(Newswire.net — January 11, 2022) — What if we told you (imagine a dark and forbidding Samuel L. Jackson wearing black shades) that you could save money by having your HVAC repair or maintained monthly? Homeowners are concerned with air quality and the environment, sure, but let’s face it, the amount of the power bill is the bottom line. So how does simple maintenance save money?
How HVAC System Maintenance Saves Money
Money-saving maintenance steps repairmen tell homeowners are:
Change The Filters
When the filters are black with dirt, the unit works harder to get air through the filters and into the house. Working harder runs up your power bill.
Clean Debris From The Unit
The heating and the cooling unit contain the condenser and coil. These take the hot air from inside, pass it over the coil to cool it and recycle it to the inside. Your unit outside gets dirty from grass clippings, leaves, twigs, and other things being blown against it. The unit works harder to heat or cool the air, which runs up your power bill.
Check Drain Lines
The air changer inside your house contains a pan into which condensate from the unit goes. The pan needs to be emptied periodically, and the lines checked for clogs. Clogs mean the unit stops working due to a frozen coil or frozen condensate lines. Either way, your power bill will suffer.
Regular maintenance will prevent these things from damaging your unit. Replacing a damaged unit will cost more than regular maintenance would have cost. Regular maintenance means the unit will last longer and work more efficiently, thus, saving the homeowner money.
It’s Not The Matrix, But It Does Involve You And Energy
The thermostat is one of the most important things in your house. Setting it at the right temperature throughout the year makes you both physically and financially comfortable. That’s because the outside temperature is directly related to the inside temperature.
For instance, let’s say it’s 45 degrees outside on a Monday morning. You’re at work, and the kids are at school. The thermostat is set at 72 degrees. The thermostat should ideally have been set at perhaps 65 degrees while you were gone and raised to 72 degrees an hour before you returned home. You would have saved between five and fifteen percent on your power bill.
Experts from the environmental departments to heating and cooling professionals tell us that 68 degrees are ideal in winter thermostat settings and 78 degrees in summer. While that seems pretty high for summer, remember that the outside temperature affects the inside temperature. Seventy-eight is the sweet spot.
It’s important to install a smart thermostat in your home. Adjusting with an app from your smartphone on your way home from work will save you money. They also run on Wifi or voice activation for those cold mornings when you don’t want to get up to adjust the thermostat.
How HVAC Ducts Relate To Saving Money
Because most air vents and registers are either high on a wall or the ceiling, most homeowners don’t remember they’re there. They don’t get dusted or otherwise cleaned. Homeowners don’t remember that behind the vents and registers are ducts. The dirt and dust accumulate in the ducts, get blown back and forth into the house, and destroy your heating and cooling unit over time.
The ducts are all about airflow. Blocking it with dirt, dust, small animal nests, and other debris causes the unit to work harder to get warm or cool air into the house. The Department of Energy tells us that up to 40 percent of energy is wasted when heating and cooling units work harder to get the air through the dirt and debris into your house.
Cleaning the ductwork isn’t the only problem with your power bill. If a seam has come apart or holes have been punched in the ductwork, that means energy is escaping. You’re paying for maybe the basement (where most ducts are) instead of your rooms to be heated and cooled. Bottom line: power bill blitz. Get those ducts examined if you notice a spike in your power bill.
HVAC Repair And Maintenance Could Save Your Home
No one wants to talk about the number of home fires and the resulting deaths from faulty air conditioning units. When regular maintenance isn’t performed on heating and cooling units, the wires get frayed, dirt gets into the motors, and non-lubricated bearings rub, get hot, and catch fire. The statistics are sobering. We only have numbers from a 2017 National Fire Protection Association report covering 2011 to 2015, but they’re enough to make you think. In those four years, the heating and cooling units were the cause of 2,800 home fires.
The fires occurred when units were at max capacity: June, July, and August. The 2,800 heating and cooling unit fires caused 20 deaths and 140 injuries. Property damages came to $78 million. Electrical problems and overheating were determined to be the causes of the unit malfunctions. Dirt, leaves, and debris around the outside units added to the problem. It’s easy to see how a little maintenance at least once per year could have saved 2,800 homes and 20 lives.
It’s not hard to imagine how a maintenance professional would have known to check the wiring, gas lines if any, the motor components, and the outside of the unit to keep them danger-free and to operate at normal levels. It’s also apparent that the cost of maintenance vastly outweighs the cost of replacing a home, although no amount of money will replace a life.
The homeowner can perform maintenance for simple things like filters, emptying the condensate pan, and cleaning the ducts, although duct professionals have better machines for cleaning. Leaving the motors and electrical to the professionals is a better idea and will save the homeowner much money and trouble.