How to reduce your air conditioning bills
Are you experiencing high air conditioner bills that are burning a deep hole in your household budget? Do you know that with a well-maintained air conditioning unit, you will be able to save 15% to 40% of the energy which will directly affect your bills?
To reduce your air conditioner bills, the best way is to have a well-maintained air conditioner unit. Although tasks like cleaning can be easily done by you, for more complicated technical tasks, it is best to leave the hard work to an air conditioner professional to have you fulfil it.
An air conditioning unit is more complex than what you think it might be. Any adjustments or repairs should always be done by professionals. In a unit, there are refrigerant gases, compressors, fans, fins, coils, electrical starters, thermostats, and so many more. It is just to overwhelming for you to do the task by yourself.
When you find that the bills are shooting really high for the past few months, it is time to ask for a servicing so as to make your unit more efficient and save energy. You can engage a professional service technician I would recomment JCJ Mechanical Inc., and he should be able to clean the evaporator and condenser coils, check refrigerant pressures, and adjust and lubricate moving parts. Sometime, there will not be enough refrigerant gas.
In this case, the technician will also help you to top up the unit. A professional technician will be able to detect symptoms that can lead to energy wastage or inefficiencies, and rectify them. One major culprit for tremendous energy wastage is that your unit does not have a damper or have a malfunctioning one. A damper is place in the duct of an air conditioner unit so as to prevent cool air from entering the furnace cabinet in summer, and warm air from escaping to the air conditioner unit in winter.
If the technician finds that you have a damaged damper, he will help you to repair or replace it. You might ask how often do you need to call a professional technician to check on your air conditioner unit. Actually, it really depends on how your unit cooling system operates. Different model of air conditioners unit will have different cooling operations.
However, as a rule of thumb, the followings are a general interval guideline that you can take for reference:
1. Hot regions. If your unit operates for 8 or more months per year, you need to engage a professional once a year.
2. Warm regions. If your unit operates for 5 to 8 months per year, you need to engage a professional every 2 to 3 years.
3. Cold regions. If operating for less than 5 months every year, engage a professional every 3 to 5 years. With a well-maintained and energy saving air conditioning unit, you will get to see a slide in your air conditioner bill.
Call JCJ Mechanical Inc. at 416 967-0717 for more information or visit www.jcjmechanicalinc.com
A/C Tips
Before each cooling season, it is recommended that central air conditioners get a professional tune-up. This is the biggest step to preventing major malfunctions in an AC unit.
Probably the most important step that can be done by a homeowner is to clean or replace the air filter every month. Electrostatic filters are the best. Do not run the unit with the filter removed. Check the owner’s manual for filter cleaning procedure. Let a washed filter dry completely before reinstalling it.
Every month, especially during the summer months, remove any leaves or debris from outdoor condenser units.
Help keep the outdoor condenser fan running efficiently by cleaning the fan blades and the coils before each cooling season. (Always turn off the power before attempting anything other than superficial cleaning). Remove the fan grill and the fan blades. Gently brush off debris from the blades. Then uncover the condenser coils and gently brush the dirty side. Then hose water from inside the unit, using plastic bags to protect the motor and other components. Also check the base pan (under the unit) and remove any debris that has accumulated there as well.
If the condenser fan makes a clicking or grating noise it may indicate that the blades may be striking an obstruction. If a blade becomes bent, do not try to straighten the blade. A straightened blade may become unbalanced and can loosen the fan motor or hit the condenser coil. Replace a bent blade with a new blade. After replacing a blade, make sure the fan blades rotate freely and don’t wobble. If fan often becomes loose, apply a drop of thread-locking compound.
Keep vegetation at least 2 feet away from outdoor units on each side and above. Aim grass clippings away from the unit when mowing the lawn. During the fall, keep the fan grill free of leaves.
Lubricate the condenser fan motor once a year if it has oil ports. (They’re usually plugged with rubber or metal caps). Use non-detergent lightweight SAE 20 oil and add no more than 10 drops per port.
If possible, shade the outdoor compressor unit. Air in shaded space is typically 5 to 6 degrees cooler than the surrounding air. Proper shading can be up to 10 percent more efficient over a cooling season.
During the winter months, protect the condenser unit with a form-fitting cover. To avoid damaging the compressor, don’t operate the unit when it’s below 60 degrees F outside.
A dirty indoor evaporator coil will hinder the unit’s ability to cool the air moving through the unit. To clean the evaporator coil, remove the front panel of the air handler/ furnace to expose the coil. Ensure that the coil is dry. Use the soft brush attachment on the vacuum cleaner to gently remove any dust or debris from the coil. Check and make sure that coil fins are straight. If not, straighten them with a fin comb available from refrigeration supply dealers.
Warm indoor air contacting the evaporator coils will condense causing moisture to collect and drip. In most units, a plastic pipe carries the water outdoors or to a floor drain. Algae and bacteria growth can clog the pipe. When this happens, backed-up water can puddle, causing rust or other damage. To clean the evaporator drain, remove the plastic tape holding the trap to the pipe elbow. (It may be necessary to saw through the pipe at the elbow). Flush the trap with water from a hose, and then disinfect using 1 tbsp of chlorine bleach. Reattach the trap to the pipe with new tape.
Raise the temperature settings. Each degree of temperature can represent up to 9 percent savings in cooling costs.
For more information visit us at www.jcjmechanicalinc.com or call 647 833-8116
Air Conditioning Basics
The home heating, ventilation and cooling system (HVAC) consumes about 40 percent to 50 percent of all the electrical power in a house, so the efficiency of the HVAC system is extremely important to the overall power draw of the home.
What Is HVAC?
HVAC is an acronym for indoor air. So remember that when a builder or subcontractor uses the term “HVAC,” he or she is talking about the entire air system of the home.
Air Conditioning Units
AC units can be compared on a multitude of dimensions. Certainly efficiency is one of the main drivers, and given what’s happened lately with the cost of gas and electricity, efficiency has become extremely important.
In general, there are three factors to be aware of when selecting an air conditioning system:
1. Efficiency — Buy the most efficient air conditioning unit available, especially in the desert Southwest. Efficiency refers to how much energy the system will require to do its job. HVAC specialists use what are called “S.E.E.R” numbers to rate and compare different cooling systems. SEER stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating. This is a standardized test, and the higher the SEER number, the more efficient the air conditioning unit is. Now the minimum efficiency, the builder’s model, is rated a 10 and they go all the way up to 18. So make sure the air conditioning unit has a rating of 10 or higher.
2. Regional Climate — When designing a home, it’s important to know the external factors that will need to be solved. In the desert southwest, it’s one of high summer heat. In the northwest, it may be one of damp, cold winter weather. In the northeast, it’s most likely frost in the winter and high humidity in the summer.
3. Noise — Internal sound is just as important as the sound coming externally from an air conditioning unit that’s installed outside the kitchen or living room window. Be sure to purchase a unit that’s as quiet as possible.
With all three of these areas, the builder and air conditioning distributor can help point you in the right direction.
Addition to the Home Building Team
The next person to join the home building team is an HVAC contractor, and the builder will hire him. Not only will he oversee the installation process, he or she will also make sure that one of the important elements of a good AC system — its ability to create sufficient air movement throughout the house — is included.
Note: Having proper return air and supply air is 100-percent dependent upon the installing contractor. So having a good, qualified HVAC contractor is the first and primary concern when installing an HVAC system.
“The first thing about being on the job site and being in charge is to make sure that everything goes in safely,” Gary Ostler, president of Four Season Heating & A.C., Inc., said. “After that is to make sure that everything gets done properly and, upon completion, that it works properly.”
For more information us at www.jcjmechanicalinc.com or call 647 833-8116
