Posts Tagged ‘Heating Maintenance’

How to Clean a Heat Pump: A Guide from Garland

Saturday, November 19th, 2011

It is very important to keep your Garland home’s heat pump clean. It improves efficiency, helps performance and prevents malfunctions. Cleaning your heat pump should be part of your home maintenance routine in order to keep the house as comfortable and worry-free as possible.

That is all well and good, but how do you go about cleaning the components of your heat pump. It’s one thing to advise you to clean, clean, clean…but it doesn’t do much good if you do not know how. To correct that, here are some tips to help you clean the different parts of your heat pump.

Caution: before doing any maintenance on your heat pump, including cleaning, be sure to turn off the power to the unit. This is a necessary safety measure.

Filters

  • If you use disposal air filters in your heat pump, skip this part. Just make sure to change them regularly, in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
  • To clean air filters, follow the directions of the manufacturer that were included with the filter. This is also a good time to double check that the filters are installed properly.
  • Clean or replace your filters monthly during heavy use seasons, such as the warm summer months and cold months of late fall and winter.

Coils

  • Remove any debris from the outside of the coils and the surrounding area. Sticks and leaves may have accumulated near the outdoor coils, so just brush them away.
  • Using a soft brush attachment, vacuum the exterior of the coils. Take care not to bend or dent the coils.
  • Using a hose with a spray attachment, flush the coils with water from the inside out. This will remove any stubborn debris. Take care not to spray any electrical components, such as the fan or any nearby wires.
  • While you are inside the unit, vacuum the bottom inside to get rid of any more stray debris.

With that done, put everything back, replace the grille covers and power the heat pump back on. It should run smoothly with a fresh filter and no debris to gum up the works. Clean the coils every few months to keep the heat pump in tip top shape.

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Why Fall Maintenance is Important for Your Heating System: Some Advice from Grand Prairie

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

When it comes to heating equipment maintenance and repairs, it does not pay to procrastinate. The longer you put off the maintenance, the higher the probability that your heating system will break down or your Grand Prairie contractor will be unable to make an immediate emergency repair when you need it. That’s why fall is the best time of the year to have maintenance and repair procedures performed.

Consider this: when do most people call a heating and cooling contractor? The answer: when they need a repair. The call could come in the middle of the night when a furnace stops working or during a family party on a weekend – both times when it is hard to find someone to do the repair work. Has this happened to you?

You can avoid this aggravation and extra expense by scheduling fall maintenance for your heating system. Fall is often the “slow season” for heating and cooling professionals and many schedule their routine service and maintenance appointments during this time. Contractors expect to be busy during the peak winter months and prefer to spread out the workload as evenly as possible.

Most heating and cooling contractors offer service or maintenance agreements, which lock in at least one or two visits a year for furnace or air conditioner inspection. It is rare to find a contractor who will schedule a furnace inspection during the cold winter months. They know that time is usually saved for people with real emergencies. If you don’t have a service agreement with a contractor, you may want to consider signing up for one and avoid the risk of waiting in line for a furnace repair in the dead of winter.

During fall maintenance, your heating equipment will be switched on and inspected. That may sound routine but by running your heating system early, you may be spared the expense of repairing your system when it fails to operate or run smoothly during the cold months. If there is a problem, it is better to fix it ahead of time.

There is no guarantee that a furnace that is tuned up in the fall will last throughout the winter without needing service. But a little preventive maintenance ahead of time will save a lot of heartache – and dollars – when a real emergency comes up.

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How to Get Your Furnace Ready for Winter: A Guide from Carrollton

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

Being cold in the winter is normal – as long as you are outside. But you shouldn’t be cold inside your Carrollton home. If that happens, the first place to look to is your furnace, which may not be working correctly. Furnaces are like any other piece of mechanical equipment. They need to be maintained and serviced on a regular basis to ensure they are working at peak efficiency and warming your entire home at your desired comfort level.

The best time to get your furnace ready for winter is not during the cold winter months – it is before the winter season even begins. There are several way to get your furnace ready for winter and let’s explore some of them.

First of all, check and see when you last had your furnace serviced. If it has been over one year ago, you should schedule and maintenance inspection from your local qualified heating and cooling professional. And when you make that appointment, ask about service agreements and getting on a regular maintenance schedule. Most heating and cooling contractors offer service agreement plans which include furnace and air conditioning check-ups on an annual basis.

Okay, so you know who to call for maintenance but what can you do yourself? First of all, give your furnace a little “help” by checking the vents and returns throughout the house. Ensure that there are no obstructions or blockages such as rugs, clothing, furniture, etc. You need to have unobstructed paths for your heated and return air to flow. The more congested the path, the harder your furnace will have to work. And while you’re at it, make sure your vents are open or closed, depending on how much you use your rooms. For example, if you have an extra bedroom that doesn’t need to be heated, closed off the vent or close the damper in the ductwork. The heated air will be diverted to other parts of your home where it is needed.

You can also help the airflow by vacuuming the vent cover or removing it and vacuuming any of the ductwork that you can easily get to. For a more thorough job consider calling a qualified and professional duct cleaning contractor. Many heating and cooling contractors also offer duct cleaning service, too.

Another maintenance function that you can perform is cleaning or replacing the furnace filter. Depending on the size of your home and its air quality (occupants, pets, etc.), you may want to clean or replace your air filter every one to three months. A dirty filter can restrict airflow and can put contaminants like dirt and dust right back into your air system. If you don’t know how to replace your air filter, consult the furnace owner’s manual or go online to learn more. If your furnace uses an electrostatic air filter, it will need to be removed and cleaned, either by using a hose or with soapy water and a hose. Make sure you let it dry before re-installing it.

You may also want to inspect any electrical wires around your furnace to ensure none are broken or frayed. A visual inspection should be good enough.

Once you have done what you can, let your heating and cooling professional take over from there. They are licensed and trained to inspect your furnace and ensure that it is in peak operating condition. And do it today – while everyone else is waiting.

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The Hardest HVAC Maintenance: Some Pointers from Arlington

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

Do you hate to work on your own mechanical equipment in your Arlington home, like furnaces and plumbing fixtures? You aren’t alone. Many people are not cut out to be do-it-yourselfers (DIYers). They prefer to hand off their maintenance and repair chores to qualified professional. That’s not a bad thing. But there are lots of DIYers who prefer to work on their own home repairs – and those are the people who aren’t afraid to take on the most challenging jobs.

If you are looking for good ideas on how to maintain your home’s heating and cooling (HVAC) system beyond the normal filter changeouts, here are some good things to check – things that will help with the overall performance of your HVAC system.

  1. Check the ventilation system. The ventilation carries conditioned air from a main source throughout your home.  It takes a little time and effort to check your ventilation system for things like cracks or leaks around joints, but it is an important maintenance task. You may even find separations between joints or holes caused by nails. A leaky ventilation system could be sending conditioned air into attics, walls, or crawlspaces and making your furnace work extra hard just to keep your living areas warm and comfortable. Take time to visually inspect as much of your ventilation system as possible – usually metal or flex duct – and repair using joint glue, metal filler, or duct tape.
  2. Inspect the insulation. Your heating system works in conjunction with the insulation in your home to provide comfort and warmth while saving you on high utility bills. A home that is poorly insulated or not insulated at all will cause a furnace to work harder and not only send utility bills higher, but increase the possibility of mechanical failure. Replacing or adding insulation in walls and crawlspaces is a relatively easy, yet time-consuming task. You can roll down or tack up fiber insulation or blow in insulation into walls. You can also seal up cracks on your home’s walls, roof, or foundation with a number of different products. Once again, your goal is to make your heating system work less and save you money.
  3. Check the visible components of the furnace. A build-up of dust and dirt can make the moving components of your furnace work even harder, such as the motors, fan belts, contactors, etc. If you live in an area where there is lots of dust and humidity or if your home has several occupants and/or animals, it is particularly important to check your system on a regular basis. This can be done by removing the access panels and taking a vacuum cleaner hose into as many areas as possible. A good, thorough vacuuming should produce immediate results and make your furnace run much more efficiently.

Try these three steps and you may not have to repeat them for another year or so – possibly not ever again while you live in your home.

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Steps to Take Before Turning on Your Furnace: A Tip from Dallas

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

You are feeling a chill in the air in your Dallas home. The outside temperatures are going down each day and the nighttime temperatures are forcing you to break out the flannel pajamas, robes, and blankets. It’s getting cooler and you are holding off turning on your furnace for the first time of the season, maybe because you envision high utility bills or you are afraid of what you’ll hear, feel, or see coming from your furnace after several months of inactivity.

There’s not much you can do to control higher utility bills, they are like death and taxes. But there are some things you can do to take the “mechanical anxiety” out of turning on your furnace for the first time.

You can’t go back in time but you may want to consider “summerizing” your furnace after you shut it down in preparation for the cooling season – or during the cooling season. Have a qualified heating and cooling technician give your furnace an inspection and cleaning.

A preseason inspection and cleaning will prevent some problems that may affect some of your senses later on. For example, a smell coming from your furnace may indicate a burning or smoldering electrical component. A noise may indicate a noisy fan or a loose belt, causing poor or no airflow. Touching your ventilation system and feeling for any vibration can indicate poor airflow. Visually checking your instruments like thermostats for verifying proper temperatures or a digital readout on our carbon monoxide alarm for any traces of harmful gas are also important to furnace start-up.

If something goes wrong, don’t blame it on your thermostat or the cold weather; blame it on a lack of preventive maintenance. Your best bet is to have a qualified service technician do a clean and inspection – to minimize any surprises at start-up and to keep you and the occupants of your home comfortable and safe while your furnace begins another season of hard work.

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Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Happy Halloween! Candy and costumes make any day fun; we hope you have a fantastic time trick or treating! Remember to be safe this holiday, and don’t forget it is time to start thinking seriously about fall maintenance for inside and outside your house. A quick tune up of your heating system will save you some trouble during this upcoming holiday season!

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Make Your Heating and Cooling System More Effective (and Happy Halloween Weekend!)

Saturday, October 29th, 2011

Happy Halloween weekend from everyone at A#1 Air! We hope you have a fantastically spooky time! And since a high heating or air conditioning bill can spoil anyone’s fun, here are some ways to make your HVAC system more effective.

Learning how to make your heating and cooling system more effective does not require a physics degree or an extensive knowledge of the refrigeration cycle. In most cases, it just takes common sense – and a little creativity.

For example, did you know that how your home is insulated can have a direct impact on how well your heating and cooling equipment functions? It sure can. If your walls, crawl spaces, or attic is poorly insulated or not insulated at all, your furnace and air conditioner will have to work harder to keep up – and keep you warm or cool. In some cases, your heating and cooling equipment might never be able to give you the desired temperature on your thermostat setting because the equipment has to work too hard to make up for lost heat or cooling due to poor insulation.

So what should you do? Find out if your home is properly insulated by having a load calculation or energy audit on your home. Any licensed and qualified heating and cooling contractor will be able to perform one of these tasks for you and show you where you might be losing too much of your indoor air to poor insulation. This same test can also detect any leakage through cracks in the foundation or joints or connections in ductwork. Windows and skylights are also an area of heat loss or gain. Installing awnings or trees can cut down on this loss or gain, too.

Another way to assist your heating and cooling system is to help with its air flow. In some homes, floor vents are built near outside walls or windows. Warm or cool air is vented up along the walls and windows and never flows evenly in the room. The solution is to buy inexpensive plastic air diverters which attach to the vents using magnets on the diverter. You can adjust the diverter to changing the air flow to the places that need it most – occupied spaces.

Of course, the most effective heating and cooling system is one that is serviced and properly maintained on a regular basis. If you have any questions on system maintenance, call your local qualified professional heating and cooling contractor and schedule a tune-up today.

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The Top 8 Mistakes Dallas Homeowners Make with Home Maintenance

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Maintaining your Dallas home is important, but it must be done properly. Learn these common maintenance mistakes so you can avoid making them yourself.

  1. Forgoing Annual HVAC Maintenance -Your home’s heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) system should be thoroughly inspected each year. This is vital to keeping your house comfortable and energy efficient.
  2. Improper smoke and/or carbon monoxide detector maintenance – Smoke and carbon monoxide (CO) detectors should not just be installed properly, but also maintained properly. Test them monthly and replace drained batteries immediately.
  3. Ignoring manufacturer instructions – Not only instruction manuals are they important for proper installation of important equipment in your home, they also contain maintenance recommendations and schedules. Adhering to these instructions protects your investment in your home.
  4. Not replacing filters regularly – Speaking of regular maintenance, remember that the air filters in your furnace and air conditioning units need to be replaced regularly according to manufacturer recommendations.
  5. Not keeping gutters clean – Speaking of water damage, clogged gutters can overflow and cause problems in a hurry. Clean gutters and downspouts at the start of spring and regularly as needed.
  6. Insufficient cleaning (filters, ducts, vents, carpets, furnace room) – Keeping filters, vents and ductwork clean extends the life of your ventilation equipment and keeps energy costs down, as does vacuuming regularly and keeping your furnace room free of debris.
  7. Hasty measuring during repairs and renovations – The old saying goes, “measure twice, cut once.” Failing to measure twice when you are making repairs or renovations in your home can lead to a lot of frustration and waste of costly materials.
  8. Skimping on labor costs – Paying cheap rates for poor labor will cost more down the road when you have to hire another contractor to fix the first one’s mistakes.

There are other ways to err in home maintenance, but this list covers some of the more common doozies. In general, as long as you are careful, diligent and not afraid to call in professional help when needed, you will be just fine.

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Your HVAC System and Electricity in Murphy

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

While not every HVAC system in your Murphy home requires electricity, many of them do. Your air conditioner, electric furnace or water heater and ventilation system all need access to the central power line. So what does that mean for your system and what problems should be you beware of?

How Your HVAC System Uses Electricity

How your HVAC system works depends largely on which components need electricity to operate. Here is a quick summary of how each system uses electricity:

  • Air Conditioning – Most air conditioners are electric and therefore use electricity based on the number of BTUs produced. For example, if your air conditioner produces 25,000 BTUs and has a SEER of 16, it can produce 16 BTUs for every watt of electricity consumed per hour. As a result, it consumes 1,562.5 watts per hour when the system is running at maximum capacity. If it runs at full capacity for 8 hours per day, 30 days a month in the summer, that’s 375 kilowatt hours – which is the measurement unit you’ll see on your electric bill.
  • Heating – Your heating system may not use electricity, as many homes today use gas or oil combustion furnaces or boilers to produce heat. However, if you have an electric furnace, that electric power is used to heat the filament in the furnace. Electricity also powers the blower fan motor which pushes air across the filament and into the air handler. An electric furnace sized to heat a 1500 square foot home can use up to 8,000 watts per hour to produce enough heat for your home. That converts to roughly 5,000 kilowatt hours per month. The current price of electricity will determine how much this actually costs, you but it can really add up quickly.
  • Ventilation – Your ventilation system is almost always going to use electricity to circulate and filter air. While mechanical filters rely on the movement of air to remove certain particles, ventilation systems have a variety of components including fans and possibly even condenser coils to conserve energy as air is exchanged between the inside and outside.

Electricity plays an important role in your HVAC system no matter how your system works. To ensure yours continues to operate as intended, have your power system checked on a regular basis when the rest of your HVAC system is serviced.

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