If you have recently had a new air conditioning and heating system installed in your home, then you have made a wise decision to cut energy costs and draw minimal amps while running your HVAC system, as all new units have to have a SEER rating of at least 13. If you have an extended warranty on your equipment (which you should) it is mandatory that you have at least annual hvac maintenance on your hvac system in order for the extended warranty to be valid.
Simple DIY hvac maintenance is not going to cover this when it comes to the warranty, but it doesn’t mean that performing your own hvac maintenance is going to hurt anything. By simply cleaning out your condensate lines every other month for those that are in residential homes isn’t going to hurt anything.
If you are have an hvac service agreement with an air conditioning company then they should be doing this anyway twice a year. But that doesn’t guarantee that you are never going to have a condensate line back up. Especially if your system is in a humid and hot climate such as Florida, where algae loves to grow inside of condensate lines regardless if you are using the anti algae tabs in your drain pan.
For the home owner, the most important part of Hvac Maintenance is to ensure that your furnace filter is clean. There are mainly two types of furnace filters, those that are washable and those that are replaceable. Either way the filters should be checked every month to see if they are getting dirty or not.
The more traffic you get inside of your residence the dirtier your furnace filter is going to get. That’s just the way it is there is something about human skin that loves to get in the air and clog up your furnace filters. The more people that are living in your residence the more often your filters need to be changed.
The location of your condensing unit also could impact the amount of hvac maintenance that is going to have to be maintained on your unit. I’m not talking about putting gauges on your unit every month to see if you have a freon leak. I’m just saying that if your outside unit is installed next to a wall, or anywhere near the saltwater, it needs to be hosed down with clean water every 1-6 months.
Hvac maintenance is not going to solve any major problems such as coil leaks or compressor failures. But it is going to lesson the chances of these types of problems in the first place. It’s the same thing as car maintenance. You get your oil changed every 3000 miles, and the mechanics perform a quick analysis of the mechanical system in your car or truck. Hvac maintenance is the same thing.
There is a lot of factors to it, so for the newbie it may not be the best bet to conduct your own hvac maintenance. But by reading up on what actually needs to be done, and asking the hvac technicians multiple questions when you are getting your air conditioning unit serviced, is only going to help you better understand you hvac system, which is a part of your home that you need and also invest thousands of dollars into.
