
Heat waves and your air conditioner...
How not to kill it!
Friday, June 03, 2022
Temperatures are starting to rise... remember last June, here in Leduc? We had a week of 30+ temps and if you didn't have air conditioning, I'll bet you were kicking yourself?
If you DO have a/c, these heat waves can be hard on a/c systems.
During this unusually hot weather, your a/c will run longer and cause wear and tear on the unit. While we can't predict when this will happen, we can be aware of what to expect from our a/c system, when it does.
- Don't shut if off! This will make your home get hotter and then, when you do turn the a/c on again, it will have to work even harder to cool it down. You can usually set it to cycle on and off to keep the temperature slightly warmer than you'd like but it will consume less energy and cause less stress to the components.
- Allow more time to cool your home down. Whether it's a heat wave or a milder day, turning your air conditioner way down won't make it work any faster. Plus, as the outside temperature goes down in the evening, if your setting is too low, your home will become excessively cold and waste energy. Just set you thermostat to your desired temperature and let it to cool at it's own pace.
- Make sure it's not frozen. Sometimes, if your air conditioner is running too much to keep up with the heat, the evaporator coil can freeze. If there is ice on the unit or it feels extremely cold, it may be frozen. If this happens, you'll have to turn off the fan for a while to thaw it out. Maybe go spend some time at the mall to stay cool. LOL
- Don't push it to the limit. A typical air conditioner will work to cool your home down by about 10 degrees less than outdoor temps. In a heat wave, when it gets up in the higher 30's, you can't expect your a/c to be able to keep up. Be patient and let it work it's magic without over doing it, which could make it freeze or break.
Hopefully, we won't get the extreme temperatures we had last summer. If it happens again, make sure your a/c will be up to the task of keeping you and your home cool. If you want Millenium to give it a check up, give us a call!
Categories: tips
Tags: air conditioning
cooling
residential
commercial
industrial
Leduc
edmonton
a/c
maintenance
quality service
air conditioner
repair
service
installation
heat wave