Did you know that your air conditioner’s filters, coils, and fin all require regular maintenance just so your air conditioner can maintain its current efficiency? If you neglect maintenance, over time your air conditioner will use more energy and not cool your home as effectively. Not to mention needing more frequent repairs and having a shorter lifespan! Remember to change your filters every month and schedule a maintenance visit with an HVAC professional once a year. Take advantage of our $49 AC Tune Up special!
Posts Tagged ‘Air Conditioning’
The Importance of Air Conditioner Maintenance
Friday, May 4th, 2012Louisville Air Conditioning Tips: How to Troubleshoot a Failed AC Unit
Monday, April 23rd, 2012In most cases, a failed air conditioning system may be fixed by going through some troubleshooting guidelines. If you would like one of our Louisville air conditioning technicians to help you get your AC unit running again, give AccuTemp Heating & Air Conditioning a call for assistance.
Here are some basic steps to try before you call for a repair.
Check All Controls and Fuses
When your air conditioner won’t cool your home properly, always check the thermostat to see if it is on “cool” and set for the right temperature. If the air conditioner has shut down, check to make sure that the unit is receiving power by looking in the fuse box for a flipped circuit breaker and also making sure it is plugged in properly. You can also inspect the visible wires and electrical components for obvious damages. Call a Louisville air conditioning technician if you see physical damage to the electrical components. Never try to fix this yourself.
Sometimes when there’s extreme weather conditions in the summer, such as very high temperatures or high humidity levels, the high-pressure switch can get flipped and turn off the air conditioner. You can easily find the switch on most AC models in the compressor’s access panel. Check your owner’s manual or call us if you don’t know how to locate or reset the limit switch.
Check for Refrigerant Problems or Condensate Pan Leaks
Refrigerant problems caused by the wrong amount of refrigerant can keep the AC unit from cooling your home properly, and you can usually tell if there’s a refrigerant issue by looking for frost or icing on the evaporator coil. When there’s excess coil icing, it means that there isn’t enough cool air being delivered to your home. If you see thick frost on the evaporator coil, a technician will most likely need to charge the refrigerant, or there could be a leak in the refrigerant line.
Condensate leaks into the condensate pan can also cause an air conditioner to fail. The condensate drip pan is installed underneath the air handler to catch condensate leaks if the drain system gets clogged. Most of the time, a small clog in the drain line can be easily cleared. Also check the condensate switch for issues; sometimes these can be defective and cause your air conditioner to shut down.
At AccuTemp Heating & Air Conditioning, we want to be the only Louisville air conditioning contractor you’ll ever need. Call us any time to get troubleshooting advice for your AC system.
Louisville Air Conditioning Guide: Outdoor Components
Monday, April 16th, 2012As long as all the parts are working well, our Louisville air conditioning is a modern convenience we can easily take for granted and overlook. Cool air makes our lives simply better, but is a complicated process based on an old theory and modern technology.
No matter the size, in every unit, the basic purpose is one of extracting heat from the conditioned space and moving it to the outside, leaving cool air in its place. This process easily divides into indoor and outdoor components.
Air Conditioning 101
Heat naturally moves towards colder temperatures, so an air conditioner uses compounds know as refrigerants, which are able to rapidly change from gas to liquid form a low temperatures, to alternately absorb and release heat. You air conditioner is a closed loop system in which the refrigerant can change form again and again.
Having expanded to a vacuous state with plenty of room between molecules to absorb heat, the refrigerant is compressed tightly, condenses back into liquid form and releases the heat to the outdoors.
In the Box Outside
Placed on a small slab on the ground alongside many homes or on the roof of large buildings, air conditioning units contain the compressor and condensing coils that enable the main (and noisiest) function of the process.
The refrigerant is contained within a closed loop, entering the compressor as an expanded gas full of heat. Under pressure, that heat is released when the molecules are squeezed so tightly together the refrigerant returns to its liquid state.
Then passing into the condensing coils, a series of delicate fins, the released heat is allowed to dissipate through the fins into the air where a small fan blows it away. Water is also a by-product of the condensation and drains into a pan and eventually into the ground.
The condensing coil ends at the exchange valve where it is held to create just the right pressure for the evaporating coil indoors to operate at its maximum efficiency.
Annual Maintenance
When maintained on a regular basis, the system requires little attention and over sight beyond scheduled appointments with a Louisville air conditioning company. If you need to schedule your annual maintenance visit, give AccuTemp Heating & Air Conditioning a call!
Earth Day at the Louisville Zoo!
Friday, April 13th, 2012Celebrate Earth Day with the Louisville Zoo! The entire month of April the Louisville Zoo will be hosting “Party for the Planet: A Month-long Celebration of the Earth”. Each week is jam packed with events for Zoo visitors of all ages. Admission will be only $2 on Earth Day, and the “Zoo will have in-depth displays on hand which highlight its conservation efforts throughout the year and the good work the Zoo’s Eco-Partners are doing across the globe”.
You can celebrate Earth Day at home by changing the air filters in your HVAC system. Changing your air filters once a month, or as needed, can increase the efficiency of your HVAC system. Scheduling a yearly maintenance visit will also help maintain performance levels. Overall, you should keep your heating and cooling system clean and free of debris in or near the vents and air ducts to ensure that there’s adequate airflow. Lack of airflow causes the system to work harder and less efficiently.
Your Louisville HVAC System and Ventilation
Monday, April 9th, 2012The vent system in your home is vital to the operation of your Louisville HVAC system. Without successful ventilation, your home won’t have the necessary clean air to keep you and your family healthy. So, what does proper ventilation require and how can you ensure your home has it? Here are some quick tips.
Install the Right Parts from the Start
Proper ventilation should result in even air pressure in your home to avoid problems with gas pilot lights. It should also be as energy efficient as possible and provide clean air through proper filtration and cleaning of the air that comes in. The best way to ensure your home has the ventilation needed to stay comfortable and safe for your entire family is to check the total size of the home and then measure the concentrations of certain pollutants like dander, pollen and smoke. A Louisville air conditioning contractor can provide these services for you.
Duct Cleaning
Your ducts are how the air in your home circulates, so professional duct cleaning is important to help keep your air clean and healthy. Dust, pet pander, and other contaminants can build up in your ducts, which can make your HVAC system work harder and your home unhealthy for people with allergies. At your next HVAC tune-up, ask your contractor to take a look at your ducts to see if they need to be cleaned.
Supplements to Ventilation
Proper ventilation should not only provide fresh air, but it should also ensure your home has clean air. The air outside may be fresher, but it can be filled with pollutants like pollen, dander and smoke. These should be removed before they get inside and into the lungs of your loved ones. To do this, you need a full sized air cleaning system that removes particles from the air down to 0.3 microns.
HEPA filters can do this, as will electronic air cleaners which can ionize and remove smoke and gas particles. Make sure you discuss filtration and cleaning with AccuTemp Heating & Air Conditioning when they visit your home.
Photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sblackley/3489380984/
Essential Components of a Prospect Home Comfort System
Monday, December 19th, 2011Indoor comfort is defined by several factors: temperature, humidity, and air quality. If any one of the three is out of the “normal” range it can affect the quality of life for in your Prospect home.
The ultimate goal of any heating & cooling contractor is to ensure that customers are comfortable – meaning that all three factors are addressed when servicing, replacing, or installing new equipment in a home. This equipment includes furnaces and air conditioners but also extends to humidifiers, dehumidifiers, ultraviolet (UV) lighting, etc.
Obviously, the essential component for most U.S. households is a furnace. Air conditioners may not be essential for all parts of the U.S., namely the northern states, but are still considered an integral part of any home comfort system. Add-ons like de-humidifiers and electronic filters are important for controlling the air quality.
Let’s look at the furnace first. There are several choices but most can be found in two different classifications: single-stage or variable speed two-stage. Your choice depends on the indoor square footage, your own comfort needs, and possibly the cost of energy units (gas or electric for example). Forced air is a common method of moving heated air to all parts of the home via an air handling unit and through a duct system. But gaining in popularity is radiant heat (electric), which does not utilize a duct system.
Air conditioners also come in a variety of sizes, including window/room air conditioners or central air conditioning, which is likely a “split” system including an outdoor unit and indoor coil. The size of the air conditioner is determined by square footage, which is part of a load calculation performed by qualified heating & cooling contractors while planning the equipment replacement or new installation. An oversized air conditioner may produce high humidity levels and an undersized unit may not provide enough cooling to all areas of the home. High humidity levels contribute to higher indoor temperatures in the summer, and can also lead to respiratory problems.
If someone in your home has allergies or is sensitive to certain pollutants in the air, it may be important to include extra filtration in your heating & cooling system, such as electronic filtration and UV lighting mounted in the buildings duct system, to kill germs and contaminants.
And speaking of an essential component, duct systems are keys to maximizing efficiency and comfort. Properly sized, insulated, and sealed, the duct system is a key to comfortable, healthy indoor air – and energy efficiency. It is also important to keep your duct system clean, too.
As always, it is best to consult with a qualified and licensed heating and cooling contractor who can offer the best solutions for your home comfort system.
How to Use AC Most Efficiently: A Guide From Buechel
Monday, September 5th, 2011Air conditioning is definitely something most of us wouldn’t want to try and get through the summer in Buechel without. And for a lot of people, because of medical or other conditions, it’s an absolute necessity. But just because you need to run your AC unit all summer doesn’t mean you need to suffer under the weight of cooling costs.
So if you’re interested in ways to save on cooling without sacrificing comfort, here are a few tips to get you started:
- Get a Programmable Thermostat – When you come home at the end of a long day, you want your home to be cool and comfortable. But if you only have a basic thermostat, you would have to leave your air conditioning on all day in order to make this possible. Paying to cool an empty house is probably the last thing you want to do. But what is the alternative? Programmable thermostats offer the best solution in a case like this. These devices can be easily integrated into just about any home air conditioning system and they allow you to set different temperatures for different times of the day. That means you can have your air conditioning off while you’re not home and set it to come on a half hour or so before you get there. This way, you get the pleasure of walking into a cool, comfortable house without paying extra to keep it that way when you’re not home.
- Incorporate Passive Cooling – The design of your home and how you use it can also have an effect on how hard your air conditioning system needs to work. Taking steps as simple as closing the blinds to block out the afternoon sun, putting up awnings and making sure that the exterior of your home is painted a lighter color to reflect sunlight rather than a darker one that will absorb it are all excellent ways to reduce the load on your air conditioner.
- Supplement Your System – You can also take a good chunk out of your cooling bills by using things like ceiling fans in conjunction with your air conditioner. A ceiling fan can effectively lower the indoor temperature several degrees on its own, allowing you to set your thermostat a little higher.
Air conditioning is a major expense that most of us are paying, but there’s no reason to pay more than necessary with so many strategies available to save money.
What Is SEER? A Tip From Floyds Knobs
Friday, September 2nd, 2011If you’ve been looking at air conditioners in Floyds Knobs, you’ve probably noticed that they all seem to have a SEER rating. But what does this actually mean?
The SEER, which stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, is a measure of how energy efficient a particular air conditioning model is. So when you’re shopping around for the best deal on an air conditioner for your home, this is something you’ll absolutely want to pay attention to.
Interpreting SEER Ratings
The SEER rating system is relatively simple – the higher the SEER, the more energy efficient the product. But because a higher price tag typically comes with a higher SEER rating, it’s important to know just how much more efficient a higher rated unit will be. It helps you decide whether paying significantly more for a higher rated unit is worth it in long term savings. Will it actually save you enough each month to make up for the difference in price?
Evaluating Your Energy Usage
A big factor here is how much you will use your air conditioner. If you live in a place with very hot and humid summers where the air conditioning runs constantly, you’re probably best off with the highest SEER you can find. When you consume that much energy to keep your home cool, you want to get as much as possible out of it, and that’s what a high SEER model can do for you.
On the other hand, if you live in an area that doesn’t have the harshest summers, you may be better off with a slightly less efficient (and therefore cheaper) model. Keep in mind, too, that the actual percentage increase in energy efficiency goes up by smaller and smaller increments the higher in SEER ratings you get. For instance, while a 10 SEER unit may be almost 20% more efficient than an 8 SEER model, a 12 SEER is only about 10% more efficient than that 10 SEER.
Finding the Right Balance
The best way to decide what SEER rating is best for you is to determine the annual cooling costs with your current unit and then calculate your savings in dollars based on the percentage each model would improve your efficiency. If you don’t currently have an air conditioner, this can be a bit tricky, but a professional contractor or air conditioning salesman can help you estimate your total monthly cooling costs with the various units.
Check Out Our Blog for the Latest in HVAC Technology
Thursday, July 21st, 2011Be sure to bookmark the Accutemp Heating and Air Conditioning blog for updates on the latest advances in HVAC technology.
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