As we transition out of the cold winter season in Michigan, many homeowners are getting excited about the upcoming warm weather. It’s important to remember that you need to properly prepare your air conditioning system for the upcoming hot season. Below, we’re going to go over some of the most common maintenance tasks to ensure your system is ready to go.
Prep Your Condenser Unit
One of the best places to start is your outdoor condenser unit. If you have a cover that you put over your unit to protect it during the winter season, it’s best to remove that cover and put the unit back into storage. Take note of the space around your condenser unit. If there is debris like leaves or any shrubbery within 3 feet of the unit, it’s best to remove them and trim them back.
Assess the metal fins on the outside of the unit. If any of them are bent, then you need to bend them back into their horizontal positions. This will ensure that your system can operate efficiently throughout the upcoming summer season.
Check Your Air Vents
Now is the perfect time to go ahead and check all of the air vents throughout your home to ensure that they’re fully open. Avoid closing vents for any of your rooms because it can affect the overall operating efficiency of your air conditioning system. It’s also important to check the space around all your supply and return vents to ensure that there are no obstructions blocking the flow of air. Ideally, you’ll want about two feet of open space surrounding each vent for optimal performance.
Schedule Maintenance Service
One thing you never want to forget to do is get professional maintenance service in the spring. This service is usually a requirement in order to keep the warranty coverage on your system active. It also helps to do an in-depth check of your system and a thorough cleaning to ensure that it’s operating as efficiently as possible. This can give you peace of mind that your system is running as it should and that you’re not wasting any of your money on energy bills due to inefficient system operation.
Program Your Thermostat
Having a programmable thermostat has become the norm to help optimize energy efficiency. Now is a great time to go ahead and set your thermostat for the upcoming summer season. Switch it from heating over to cooling. You’ll want to set your desired temperature and make sure that you’re increasing the temperature at times you know you’re not going to be home. Additionally, make sure that you have the fan set to “auto” mode instead of “on” so that your system isn’t running all of the time.
Set Ceiling Fans
If you have ceiling fans throughout your home to help reduce your energy bills throughout the year, it’s important to remember to switch the direction that they spin when the seasons change. During the summertime, you want your fans to be spinning in a forward or counterclockwise direction. This will create a breeze that blows down on you as you’re sitting in the room. Once you set your fans, double-check them to make sure that they’re blowing air in the right direction.
Change HVAC Air Filter
It’s good practice to put in a new air filter for your HVAC system at the beginning of the spring. This will allow your air conditioning system to start with a fresh filter for the summer season. If you or another member in your home tends to deal with a lot of allergy flare-ups or symptoms from your respiratory condition, you may want to consider getting a filter with a high MERV rating. These are a little bit more expensive but offer more filtering capabilities to remove particles like allergens from the air.
Put Up Curtains or Blinds
There’s no doubt that the sun can create a very hot space inside your home. When you have big windows that allow direct sunlight, it can heat up your room’s temperature by 10 degrees or more. To help avoid increasing the temperature inside your home to better optimize your comfort, you’ll want to ensure that you have blinds or curtains in place. These should be easy to use so that you can close them during the daytime hours to block out the natural sunlight and keep more of your cool air inside.
Block Air Leaks
The exterior walls of your home can develop leaks over time as your home naturally settles into the ground. Spring is a great time to go ahead and run your hand around the various surfaces on your exterior walls, such as your door frames, window frames, light switches, and outlets. You want to take note of any temperature differences that can indicate that there’s a leak allowing outside air to penetrate inside of your home. You’ll also want to seal up those leaks with something like weather stripping, caulking, or even foam insert pads.
Inspect Attic Vents
It’s absolutely necessary for your attic to be at the same temperature as the air outside. In order to do this, your attic will have built-in vents that will allow natural air to come in. It’s important that you check to ensure all those vents are completely open. It isn’t uncommon for some homeowners to think that closing off the vents will help to retain more of their cold air inside.
That’s simply not the case. When you close off the vents in your attic, your attic will get exceedingly hot due to the transfer of heat from your roofing material indoors. It’s best to leave your attic vents open and to rely solely on your insulation to create a barrier between the temperature inside your home and your attic.
Test Run Your AC System
No great springtime HVAC maintenance is done without test-running your air conditioning system. Set your thermostat to at least five degrees colder than the temperature it’s reading so that your air conditioning system will kick on. As your air conditioning system is running, you’ll want to walk around to all the vents in your home to ensure that they’re working properly. Additionally, pay attention to the operation of your unit to make sure that it isn’t producing any weird noises that can indicate an issue with your system.
Duct Cleaning
Most HVAC professionals recommend getting your ductwork cleaned every three to four years. If you haven’t had your ductwork cleaned recently, you may want to consider it. This service is great for removing debris that can restrict the airflow inside your ductwork and decrease the quality of air inside your home.
Superior HVAC Maintenance Service
Matheson Heating, Air & Plumbing offers superior HVAC maintenance service for the Commerce, MI community. Our skillful technicians can also help with all your heating and AC repair, installation, and replacement needs. Simply call our office staff today to book your next service consultation with one of our HVAC technicians.