UV lights kill bacteria and odors but don't reduce dust, which filters and duct sealing control. If your AC needs refrigerant added every year, you have a leak that needs fixing, not a yearly top-off.
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Hey, on this episode, we talk about dust and refrigerant. You ask your comfort and energy questions, and they get answered. This is the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Hey, this is Derrick Cole. Welcome to episode 76 of the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Answering your home and energy questions. It's been a few weeks since we filmed been in Orlando doing all that, actually in a different sitting. Not my office. We're in the call center, or as we're going to call it, the relationship center. So almost done with this. Have some people here next week, and we'll get rolling before summer. So it's going to be fun. But that is not why you came here. You came here to hear the questions and answers. So here we go.
You talked a few weeks ago about UV lights in your system. Will that help my dust problem?
Good question. UV lights actually take care of bacteria growth. Anything on the coal on the unit, it's not going to help your dust problem. When you look at these contamination levels, you're looking at dust particles, germs, bacteria, and then you're looking at odors. So it's going to handle germs, bacteria, which is a level two, we call it. But level one, dust and particles is really handled by the filter. There are some better filters you can get. Also air cleaners you can get to help that problem. And also, when we look at a duct system, a lot of the dirt and dust come because that duct system is not sealed. So you can actually seal your duct system to stop that from causing some dust problems. Now, you're not going to totally eliminate dust. It's not going to happen. But you can improve the chances of not having so much dust. But to answer the question, UV lights will not get rid of dust.
I need refrigerant added to my unit every year. Is that normal?
It is not normal for your unit to take refrigerant every single year. The unit is not using up refrigerant. It uses refrigerant. I like to kind of reference this as your body. If your body starts spewing blood out of your arm, okay, we shouldn't be spewing blood. I shouldn't need more blood unless I'm losing blood, right? So I shouldn't need more refrigerant unless I'm losing refrigerant. So you need to see what the cause is. We go to quite a bit of customers who get one or two pounds. They say they get it every single year. But the problem is you shouldn't be leaking that refrigerant out. So obviously There is a leak somewhere that needs to be controlled, needs to be handled. It is just like your body is a closed system. Just like you shouldn't be spewing blood all of a sudden, your unit shouldn't be leaking refrigerant. So, no, that is not normal. And adding one or two pounds every year, you're not helping anything, you're just adding cost to it. And obviously, if it's running low in a refrigerant, kind of like your body running low on blood, you're going to have a problem. Right? So if you don't have enough blood, you'll have a problem. If your system doesn't have enough refrigerant, you will also have problems. So get the leak fixed, see what the cause is. Instead of putting band aids on it, which is adding more refrigerant, actually go to the cause and stop it. So, no, it's not normal. Makes sense. Makes sense, don't it? Yeah, you shouldn't be leaking refrigerant anyway. It's episode 76 of the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Be sure to submit your questions, hashtag AskDericCohl, Twitter or Facebook, and we'll get him on the show.
