Summer heat is here, and if your air conditioner can’t keep up, you’re becoming increasingly aware of it. Rather than spending your time at home sweaty and irritated, try out these tips from our MSCO experts to give your air conditioner a much-needed boost.
1. Change Your Air Conditioner’s Filter
Most people know they’re supposed to change their filter, but it’s also hard to remember exactly when you need to change your filter. If your air conditioner is underperforming, this could be the culprit. As your filter gets more and more clogged, it will reduce that precious cool air that’s supposed to be circulating through your system.
To fix this issue, it can be as simple as inserting a new filter. If you’re looking for a more permanent solution, there are filters like the Trane Media filter or CleanEffects system that help keep the air flowing even after months of use with multi-layer filtering.
2. Too Much Hot Air Is Getting In
Your air conditioner can help keep your house cold, but you also need to be making sure you’re not letting too much hot air in. Sometimes, this can be accidental like keeping a window or a door open, but sometimes, it can be more subtle.
Here are a few examples of actions to take to help your A/C keep your space cool:
- Lock your windows when you shut them.
- In rooms that receive a lot of sun, consider purchasing “blackout” blinds that keep extra heat out.
3. Check Your Thermostat Settings
If you use a programmable thermostat, make sure your settings are keeping your space cool when you’re home. This is especially important for families who have kids home for the summer, people are now in the house when it used to be empty. Make sure your thermostat schedules are updated to keep people cool!
4. Make Sure Your Vent’s Aren’t Blocked or Closed
This seems simple, but it turns out to be the culprit for many unhappy, overheated people. Whether it’s furniture or dirty laundry, make sure that your vents are blowing freely. A blocked vent won’t only affect the room it’s in, but with central A/C, it will impact the air pressure to every other vent on that system. If enough are blocked or closed it will cause an extra strain on your equipment motors which will shorten their life.
5. Clear Out Any Overgrown Plants
Many people try to plant bushes or other plants around their outdoor A/C units (but who would really want to cover up that fine piece of machinery?). As spring showers have come, the foliage may have grown too close to your air conditioning unit.
For sufficient air intake, we recommend at least eighteen inches clearance around your A/C unit. If it’s less than that, it could restrict the units ability to draw air across the outdoor coil and cool off that hot freon as it passes through the condenser coil. Get that hedge trimmer out!
6. Get A Tune Up
If none of these issues fix the problem, there is still one more step before more serious repairs or replacements are done.
If you’ve never heard of an A/C tune-up, you’ll want to pay attention to the list below! Our tune-ups help with several important factors. An air conditioning tune-up will:
- Keep your system running at peak performance
- Maximize energy efficiency to reduce operating costs
- Prevent more costly repairs
- Avoid potential breakdowns
If you need something like this, we would like to help make this more affordable for you with our precision tune-up special! Take a minute to check it out, and if you have any more questions, please feel free to contact us!
