Hello, my name is Darby Aldrich. I would like to talk to you about the importance of maintaining your air conditioning system. When I moved to a hot climate, I did not realize how vital having a running air conditioner was for living comfortably. When the unit just stopped working one day, the temperature inside the house rivaled the piping hot weather outdoors. We had to go to the community center to keep the kids from feeling sick. While we were gone, we had a local HVAC contractor fix the unit. She let us know that some simple maintenance tasks would prevent that situation in the future. I will use this site to closely explore those tasks in great detail. I hope you can use the information to keep your air conditioner running like new. Thanks.
The factors that most determine which type of air conditioning equipment you will use to cool your home are usually cost, convenience, and the amount of space that you want to cool. There are units that can cool a single room, an entire floor, or the whole house, with many that can be self-installed while larger equipment requires an HVAC contractor for installation.
If overall cost is a primary consideration, you must also take energy efficiency into account, because air conditioning can raise your electric bills significantly when the heat and humidity of summer become intense and unrelenting.
Here are a few choices that you may consider, with some of the assets and liabilities of each choice.
Window units
The greatest assets of window units are their lower purchase price and portability. If only one room or section of your home requires air conditioning, there is no need to invest in a whole house unit and pay to cool rooms that don't need to be cooled.
Liabilities include possible power consumption issues using existing electrical lines in your home. If you plug a window unit into an outlet that cannot handle the power needs of an air conditioner, you may continually trip the circuit breaker for that line when the compressor kicks on, which requires a quick boost of additional power.
A smaller unit that cools only one room may be able to use an existing outlet if the line is not already used by many smaller electrical components such as phone chargers and lamps, or more power hungry appliances such as hair dryers.
Look at the amp rating for the compressor of a unit that you intend to purchase and look at the circuit breaker that controls the flow of power to the outlet that you will use to power the unit. If the compressor's amp rating is above 15 amps, and the breaker is stamped with the number "15", the the breaker will be tripped each time the compressor is activated,
This is especially true if the line is used to power other electrical components. You may need to have an additional 15 or preferably 20 amp circuit added to your home to provide additional power for your air conditioning unit.
Other possible liabilities of window units include the necessity of lifting them and installing them inside a window frame. While smaller window units are relatively light, they have some rough sharp edges and require at least a minimal amount of upper body strength.
You must also be certain to pitch them slightly downward away from your home, so condensation and rainwater don't run into your home.
Portable units
These units have the flexibility and lower purchase price of window units, but add the convenience of sitting on the floor instead of in a window frame, and can be moved as needed on attached wheels. You must still open a window to allow either one or two four inch hoses to transfer heat from inside the home. These hoses are connected to a small adjustable frame that is placed inside the window frame.
Energy Star
Appliances such as air conditioners that are marked with the Energy Star label are more energy efficient than other models. Although they have a slightly higher initial cost, they reap big savings in energy costs and promote social responsibility.
Whole house units
If you need to cool a large area or an entire home, you can beat the convenience of a whole house unit. Although there is a substantially higher initial cost for purchase and installation, these units allow comfortable access to all areas of the home.
They also eliminate the dread that many homeowners feel at the beginning of summer when they must drag their old window units from their basement or other storage area and carry them up flights of stairs, dripping old condensate water on their shoes, and navigate around furniture and other obstacles to install them. That alone may be worth the price of installing a whole house unit.
To learn more about your options, contact services like I C E Heating & Cooling.
Share26 April 2017
