Regular Coil Cleaning Keeps Your Air Conditioner Working Efficiently
Keeping an air conditioning unit well maintained increases the life and efficiency of the unit. The most important components to clean within an air conditioner are the evaporator coil and the condenser coil. For maximum AC unit functioning, homeowners should have a heating and cooling professional perform preventative maintenance on the AC coils in their home at least once a year.
The coils in a air conditioner are usually made of copper tubes or aluminum fins. There are two of these coils in each unit. The evaporator coil provides indoor cooling by absorbing the heat from the ambient air inside the home. The condenser coil then sends this heat off into the outside space.
As this process continues, air is constantly moving across both of these coils, exposing the coils to various contaminants, such as dirt, pollen, dust and even moisture. These contaminants begin to cling to the coil, making it dirty, and lowering the efficiency of the heat exchanges.
When the coils become contaminated in this way, the coils have to work harder, taking in more energy, to accomplish the required heat transfer. An air conditioning unit with dirty coils can use from 30 to 37 percent more energy than a unit with clean coils. Furthermore, the unit’s ability to cool at all can be reduced by up to 30 percent, resulting in an inability to properly cool your home.
In addition to being less efficient, dirty coils force the entire unit to work harder. This means that without proper preventative maintenance, including regular coil cleaning, dirty coils can deteriorate. This can lead to expensive coil replacement, and even the breakdown of other components in the air conditioning unit. Read the rest of this entry »
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Why It Is Important To Regularly Clean Air Conditioning Parts
Did you know that one of the most common causes of fires in homes during winter are the portable heating equipment that are used by many people? These fires happen because people tend to use alternative sources of heat generation like wood stoves or space heaters. Since these devices are not as well-made as the HVAC equipment that is manufactured by the large companies that have a lot of expertise; these devices are more likely to develop snags.
The reason why people tend to use these devices is that they wish to save on their electricity bills. While it seems that the smaller devices like wood stove consume less expensive fuel; they may actually be quite expensive and risky to use. People end up paying for more electricity than they really need because they use inefficient and outdated HVAC equipment.
If you use fairly up-to-date air conditioning devices; you will not have to foot astronomical electricity bills. Does that mean that you have to have the ‘latest’ model of heat pumps in your home or office? Naturally not! It just means that you should have your air conditioning parts inspected by professionals at regular intervals. Often cleaning an air duct in time, changing some rusted evaporator coils, and making sure that the refrigerant is not getting spoilt is enough to increase the life of a heat pump by many years.
If you have a heat pump, you will surely have a thermostat that will allow you to control the temperature in the area that you are heating or cooling. If you do not have a heat pump thermostat, you may end up spending far more on heating than you really need to. A thermostat will enable you to get just the amount of warmth that you want. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Importance of Air Duct Cleaning in Humid Climates
“Air duct cleaning” is a common term for what is actually entire heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system cleaning. Duct cleaning by itself isn’t enough, particularly in a humid climate. The entire system, including the blower and coils must be cleaned periodically to maintain efficient operation. A clean air conditioning system helps you to breath easier, saves energy, and actually increases the ability of the system to cool your home or business.
Your heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system (HVAC system) not only cools the air, but also removes moisture, which is another important consideration in a humid climate. Warm moist air is drawn across the cold condenser coils removing heat from the air and causing the moisture to condense and run down into the condensate pan, reducing humidity levels.
Because of this condensing process, the coils almost always have some moisture on them, just as your bathroom mirror does after a hot shower. The moisture makes it more likely for dust particles in the air to stick to the coils, which are several rows deep. The heavier this build up becomes, the more it slows down the airflow across the coils, and reduces the amount of cooling and dehumidification that takes place. The dirt on the coils also insulates them and reduces the amount of heat and moisture they can remove from the air. Your HVAC system has to work that much harder to cool and dehumidify the air in your home. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: clean air, clean air duct