You can find the practical tips anywhere online:
- Close your blinds or drapes during the day.
- Don’t use the oven during the day.
- Run the dishwasher at night.
- Plant trees on the most sun-exposed exterior walls of your home.
- Run the ceiling fans counterclockwise.
- Stay perfectly still all the time.
But what most businesses don’t tell you, because they don’t want to scare you away by asking for your money, is the best way to get peak performance from your air conditioner is through maintenance.
Yes, regular inspections and maintenance are the most powerful tools at your disposal. There is no better way to keep your air conditioner performance at its peak, and the expense of operating an out-of-whack air conditioner down, than annual maintenance.
If you live in Ajax, Oshawa or the surrounding areas and want to save on air conditioning this summer, book a maintenance visit and let us do what we do.
You can expect to put a lot of pressure on your air conditioner this summer. And when you put extra pressure on the AC, you want to be sure it’s up to the challenge.
How does maintenance help me save on air conditioning?
A maintenance visit for your air conditioner includes cleaning (and occasional repair) of parts where friction occurs.
Anywhere friction exists is an opportunity for improvement.
Think about pushing a car down the road. You’re at the back bumper, putting your shoulder into it. Someone is in the driver seat, slightly touching the brakes. That friction make you work harder, expend more energy. The same goes for your air conditioner. If we can reduce friction (friction created by wear and tear on perishable parts), we can help your air conditioner expend less energy.
Energy is money!
These 4 main areas allow us to save your air conditioner energy during a maintenance visit.
- The refrigerant charge. An air conditioner with too little refrigerant will have to run longer, wasting energy, stressing out the system and costing you money. A system with an overflow of refrigerant won’t cool very effectively and will suffer damage as it runs.
- The electrical connections. Over time, screws and connectors loosen. This can create arcing and sparks with the potential to damage electrical components like control boards, compressors or blower motors. Damage means components don’t perform their functions smoothly, creating friction and added expenses every time you turn the system on.
- The coils. The outdoor coil can get dirty, reducing efficiency. The indoor coil can also become jammed with all the dust accumulated inside, increasing energy waste and potentially freezing the coil completely. A maintenance visit includes thorough cleaning of both coils.
- The filters. Dirty filters cause resistance in the air conditioner, forcing it to work harder. It also reduces air quality throughout the house. A new filter is a negligible expense to install and saves as much as hundreds of dollars in its lifetime.
These are the big culprits, but we also check a bunch of other areas for saving opportunities.
Know your pro.
Regular maintenance takes care of your system and helps you build a relationship with your maintenance professional.
This is important as your system approaches the end of its life.
If you work with the same team for 10-15 years, they have a deep knowledge of your system and plenty of history to help inform your choice as you approach the time to replace it altogether. A relationship with your contractor means you can trust when they say you should replace the entire system rather than repair a few aging parts.
Give us a call and see if we have any remaining spaces for summer AC maintenance today!
