With summer finally coming to an end here in Portland, OR, you might be looking at replacing an old, malfunctioning air conditioner with a new unit. Now is the perfect time to do it, when you have months of cool weather on the way to set a schedule at your leisure. But just because you’re replacing your old air conditioner, that doesn’t mean you need to install a new one just like it. There are several alternatives to the traditional central model available, and while they don’t match the needs of every home they can be quite a boon when they do. Here are several alternate types of air conditioning to think about when preparing to replace your existing unit.
The Clean Air Act Blog: Posts Tagged ‘Air Conditioning’
How to Select the Right Air Filter
Monday, August 24th, 2015Almost every centralized heating and air conditioning system comes with a filter, designed to strain out the dust and dirt circulating through your home. There are numerous different types of filters you can install in your home – above and beyond the types specific to your particular air conditioning system – and with dust and pollen counts here in Portland, OR, they should probably be cleaned or replaced several times a year. Selecting the right air filter is very important as a homeowner: something that can do the best possible job without working against your best interests. Here’s a few tips on how to select the right air filter.
Don’t Wait to Get Your Air Conditioner Repaired
Monday, August 17th, 2015When late summer hits Portland, OR, a lot of homeowners are more willing to let minor air conditioning repairs sit until the fall arrives. They reason that they can hold tight until they no longer need their air conditioners on a daily basis, instead of taking it offline for a day or so while the technician fixes the problem. It may seem like sound reasoning, but in fact it can make an already difficult situation much worse. You may think you can live with a minor air conditioning problem, but don’t wait to get your air conditioner repaired.
What Causes Restricted Air Flow in Your Air Conditioner?
Monday, August 3rd, 2015Your air conditioner may be perfectly good at cooling the air, but that doesn’t mean much if it can’t circulate the air through your home. In centralized systems, cool air is distributed through your ductwork via a fan to all the corners of your home. But when the air flow is restricted, that can’t happen. Your air conditioner thus needs to spend unnecessary energy to properly cool your home, and wear and tear on individual systems increases: raising the chances of a major breakdown as well as increasing your monthly bills. With summers becoming increasingly hot and humid in Portland, OR, a repair session is the last thing you need. So what causes restricted air flow in your air conditioner? Here’s a list of the most common culprits.
What Steps Are Involved in an Air Conditioning Maintenance Plan?
Monday, July 27th, 2015If you own an air conditioner – and living in Portland, OR, you likely do – then it behooves you to schedule a maintenance plan at least once a year and maybe more often than that. These tune-up sessions will help prevent possible breakdowns by spotting big problems while they’re still small. In addition, a maintenance plan will help lower your monthly bills by helping you air conditioner function more efficiently. If you haven’t scheduled a maintenance session in a while, you should do so immediately. It will help it perform better and maybe cut down some of those high energy bills for the rest of the summer. Here’s a brief outline of the steps involved in an air conditioning maintenance plan:
What Happens When Refrigerant Levels in My AC Drop?
Monday, July 13th, 2015Refrigerant is a vital part of the air conditioning process, but few people truly understand how it works. Ideally, your air conditioning system keeps it on a closed loop, and levels shouldn’t go down at all. This flies in the face of popular perception, which suggests that air conditioners consume refrigerant like a car consumes gasoline. Nothing could be further from the truth. Accordingly, if an air conditioning technician simple adds refrigerant to your system, he’s not fixing the problem. You need a trained professional to locate the place where it’s leaking and seal it before recharging refrigerant levels. Knowing what happens when refrigerant levels drop can help explain the process better.
Why Are Refrigerant Levels So Important to Air Conditioning?
Monday, June 29th, 2015Refrigerant is what makes air conditioning possible. It’s a chemical compound (the exact type and amount depends on your air conditioner) which shifts from liquid to gas at a comparatively low temperature and which pulls heat out of the surrounding air as it does so. Centralized air conditioners work by cycling their refrigerant through a series of valves and coils. The refrigerant is first shifted into a liquid state and placed under a great deal of pressure (bleeding heat into the air outside your home in the process), then enters an evaporator coil where it shifts back to a gas (pulling heat from the air outside the coil). With the air around the system cools, a fan then pushes it into your home.
3 Signs That You Need Duct Repair
Monday, June 22nd, 2015Ducts are a vital component in your household air conditioning system – transporting cooled air to the various rooms in your household – and because they don’t have a lot of moving parts, they rarely require repairs with the frequency that the main system does. That doesn’t mean that repairs aren’t needed sometimes, unfortunately, or that – considering the damp weather in Portland, OR – you don’t have to deal with potential issues like mold growth in your ducts. A good technician can repair most issues with your ducts, but you still need to be able to notice that there’s a problem before picking up the phone. Here are 3 easy-to-spot signs that you need duct repair.
Keep or Replace? How to Decide if You Need a New Air Conditioner
Monday, June 1st, 2015Summer is officially here in Portland, OR, and that means your air conditioning system needs to be ready to keep your home comfortable when the heat and humidity rise to sweltering levels. If your system is exhibiting signs of trouble, now may be the right time to get it replaced with a new model. But how can you tell if that time has come? You certainly don’t want to get rid of your old air conditioner if it’s still doing the job, and a replacement can be costly enough that hoping your system is still functional may trump the reality that it really does need to go. Here’s a few guidelines to help you decide whether to keep or replace your existing air conditioner: