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!
If you have a newer air conditioner, it probably has a more environmentally friendly type of refrigerant than older equipment. While the newer refrigerant may not be as dangerous to people and the environment when it leaks, you still want to repair leaks as soon as possible. Even if your AC seems to be working fine at the time, problems will develop eventually if the refrigerant is leaking. Here are four consequences you can avoid by having timely repairs when you have a refrigerant leak.
1. Your AC Runs But The Air Isn't As Cold
Refrigerant chills the air in your home by pulling out heat. If the refrigerant pressure is low, the heat exchange process won't work as well. Your AC continues to kick on and off, but your home will feel warm and stuffy. In an attempt to get your house cool, your AC may run longer each time it kicks on until it runs all day.
2. Your Power Bill Climbs
If it seems like your AC runs all the time, but your house seems warmer than usual, consider the possibility of a refrigerant leak and have your equipment checked by an air conditioning repair technician. If the refrigerant is leaking, the pressure will get lower and lower as time goes on and your home will get warmer and warmer. As this happens, your power bill will get higher each month and let you know something is wrong with your AC.
3. Your House Gets Muggy
The refrigerant system pulls humidity out of your house in addition to pulling out heat. When the refrigerant gets low, humidity starts to build. When humidity gets high in your house, your home seems warm and muggy. It's important to keep humidity low because you feel cooler in a less humid environment.
The solution for low refrigerant is for an air conditioning repair technician to test the pressure and then hunt for the leak. Sometimes, refrigerant leaks are tricky to find. However, finding and stopping the leak is essential or your home won't be able to cool down and stay cool and dry.
4. The Refrigerant Coils Freeze Over
Another problem to watch for when the refrigerant starts leaking out is frozen coils. The coils inside the air handler might form ice or the outdoor coils in the condenser could ice over. Once ice forms, problems with your air conditioner escalate. The ability to remove heat and humidity from your home is decreased even more, and eventually, your AC could shut down and not work at all.
If you ever see ice on your air conditioner, there's a problem with the refrigerant line somewhere, even if the line is just dirty. Call an air conditioning repair technician to find out what's wrong and repair the line if it has a leak. The repair technician can't do much when the line is frozen, so turn your AC off so the ice can melt while you're waiting on the repair technician to arrive.
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