If you value a comfortable home during the winter months, you’ve got to take action on your HVAC unit before the cold hits.
HVAC maintenance is an essential part of making sure that your entire system is running smoothly. When it comes to winter, you need your heating to keep your home liveable, so it’s important to have a technician come in and deal with any issues in the fall.
You may be wondering why it’s so important to have your HVAC system inspected and maintained every year. In this post, we’re going to answer this question and give you a few winter prep and HVAC maintenance tips to help you through the cold months.
Keep reading and you’ll know everything you need to know about HVAC maintenance and survival during winter.
Prevent Winter Damages
Winter can be tough on every part of your home, even in Georgia. We may not get all of the cold ice and snow that the northern states do, but we still need our furnaces to function when the temperature dips.
It’s actually our AC units that are the most vulnerable during the harsh winter weather. The freezing and thawing, in addition to the debris that falls on the outdoor part of the AC unit, can cause a lot of damage.
Get it inspected and any repairs done before the winter and it’ll come out on the other side relatively unscathed.
Reduce the Breakdown Risk
By getting your HVAC unit tuned up before the winter, you really reduce the risk of a breakdown in the middle of the cold. When you have a quality HVAC company on your side, emergency repairs are available, but winter tends to be busier with emergency calls.
If you give your unit the care it needs, you won’t have to worry too much about it breaking down and freezing in your own home. Neglect it, on the other hand, and you’ll be at risk of being extremely cold and uncomfortable in your home should it falter.
Keep Energy Bills Down
When your HVAC unit goes without routine cleaning and maintenance, it’s not going to run as efficiently as possible. Of course, you’ll notice this in the performance of the system, but where it really hurts is in your wallet.
A poorly functioning HVAC system comes with extremely high energy bills. In most cases, this is how homeowners figure out that there’s actually a problem with their furnace or AC unit.
Routine maintenance, including duct cleaning and inspection of all parts, can save you huge amounts of money.
Extend Your System’s Overall Lifespan
The average HVAC unit should last between 12-15 years, but that becomes much shorter when you forget to take care of your unit. Protecting your system’s overall lifespan doesn’t have to be difficult.
Having it professionally maintained 1-2 times per year is a small price to pay compared to HVAC repair and replacement. Often, when one part goes down in your unit, a domino effect occurs because the parts all depend on one another.
Stay Comfortable In the Home
It’s important to be comfortable in your home during the winter. The last thing you want is to be huddled under the covers or wearing a jacket indoors because your furnace isn’t doing its job.
Clean air ducts are important for airflow in the home. If you’re finding that your furnace isn’t distributing the warm air in every room, then you may have too much dust and debris blocking the vents. Get these cleaned when you have your HVAC maintained to avoid cold spots in the home.
Another thing to think about is if you go away on a trip during the winter and your HVAC unit breaks down, you may come back to an ice box. This can be extremely dangerous, especially if your pipes end up freezing and cracking, which can lead to major damage to your home.
Indoor Air Quality
Both your AC and furnace contribute to how good or bad your indoor air quality is. If you don’t have your HVAC unit and ducts cleaned on a regular basis, you could be letting allergens and contaminants run free in your home.
It’s so important to breathe clean air during the winter. Our bodies are more susceptible to illness when the weather drops, so breathing in poor air is like inviting a flu bug into your system.
HVAC Maintenance Tips
Thorough HVAC maintenance is something that only a professional can give you. That said, there are things you can do on your own to keep your HVAC unit in good shape before and through the winter.
One of the most important things to do is also one of the easiest things to do. Clean your air filter on a regular basis and make sure to swap it out every 90 days or so.
The air filter is what catches all of the contaminants in the HVAC system and prevents them from entering your air. Over time, they become clogged, which affects the performance of your HVAC unit in addition to the air quality.
You can also remove clutter from around the furnace to allow it to breathe and prevent anything from catching fire. You should also retire your AC unit for the season by placing a protective board on top of it to stop falling ice.
Take the time to program your thermostat for the winter as well. A programmable smart thermostat is relatively affordable and lets you boost your HVAC system’s efficiency without sacrificing your comfort.
Get Your HVAC Looked At By the Pros
When you get professional HVAC maintenance before winter from Connell’s Heating and Cooling in Augusta, we’ll give your unit a thorough inspection. Check out our website to view our HVAC maintenance checklist.
You can’t afford to put off winter HVAC maintenance. Contact us to schedule your pre-winter maintenance service today.