289. Spring Checklist

Foreign. Hey, this is Derek Cole and welcome to the Derek Cole Podcast. This podcast is all about home comfort and energy savings. The majority is really comprised of short audio clips of a device and answers to questions that we've been asked over the years. We also kind of sprinkle in the Ask Derek Cole show audio, which is a much longer Q and A kind of program. If you like this episode, and I hope you do, I would love for you to share it on social with others. Just take a screenshot of the program and hashtag it Derek Cole so I can see you. But let's get in to today's episode. Foreign. We have 10 checks you can do yourself to prep your AC for the warmer months. I wanted to, I wanted to kind of hit a few of them today on the podcast and you can always get your free copy simmons1hour.com spring simmons1hour.com spring to get your free copy, but you can take advantage of that while it's available or just go to Simmons One Hour Comm. You'll see a link to the spring checklist. You also see a link to the Summer Cool Spectacular and you can read more about indoor air quality. But today let's hit a few of these few of these highlights. Number one. Well, these aren't really any particular order, but I just wanted a few of the 10 we have. I definitely want to hit my favorite one, which I mentioned every single month. Every single month I mentioned replacing your air filters. Checking and changing your filters according to Energy Star is the number one thing you can do yourself for your system. You need anyone to do it for you. You can replace and check your air filters every single time. Every 30 days is what's recommended. Now. The month of March versus the month of June. Okay. In March, your AC or heat probably didn't run as much as it would have as it will be in the month of June or July. Right? So you might need to only check the air filter. Check it. It's not dirty enough to change. That's fine. But when you get into longer run times, warmer weather, colder weather, anytime your unit is running a lot more, that filter should be getting a lot more dirty and need replacing. Could be, actually could be sooner than 30 days. But tip. My tip number one for sure, replace your air filters again, it's going to, your system is going to dictate what kind of filter you can have. If you have a tight duct system, a sealed duct system, your filter might not, you know, you don't, you might not need a great filter. You might need an air cleaner versus the filter because it's so it's not bringing in dirt, dust, it's sealed, it's tight. You just want to continually clean the air or stop the particles from getting in. So you might need a different filter or air cleaner compared to if you have that challenge every single month. So again, your, your unit, your system will. I'm gonna start over. I'm gonna start over. This is terrible. Let me stop it. UV duct systems, duct cleaning, duct sealing, all that is right there. And it's free. Five days free access. You, you get me on video. Four days, you get William on video for, for one day, all you can handle of me. But number one, replace your air filters. Number two, switch the direction of your ceiling fans. Switch the direction because you have two settings, right? In the winter time, you have a sitting. In the summertime, you have a sitting. So now you want to switch it for the summertime so you have that fan blowing in the air and cooling you off. In the summertime, you got it going opposite direction of bringing the heat down from above, down to where you are in the living space in the summer is the opposite. You want to cool off. You want to be cool. So you want to make sure you switch those ceiling fans so you're cooled off. But remember, fans cool people, not room. So if you're not in the room, turn the fan off. It's not doing any good. It's not cooling off you if you're not in there. So make sure you switch the direction of your ceiling fan. Another one, number three. Well, these aren't really numbered, but adjust your thermostat for warmer weather. That seems very, very basic. But make sure that thermostat is on the AC mode and not the heating mode. Some of the phone calls we get when it first gets really warm outside, a handful of those are simply a mode issue with the thermostat. My AC is not working. We get there, it's on heat mode and not on cool mode. That is a problem. So make sure you adjust your thermostat for, for the warmer weather. And while you're at it, if you haven't turn on your AC to make sure it's working correctly, go ahead and turn on, make sure it's working. Make sure you don't have any issues that first, you know, 80, 85 degree, 90 day, when the AC is going to need to come on and you want to come on, but it doesn't. Now you got a problem. So go ahead, turn that AC on to make sure is working correctly. And if you need it checked out, make sure you look at the summer cool spectacular or something like that and get it maintained and working and clean and ready to go for the warm weather. Finally, I'm going to end on this. There, there's more points again on the checklist. To get your free copy, go to simmons1hour.com spring simmons1hour.com spring but final point I'll make clean around the outside of your AC unit. Clean around the outside of your AC unit. Look, it's been winter. It's been. You don't know what's out there. You should have 1 to 2 foot of clearance around the outdoor unit and that's for it to breathe. That's for it to move air. Greater airflow is greater efficiency and you're going to need it, especially when you get in AC mode because you're trying to remove the heat from the house. So you're taking the heat from the house and you blowing it back outside. If it has a challenge in blowing it back outside, then you're going to have a challenge with the removal of the heat and it's going to cause things to break down. Sometimes you, I probably, I have this problem more than most, but you might see an outdoor unit that's, you know, pretty much under a shelter to keep leaves or things off of. Well, that should be at a certain height because that condenser fan motor on that unit is trying to remove that heat. So it's blowing it. So if it's blowing it up and it's coming right back down, it's wear and tear on that motor. So you don't want that to happen. But also on the cooling coils on the outside of the units, you don't want those to work harder. So again, one to two foot of clearance around the entire unit is what you're looking for. All of these, all, all this I mentioned the checklist is free. It's available. Head over to simmons1hour.com spring to get yours. And if you need us, we're always going to be available. Give us a call. Schedule if you don't. If you're not under our maintenance plan or have not had your AC unit checked out, make sure you get the summer cool spectacular. Just go to Sims one hour comm. You'll see a link to some cool. You'll see a link to this spring checklist. But I want you to have a cool summer. These 10 things are worth taking a look at before it gets too warm outside. All right, time you guys later. Well, what did you think? If you found any value in this episode whatsoever, please share it with your friends. And I encourage you to also rate and review on this platform. If you want to be really awesome, download the last six episodes, take a listen. It would really help us out with the rankings on this platform. Thank you so much for listening. Please reach out on social if you need any help or we can help in any way, please reach out. Until next time. Talk to you soon.