Summer heat can be relentless, and usually, the only way to cool your apartment down is to use an air conditioner. Relying on this appliance can be risky though, especially if you have never, or at least not too often, take care of it to ensure it’s gonna work properly when needed.
It’s one of those things we take for granted and just expect to work properly always. You can be smarter than that and do some things to help your AC unit improve efficiency, and also tone down the electricity bill.
In order to find out what can I do to improve my air conditioning I decided to consult actionac.net, and here’s what I learned.
AC Maintenance And How To Prepare For Summer Heat:
Debris:
To ensure that your AC unit will work properly you need to clean it from debris sometime before summer after months of cold and rainy days and various outer elements it has been exposed to. Things like leaves, dirt, bird feathers should be kept outside the unit, also the area around it needs to be cleared to create enough space for it to work properly.
Air Filters:
Air filters can easily get clogged and should be checked regularly. Dirty air filters can cause the unit to blow less air, overheat, spend more energy, give an overall poor result and eventually break down. If cleaning the filters didn’t do the trick, you should consider replacing them.
Shade:
Even though AC is designed to withstand any form of weather, direct exposure to the Sun is not necessary if it can be avoided. It would be perfect if you could find natural shade, but if that is not an option, you can install your own cover and thus protect your AC from direct heat.
Air Leaks:
If you want to avoid wasting energy you need to check if there are any leaks that might cause the unit to work harder to achieve the same results. It might also seem that the unit is not cooling enough and you would just lower the temperature which would eventually lead to bigger bills and risk to health due to much bigger temperature difference.
Block Sunlight:
In order to most efficiently cool down the temperature, it would also be wise to use drapes and blinds to block the sunlight when the heat is at its peak. You don’t have to do this the entire day, but at critical moments when you just want to maintain a certain temperature for a while.
Use Additional Fans:
You don’t have to do this in order to reach certain temperatures, the AC can do that itself, this is useful for energy management, meaning that the AC can work for a while, reach a certain level and then you can turn it off and allow ceiling fans to maintain that temperature and thus spend less electricity. Ideally, you want to avoid using AC for long periods, both health and money-wise.
Turn It Off While You Are Away:
When you go out for a few hours it’s a common practice to live the AC on to come back later to a nicely cooled home. You don’t have to do this. The home can be cooled down in a matter of minutes, so leaving the AC to work for 5 or 6 hours is a waste of electricity.
These are just some of the things you can check to be sure that your AC is working properly. At any moment you don’t feel comfortable doing any of these, the best thing you can do is contact a professional who can thoroughly check the unit. The best way to do this is to schedule regular maintenance at least once.
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