These are the most common misunderstandings about your AC and how it works. When you leave problems with your air conditioner unattended, they can cause larger problems down the line, which can completely compromise your system’s performance and even threaten the health of your home. Ensuring you are knowledgeable about basic information about your air conditioner will help you make better decisions about your home and central air system.
Heat Load
The first problem is that homeowners allow their homes’ heat load to get too high while they are out of the house. Imagine that your family is out of the home for four or more hours of the day. You leave your house with the windows and doors closed, which does not allow for any ventilation in the home. The indoor home temperature will be allowed to rise significantly. It can be 30 degrees outside, and by the time you come back home, it could have risen to 40 degrees in the home.
This can be a very uncomfortable temperature for anyone, so obviously, you decide to turn on your air conditioner to combat the heat. People usually set it low to around 21 degrees. Unfortunately, even if your air conditioner never turns off, it could take many hours to lower the indoor room temperature of the entire home to what you set it to.
When your home becomes too hot inside, the AC will need to work harder, which stresses the system and adds more strain. It also uses extra energy than needed than if you allowed your house to get ventilation, and it will cost more to cool down your home and maintain this as time goes on.
The solution to this problem is to leave your air conditioner on at a reasonable temperature when you know you will be out of the house. So when you get back to your home, you will be able to adjust your thermostat to a more comfortable temperature without causing extra stress to your air conditioner.
Ignore Filter Maintenance
Getting your air conditioner maintained on a routine basis will help you eliminate any issues related to poor or dirty filtration. This can include stuffed, dirty filters or build-up over the evaporator coils. When you keep your central air system clean, you get the benefits of the system itself, but you can also have the air you are breathing more sanitized inside your home.
When you do not replace or clean out your air filters, it will add extra strain to your AC because it is more restricted. This will cause the evaporator coils to ice up while overheating the system. This means that less air will get through the filter, resulting in less air getting conditioned.