My husband and I have spent a lot of time consulting with an architect. After living in our cramped, starter home for the past 11 years, we were finally ready to make some needed changes to it. We have added an extra 600 square feet of space onto our house. Before the construction began, we finalized the plans for our new heating and air conditioning unit with our HVAC contractor. Because our home was going to be substantially bigger than it is now, we purchased a larger HVAC system. We also installed a new, digital thermostat inside my home. On this blog, I hope you will discover the best types of HVAC units to buy for mid-size homes. Enjoy!
Condenser coils can get quite dirty, and dirty coils can drastically decrease your AC efficiency. In fact, dirty coils can decrease your overall system efficiency by up to 37%. To protect your budget, you should inspect your coils regularly and clean them whenever you see the need.
What to Look for?
Dust and yard debris can accumulate inside coils. A condenser unit is designed to pull air up from near ground level and through the individual fins that make up the coils before venting the hot air out the top of the unit. Thus, coils can easily suck dust, grass clippings, dandelion fluff, and other lightweight objects into its fins. Look for coils that have a coating of gunk so thick that it blocks or decreases airflow.
The Procedure
If you are handy with tools, you can clean your coils with the following process:
1. Remove the screws that hold the protective grid that surrounds your coils. Make sure you keep track of these screws. Placing them in a locking plastic bag, for example, will help to make sure they don't get lost.
2. Remove the protective grid and set it aside. Be careful to make sure that you don't bend it out of shape.
3. Spray your coils with a coil cleaner and wait several minutes to give the solvents in the cleaner a chance to work.
4. Scrub your coils with a stiff-bristle brush to remove the stuck-on grime.
5. When your coils are mostly clean, you can rinse them with water from a hose. Using a hose as the primary cleaning mechanism can turn dust into mud and push grime deeper into the fins; thus, you should only use the hose to rinse off any residue from the coil cleaner once you have removed all or most of the stuck-on grime.
6. Replace the protective grid and the screws that hold it in place.
You should be able to find everything you need to clean your own coils at a home improvement store. However, if you are having a hard time locating the right tools, or you are worried that you might mess something up, you can contact an HVAC services professional to do the cleaning for you. While you might be tempted to see coil cleaning as an extra cost, remember that sometimes you have to spend money to save money. Moreover, it's better to spend a little bit of money to have your coils cleaned than to spend too much to cool your house from month to month.
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