Save energy by maintaining your air conditioner
Posted by Guest Blogger on April 26, 2012
Air conditioners lose some of their efficiency from normal wear and tear over the operating life of the unit. Coils and filters become dirty, belts slip and refrigerant may also begin to leak over time. This causes your home to lose comfort, and your monthly energy costs to soar – by as much as 20 percent!
However, you don’t need to panic. There is a simple solution to this problem: Get a complete tune-up on your AC unit each year. Contractors get busy once summer comes, so it's best to have your cooling system inspected in the spring.
A typical maintenance check-up should include a thermostat setting check, tightening electrical connections, an inspection of the condensate drain and the controls of the system.
If you’re a “do-it-yourself” type of person, there are some things you can do on your own to increase the efficiency of your cooling system. To maintain the efficiency of your air conditioning unit, its coils should be cleaned annually. Dirty coils reduce the system's ability to cool your home and will cause the system to run longer, increasing energy costs and shortening the life-span of the equipment.
You should also check your central air conditioner's refrigerant level and adjust it, if necessary. Too much or too little refrigerant will make your system less efficient, which will increase your energy costs and reduce the life of your equipment.
To provide proper system airflow, clean and adjust the blower components. Airflow problems can reduce your system's efficiency by up to 15 percent.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a do-it-yourselfer, an easy way to keep your system running efficiently is to inspect, clean, or change air filters once a month in your central air conditioner, furnace, and/or heat pump. If you don’t know how to do this, have a contractor show you how. Filters are easy and inexpensive to change, and a dirty filter can increase your energy costs and potentially damage your equipment, leading to early failure.