Schedule serviceWrench

Techniques for Improving Your HVAC Efficiencies

July 2, 2019

Techniques for Improving Your HVAC Efficiencies

July 2, 2019

Your heating and cooling system near Dubuque, IA has a built-in efficiency level that will vary depending on a multitude of factors. For example, you may have a system with a limited efficiency if you paid little for your unit. However, your system may also be a little older, which can cause the unit to run less efficiently. Thankfully, you can easily upgrade your unit to improve your operating effectiveness in a variety of ways.

For example, the following techniques will almost immediately improve your HVAC efficiency and save you a lot of money. While many of these methods require professionals to manage appropriately – including regular maintenance and repairs – they are more than worth it over the lifetime of your home. Try to integrate these types of procedures into your home’s system to get better HVAC results.

Start Adding Better Insulation

Does your home feel too warm or too cold in some regions of the house? This poor temperature control may mean that your insulation is relatively weak and needs an upgrade. Have a heating and cooling professional come to your home to check out the quality of your insulation through the house. Give them the chance to check every element of your home in a way that ensures problems are correctly spotted and managed.

Typical insulation problems include too much insulation in certain areas, too little insulation in others, or poor quality insulation through the home. Once you found the issue, have the professionals make the fixes. This process can take as little as an afternoon – reinsulating one room – or several – to insulate a whole home. You’ll need to stay out of the room being fixed until the specialist says you can return.

You should also make sure to check the sealant around the edges of your windows and doors, as these areas can leak plenty of heat if you aren’t careful. You can either talk to an HVAC specialist to manage these problems or have another home improvement specialist do these upgrades. It doesn’t matter much which expert you hire, but make sure that they have experience working with your type of system.

Programming Your System

Automatic heating controls are one of the best ways that you can save money. Most units come with a programmable control that you can use to set your temperature levels when you are out of the home. For example, you can program your system to keep your home at 60 degrees during the winter while you’re out at work or 80 during the summer, each of which will improve your system’s efficiency.

Then, you can set the unit to set the temperature to around 65-70 degrees just before you get home for the day. About half an hour should be a good enough time to get your home to this temperature from 60 to 80 degrees. You should then program the heating and cooling system to hold this temperature until just before you go to bed. You can then decrease or increase the temperature by five degrees or so to ensure your comfort.

While you’re out of the house for extended periods, such as during vacations, you can set the temperature to the 60-80 degree range appropriate for the season. These temperatures ensure that nothing will happen to your home (and its many appliances) and your system by keeping the home warm or cool enough to avoid issues. Try to install a remote app that you can utilize while you’re on the road to ensure you get the best results.

Improvinåg Your Air Conditioner Unit

If you have a separate air conditioner unit that keeps your home cool, you’ll need to upgrade its various components to ensure that it runs properly. The average air conditioner has a multitude of elements that all work together to make your system run. These include features like fans, air compressors, belts, and much more. Try to upgrade these elements of the system to not only enhance the effectiveness of your air conditioner but to potentially boost the ability of your heater if the two are connected.

For example, you can install an entirely new unit – including a new central air unit – that is more efficient than your old one. This process will cost a few thousand dollars, but will ultimately save you more than double the price over the lifetime of your home. You can also perform more straightforward upgrades to improve the quality of your unit, such as replacing the compressor, adding better fan controls, or adding air-side economizers to use cold air to keep your home at a safe and healthy level.

Make sure that you look at the SEER ratings of each of these items to ensure that you find the model with the best efficiency. Try to aim for 14-18 to get the best results. Have an HVAC professional test your unit after you install these items to gauge its effectiveness. You should see immediate improvement if you fit these elements correctly. If you don’t, you may need to have the HVAC expert check out other factors, including the fan, to see if other problems plague your unit.

Other Methods to Consider

A few other ways that you can improve the HVAC efficiency of your home include:

  • Regular maintenance at least once every season
  • Cleaning out your ducts every season
  • Changing your air filters every season
  • Turning off electronic items when they aren’t in use
  • Installing a Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) unit

Simple techniques like these, beyond installing the VRF unit, can be done by just about any homeowner and will produce noticeable heating and cooling results almost immediately.

Contact a Professional Today

These simple techniques vary in how they are implemented. For example, some will require very little professional skill and can be done DIY quite comfortably without a lot of effort. Others will require you to get a real expert to come to your home to check out the issue. Without professional help, you could easily make a mistake on more difficult procedures – such as complete unit replacement – and may end up spending thousands of dollars fixing repairs that you wouldn’t have had to get.

So if you want more efficient heating and cooling for your home in Dubuque, Waterloo, Iowa City, or Coralville, Iowa, you should contact a professional to get the best results. These individuals will carefully examine your HVAC unit and figure out what is causing your issues. Then, they will work hard to implement an improvement strategy that will not only make your unit more efficient but provide you with the home-wide care that you need to make your cooling and heating more productive overall.

Share Article