Hey there Columbia, it’s your friendly neighborhood Air Conditioning Service Professional. Look, summer will be here before you know it. That means that we need to get those AC units checked, serviced and possibly replaced before you start baking in your own living room.
The #1 thing to do? Check or replace your filter! This should happen at least four times a year and as often as every single month during June, July and August. Remember, with AC filters you get what you pay for, cheap is expensive in the long run folks. There are a number of common filter options available:
- Disposable fiberglass filters are the least expensive—and also the least effective—designed to block only large dust particles. However, smaller particles such as pollen and mold can pass right through.
- Washable “electrostatic” filters have a static charge that attracts dust, dirt and other matter. These filters are slightly more effective than disposable but still do not block the smaller particles.
- Pleated “allergy” filters use a much denser mesh material to trap and eliminate large allergens like pollen and mold—most are 35 to 50% efficient.
- Electronic air cleaners create an ionized electrical field that “magnetizes” pollutant particles, eliminating virtually all pollen and mold spores, up to 94% of smaller particles and up to 80% of airborne viruses.
- HEPA furnace filters are the “gold standard.” These filters are used in commercial applications like hospitals and electronics manufacturing where clean air is vital.
Like your car, your AC unit is a machine that works best when it’s taken care of. It needs lube. It needs fuel. They get exposed to dust and hail and heat and all sorts of stuff. And like your car, they are only going to work great for so long. Most systems have a lifetime of 10 to 20 years. As your equipment gets older, its efficiency can decrease dramatically. You may notice that it gets noisier and needs repairs more often. When a unit begins to show its age, you have two choices…You can clean up parts of the system with air conditioning repairs or scrap it all together. Because heating and cooling technologies improve over time, a new system designed with newer, more energy-efficient equipment makes sense, especially if your system is 7 or more years old. Hey, it isn’t rocket science, but these things are MUCH more efficient than they were even a few years ago!
If you aren’t sure just what to check, call us! We’d love to come take a look. We’re more than just plumbing experts, we’re your local HVAC pro’s too.