Since spring’s a transitional season, it’s a good time to discuss a few HVAC misconceptions about your heating and cooling systems. Certain notions about HVAC maintenance and operation that sound correct don’t prove to be true once the actual facts are known. These issues can reduce your overall home-comfort level, increase operating costs, and even impose more wear and tear on system components. Here are some common HVAC misconceptions that need to be set straight:
- Change the air filter every other month during heating and cooling season. The every-other-month schedule is usually adequate for most residential furnace operation. However, a typical central AC runs longer cycles and more hours per day during summer than an average furnace runs in winter. Therefore, the system air filter should be changed monthly during the cooling season.
- Turning your AC off while you’re away during the day saves energy. Studies show that cooling down an overheated house after a long day without air conditioning actually consumes more energy than if you leave the AC on instead, with the thermostat set to a moderately cool temperature slightly above normal.
- Closing HVAC vents in certain rooms reduces cooling or heating expenses. Not true. Your air conditioner or furnace doesn’t know whether supply vents in every room are open or not. As long as the unit is on, it produces the same volume of cooled air or heated air per the manufacturer’s BTU specification at all times. In fact, closing supply vents in individual rooms can unbalance airflow throughout the house, causing uncomfortable hot or cold spots.
- Moving the thermostat setting all the way down (or up) makes a home get cooler (or warmer) faster. It doesn’t work that way. The air conditioner or furnace still produces a fixed amount of cool air or warm air, no matter how far down or up you push the thermostat setting. Extreme thermostat settings may cause the house to get overly cool or too hot, however, which wastes money and energy.
To replace common HVAC misconceptions with the straight facts of the matter, contact Mowery Heating, Cooling and Plumbing.
