How does an HVAC system keep your house warm or cool?
To keep it simple, your house’s HVAC system uses a chemical reaction in the compressor to pull heat out of the refrigerant within the copper lines just like your refrigerator, or car’s AC. When the heat is pulled out of the line it is then ice cold and sent back to the coil inside the evaporator coil where the air blown across the coil then becomes cooler. For a more detailed explanation, please watch the short video to the right.
But how do we keep our HVAC costs low during the heat of the summer?
Here in Texas, our biggest cost for electricity is cooling our house for majority of the year. There are multiple ways to keep our cooling costs low, but below are some of the main issues we see on a regular basis.
Tip 1 – Keeping Your System Maintained
Your HVAC system at your house is like your car, would you constantly drive your vehicle without ever rotating/changing your tires, or ever getting an oil changed…No, and you shouldn’t do that with your HVAC system either. Your system is full of moving parts that work hard especially during the summer and need maintenance to keep working in the best shape that they can.
This is why TAC recommends having a tune-up done on your system in the early spring for the cooling before the summer starts and having one done in the fall for the heating before the winter starts. The tune-up will have a thorough list of items that will be checked to ensure that there are no problems with the system and everything is working properly.
Tip 2 – Filtration
Unfortunately, the majority of homeowners do not change their filter often enough. Most filters that are 1 inch thick will say that they last for 3 months. TAC however recommends to change your filter once a month and to use a pleated filter instead of fiberglass filters. For a system utilizing a 4 inch filter, they should be changed at least every 6 months. Changing your filter often will keep your evaporator coil clean which keeps your system running at optimum. Another benefit of changing your filter periodically is keeping your indoor air quality at a premium. For homes on pier and beam and homes that have pets, keeping your indoor air quality high can be a difficult task. Installing a Pure-Air filtration unit in your home will have a significant boost in your air quality. This would allow for the filter to be changed only twice a year, and help keep anyone with allergies from being agitated.
Tip 3 – Installing a High Efficiency HVAC System
Today’s HVAC systems are not like the ones of past. With the rising cost of electricity, HVAC manufactures have spent countless hours and invested extreme amount of money into developing and designing highly efficient systems that can reach over a 20 SEER rating. These new systems are designed to turn on with a very low amp draw and slowly ramp up the speed as needed until the cooling temperature in the house is reached. This not only saves on the life of the system, but saves quite a bit of money on electricity by not needing to get to 100% power usage. Systems of the past would turn on at 100% power usage whether or not the house needed it.
Tip 4 – Combine Solar and HVAC
When installing a new High Efficient air conditioning system, TAC will give you the option of installing solar along with that system to not only double your electricity savings, but also adding to your tax credit savings as well.
With the Sun Source ready Lennox HVAC system, the outdoor condenser/Heat Pump can be added onto your tax credit because the solar system will actually run through the condenser and into the service panel when the HVAC system is not using the power from the solar panels. Contact TAC for more info on this application.
Tip 5 – Installing a Programmable Thermostat
Installing and utilizing a programmable smart thermostat is one of the key ways a homeowner can save money on their HVAC costs. Most homes use a thermostat that is just set and left alone until they need to change it from cool to heat, which leaves their house to be conditioned the same when they leave for work or vacation as it would if they were there.
Utilizing a programmable thermostat that connects to your wifi will allow for the home to raise to higher temperatures when the house is empty, and save on heating and cooling costs. If the thermostat is connected to wifi, then owner can make adjustments anywhere in the world through the internet allowing for more control on their system.