schedule seasonal HVAC maintenance in your Kansas City area home.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Overland Park, Kansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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