Derek Cole answers two questions about HVAC operation: whether to turn off your unit during mild fall weather, and what to do if your unit was flooded. He recommends keeping the system on Auto to dehumidify your home even when it's comfortable outside. Never power on a flooded unit without having a professional inspect it first for water damage and electrical hazards.
Hey, on this episode, after the flood, can I turn my unit on? And with this in-between season, can I turn my unit off? You ask your comfort and energy questions and they get answered. This is the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Hey, this is Derrick Cole with episode 95 of the Ask Derrick Cole Show. 95, that's right. We're almost to 100. Answering your home and energy questions. And yes, you haven't seen me in quite a bit, 2 and a half weeks, 2 weeks, something like that. Traveling, sick, travel some more, meetings, conferences, meetings, sick, travel. Okay, so.
Matthew.
Hurricane. Yeah, we didn't have power for a little while, so that's a little better, so.
Okay. With the dropping temperatures, is it okay if I turn my unit off for 3 to 4 hours at a time?
I would never turn my unit off of auto. I know what you're doing, and you probably can do it because it is kind of this middle part where it's kind of warmer afternoons, cooler mornings, not really needing heating or air. But what I do at my house is I keep it on auto the temperatures for heating and cooling, I won't. That way it comes on and still runs the air and circulates every now and then. Now you don't have to do that, but I recommend doing that because you want that air change. You want that air to go through the filter, get some new air back out so you don't keep breathing in the same stuff. So I would leave it on auto, just put your set points where you want them to and not worry about it, because with all the rain and moisture we have had You do— it does need to dehumidify sometimes. So even though, for example, my house, even though it's set on like 74, if it's 72 but the humidity is too high, it'll come on and dehumidify. You still want that to happen at your house. That way the moisture is coming out of the system. And yes, you might get a little bit cooler, but you don't want a humid house.
My unit was underwater. Is it okay to turn it on since we have power now?
I would get it checked out first because when the unit— when we go through a hurricane like we just did, you have debris, trees, limbs, water, whatever could be in the way. You want it checked out by a professional to make sure it's okay to run before you start running it. What has happened previously is people have turned it on, not working, or turned on, hear noise, stop it. Now we got a problem, now we got damage, because if we would have just removed the tree limbs and the debris from the fans, that wouldn't have happened. You wouldn't have that problem. So I would get it checked out by a professional to make sure it's good to go because You cannot be too safe, especially with water and electricity. You don't want something— I'm not trying to scare you, but you don't want something to happen. So you just want to make sure something doesn't happen and it's good to go before you get it shut out. And plus, this time of year, it's actually— I wouldn't say good that the flood happened, but it is going into heating season, so it kind of coincides with going to get a maintenance to go in to make sure you're good Good to go for the heating season. You can kind of knock out both of those at one time, but, you know, I would make sure it's safe to operate and you don't cause more damage by running it than just waiting to get it checked out. Make sense? That's it. That's like super fast. All right, it's episode 95 of the #AskDerekCole Show. Be sure to hashtag your questions. Ask Jericho, or just ask him when I'm out in public like you do now, and we'll get him on the show.
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