The Comfort Experts - Importance of seasonal tune ups

Hey, this is Derrick Cole with 1 Hour Heating and Air, here with William Skipper from 1 Hour Heating and Air, and we are the comfort experts coming to you to give you information about your heating and cooling system. Now, today we're talking about tune-ups. Something this time of year very important for you to do. Actually, the EPA says that a tune-up by a qualified tech is the most important thing you can do as a homeowner to prevent any future breakdowns. So we're going to kind of hit a few little highlights here for the tune-up. And William, I mean, everybody sees you clean the coil, spraying water on the unit. Now, what is that really doing?

Well, that allows the unit to breathe. It allows it to transfer the heat in and out of that unit, make sure that it's running properly and efficiently and providing you with the heat or the cooling that you need at that time. It's very important. You can always get grass clippings there, leaves. Dogs and cats like to rub up against it, get fur in it, and it prevents that unit from doing what it really needs to do.

Yeah, heating and air is all about heat transfer. So we have the copper aluminum coils out there because they're great conductors of heat. So the more dust, debris, grass clippings you have on the coil, the harder it has to work to get the airflow it needs. So cleaning the coil is a very important thing to do and something to have done on tune-up. Now, one thing we also do as well is check amp draws and capacitors. Kind of hit on that for us and why is that important?

Well, When you're doing a tune-up or maintenance and you're checking amp draws and your electrical connections, you can actually catch a problem before it happens. When you're checking amp draws, you can catch a motor when it's running at high amps and know that, you know, hey, something's not quite right here. And it can prevent those nuisance breakdowns, those hot, heavy, or cold days that the unit just decides it's going to quit. We can kind of prevent that from happening and catch it before it goes. Also with the capacitors, we can check the capacitors to make sure that they are providing the current that they need to help the compressor start, the motor start, and to run at an efficient pace. We also, during that time, Derek, we also check the breakers. The breakers, a lot of people, out of sight, out of mind, don't realize those breakers are safety devices. We want to make sure that that breaker is going to operate and do what it needs to in case something were to happen to protect you, your family, and your home. In case we had a failure, a lightning strike, or a power surge, and it wouldn't cause any damage in the home.

Yeah, we also have, or most units have and are required to have, a disconnect at the outdoor unit. And if you have an indoor unit, a disconnect at the indoor unit. Now the disconnect needs to be checked to make sure it's working properly, right?

That's right.

And then that way, if you have any kind of problem outside or under the house, you can pull that switch and it'll immediately kill that furnace, air conditioner, fan coil, whatever you have to make sure it's safe. One of the things that I kind of relate a capacitor to when I talk to a homeowner is, you know, have you ever spun a ball on your finger, right? A basketball? Everyone's done that or tried to do it. And a capacitor is kind of like your hand. It's always keeping that motor running, right? So it's important to check that capacitor to make sure it's in good condition because otherwise You're going to have a motor problem.

That's right. You're going to have a motor that won't start or compressor that won't start.

Yeah, and that means you're going to be too hot, too cold, and it's going to happen on those hot days, right?

That's the only time it ever happens.

Yeah, somebody asked me the other day, you know, why does my unit break when it's, you know, 30 degrees outside or 95 degrees outside? I said, well, that's when it's under the most load, the most stress, and it's really going to start— those problems really start coming up.

That's right.

Another important feature is to always change your filter. Inside in your house, you have a return grill where you change those filters at. Now why is changing that filter important, Tony?

Well, again, it's about like cleaning the coils. It allows it to breathe, but it also prevents it from becoming stopped up. It also will protect you in the home from breathing some nasty air. It just kind of keeps everything clean, you and the unit. So the filter is really the protection for you and your unit.

Yeah, it's really, you go to Walmart, you go to Home Depot, Lowe's, whatever, you know, you got aisles and aisles of filter choices.

That's right.

And you have, you know, the 68-cent, 80-cent filters, and you got the $30 filters. I mean, what's the difference there? Why such a big range?

Well, you got some, what we call trash can filters, which you can hold those up to the light and see through them. They're only designed to catch soda cans, anything you kick, nothing anything to protect you. Then you've got the pleated filters, which are a little bit better filter that kind of protects you as a person and your unit. It catches the smaller particles. It keeps the small dust and the skin cells and dry skin from getting on that coil and caking in and preventing, again, a nuisance breakdown down the road. So it just protects it all the way around.

Right. There's always a give and take when it comes to filters. I mean, you have to— you want them efficient enough to collect the small particles, but then again, you don't want to stop the airflow.

That's right.

Because then it can't breathe and it's not going to run properly, right?

Yeah, that's right. And what we see sometimes is a lot of homeowners don't realize it. The ones that don't quite understand, they want a better filter, but instead of spending just a little bit more money, they'll put 2 or 3 together and try to put it in a grill. That's really not a good idea. It can cause some static pressure issues, which can burn fan motors up and cause, you know, your compressor to run at higher amps. That's things that you don't want to do. So, you know, make sure you use the right filter. Make sure the filter is changed regularly. You know, just keep an eye on it. Once a month's a good time to check. Just once a month, check that filter once a month.

Yeah, you brought up a good point too, which is, you know, using a lot of energy, high amp draws. So when you check the amp draws on the capacitors, compressor, motors, and it's pulling high amps, what is that doing to the energy bill?

Oh, it's making it go up. And it's also shortening the life of that piece of equipment. If you've got a fan that's pulling high amps and it's pulling a lot more energy when it's running at high amps. Uh, it causes the life of that unit to— whatever that piece of equipment is, whether it's your compressor pulling high amps or your fan pulling high amps, it shortens the life of that piece of equipment. Uh, so you want to make sure that we are doing everything that we can do to keep that unit running where it needs to be.

Exactly. I mean, the piece of equipment is working harder.

That's right.

To get the work done, which is cooling or heating depending on the season, right? So when things start working harder, they start costing more money to run. And they break down quicker.

That's right.

So again, on tune-up, it's very, very important to check all these items, which of course we'll do. Now, the thermostat, um, I get this question probably the most out of any, any question I get. You know, should I have a programmable thermostat? And if I have a programmable thermostat, what should I keep it on? And should I keep it on any kind of program? That's kind of the The main questions I get, now me personally, in my house I keep it on one temperature. I do have a programmable thermostat. And I set that, you know, forward and backwards if we're on vacation or going away or something like that. But mainly I keep it on one temperature. How about you?

Well, mine, I have a programmable thermostat at my house, but it is actually, the program feature is not running right now. And it really depends on your lifestyle. If you're a family that has somebody at home 90% of the time, programming feature might not be what you need. You might, you know, if you're at home, you got your housewife or house dad and you're in the house and you might, different activities might want you to set your house at different temperatures. Cleaning, you want it to be a little bit cooler because you're getting hot. Go over there and bump it down. But if you got somebody there all the time, and you want to just go push it up and down, that's fine. A programming feature will cut down energy costs on families that— a working-class family where when you leave, everybody's going to school, or husband and wife going different job directions. The last thing on their mind is turning the thermostat down. You don't want to heat your house or cool your house when you're gone. So you can set that programming feature. A lot of times you got 4, 5, 6 different periods of the day that you can set it at. Say everybody's gone at 8 o'clock. Well, at 8 o'clock, I want my temperature to either in the summertime raise up a little bit or the wintertime come down a little bit. And then I'm going to be home at 5 o'clock, so 4:30, 5 o'clock, I'm going to let it come back on and bring it back to the temperature I'm more comfortable with. Then again, at night a lot of people want to turn their temperature down when they go to bed. Well, that programming feature will do it for you. If everybody decides they're going to be in bed by 11 o'clock, at 11 o'clock, if instead of 74 you want it at 70 or 72, that program is going to bring it down. But it will cause you, you know, prevent you from having— forgetting about it, you know, out of sight, out of mind, forgetting about it, walking out of the house, letting it run. But, you know, it just depends on your lifestyle, Derek.

Right.

You know, everybody's different. Yeah.

And a few mistakes I've seen in the field, and you can speak to yours, but some people have set the thermostat, say it's, you know, a 95-degree day. Well, it's usually 75 when they're home. But when they go to work, they set it to about 78.

Yeah.

And then they get home at 5:30, 6 o'clock, and it hadn't really caught up yet.

That's right.

So it's important to only keep it a little away from the set point, especially on a really hot day. I mean, you got to think about it. When you come home and that thing is trying to get back down to 75, everything in the house has to get to 75. That's right. Before it's satisfied. So if you left it 8 hours, 9 hours at 78, everything in the house, the walls, furniture, Everything's at 78, so it's going to take a while to cool back down. And you're coming home at what just left the hottest part of the day, right? Right. So it has to work a little harder. So just be conscious of that when you start programming back and forth.

And again, like you're saying, some thermostats have a feature in them that will, that will learn as they, as they go, um, to where they can counteract. You know, it took me 30 minutes the last time to get to that temperature. Some programmable thermostats don't have that feature. So when you're programming your thermostat, make sure you do a account for, you know, I'm gonna be home at 5 o'clock, and on those 95-degree days, it's going to take a little bit more time to, to get my house back down to where it's at. So kind of take that into account. And also, Derek, you asked, uh, what is a good temperature setting? Well, a good temperature setting is wherever you're comfortable at. I mean, if you find a temperature that, that you're comfortable with majority of the time, yours might be 72, mine might be 76. Somebody else's might be, you know, 68.

Right.

As long as you maintain that temperature and we're not pushing the temperature up and pulling it back down and pushing it back up and pulling it back down, it really doesn't matter where you set it at. It's going to, you know, be as efficient as it can be at that temperature.

Right. And I had a question from a homeowner Tuesday, the other day, and she asked about— she has a slide bar, old style thermostat. She don't have one of these new digital thermostats.

That's right.

And this thing is getting off of temperature majorly. She said, you know, used to be 68, now we have to go all the way 65 to get comfortable. And with these digital thermostats, I mean, they're accurate to half a degree, right?

Sometimes tenths of a degree.

Yeah, sometimes tenths of a degree. So again, don't focus too much on the temperature, focus on what you're comfortable with. Yep.

Everybody changes.

Yeah.

As, as, as you get older, your temperature changes, your comfort temperature changes, and And it just depends on what you've been doing. So just don't focus on, like you said, don't focus on one temperature. Find where you're comfortable. And it's going to change from season to season and from year to year.

Right. And again, we're going to check all of this on the tune-up. So it's important to give us a call, get your tune-up done. You want it done by a qualified technician so we can go over some of these features we just did to make sure you're not losing money, wasting money. And doing things the wrong way because, you know, we do this every day. This is our life. You guys out there, you don't do it every day. So obviously we have the information and the education and we can pass it on to you and inform you of what's best for you, right?

That's right. And again, we love to see you. We just don't want to see you in those terrible times. So preventative maintenance can help you prevent that from happening.

Right. Again, you can follow William on Twitter. William J. Skipper, right?

That's right.

I'm Derrick M. Cole, and we are 1 Hour Heating and Air, and we'll see you next time.