While it might seem silly to hire an HVAC technician to perform regular HVAC tune-ups, that service could save you a lot of money and stress in the long run.
What Are the Benefits of Properly Maintaining Your HVAC System?
When your budget is already tight, and your schedule is busy, it might be tempting to skip HVAC maintenance. But it could help you keep your system running better and save you money. You can perform some maintenance tasks, such as changing the filter and cleaning the unit, but it’s also important to schedule annual tune-ups with a professional HVAC technician. Here’s why.
1. Improved System Efficiency
When you don’t take care of your heating and cooling equipment, it has to work a lot harder to keep your home comfortable. This can happen if the parts inside get dirty and can’t work as well or if parts start to wear out and interfere with operations. When an HVAC pro performs a tune-up, they clean out the system and lubricate moving parts, so they can glide easily with less wear. If they find minor issues that are affecting efficiency, they can fix them to restore peak efficiency.
2. Lower Utility Bills
Using less energy to heat and cool your home is great for the environment, but it’s also a nice bonus for your bank account. When your equipment works efficiently, you’ll pay less for your utilities. Keeping an eye on your power bills can help you monitor the health of your HVAC equipment. If you notice your bills increasing, it could mean it’s working harder than it should due to a hidden issue.
3. Fewer Repair Calls
Sure, you have to pay for a tune-up — you can expect to pay around $170 (CAD 226) for HVAC maintenance costs. But it could save you on more costly repairs in the future. Taking care of the system can prevent excess wear and damage to parts, which can help you avoid lots of repairs. For example, a dirty air filter can reduce airflow, make the system work harder and damage parts.
The repairs that result from lack of maintenance can be expensive. For instance, leak repair can range from $300 to $1,000 (CAD 398 to CAD 1,328). Replacement condenser coils usually cost between $500 and $750 (CAD 663 and CAD 996). Maintenance might not prevent all repairs, but it can reduce your risks of more expensive repair services.
4. Longer Life
Just like a well-maintained car usually carries you through a lot more road trips, maintaining your heating and cooling system helps it last longer. Tune-ups reduce the strain on your system by helping it work optimally. Less strain means the internal parts should hold out longer. That means you can hold on to your equipment a little longer before you have to invest a lot of money into a new unit.
If you have a newer HVAC system, tune-ups might not be optional if you want to keep your warranty coverage. Many manufacturers require you to get annual checkups from a professional HVAC technician to keep the warranty in effect. Since it’s a good way to prevent issues, the manufacturer does this as a way to minimize potential repairs.
6. Improved Safety
During an HVAC tune-up, a series of safety checks are performed to make sure everything is working correctly. Issues with the equipment can cause carbon monoxide leaks, gas leaks or electrical fires, which can all be potentially deadly. An HVAC technician checks for situations that could cause those safety risks and provides repair solutions to keep your home and family safe.
7. Better Indoor Air Quality
All the air in your home circulates through your HVAC system. Keeping the equipment in good working order can help you breathe a little easier with healthier indoor air. When the system works correctly, it pulls dirt, pet dander and other contaminants from the air with the air filter. It also helps control humidity in your home, which contributes to comfort and prevents mold buildup.
All CAD conversions are based on the exchange rate on the date of publication.
While most people know that fall and raking go hand-in-hand, most homeowners are unaware of the multitude of home maintenance tasks that should be done during this season. Ignoring some of these tasks is relatively harmless, but neglecting others can leave your home exposed to serious damage over the harsh winter months.
To keep that from happening to you, follow this fall home maintenance checklist to get your home ready for winter — inside and out.
Outdoor Fall Maintenance Tasks
Clean Your Gutters and Downspouts
Gutters and downspouts play a key role in protecting your doors, windows, siding and foundation from water damage. Cleaning them in the fall — after most of the leaves have fallen from the surrounding trees — is essential for protecting your home over the winter.
You can either clean your gutters from the roof or the ground. Using a ladder to climb up to the roof and manually removing leaves and other foreign matter is the most common method, but it’s also the most labor-intensive, time-consuming and dangerous. That being said, there are several types of gutter scoops available that can make the job easier.
A quicker and safer method is to clean your gutters from the ground using a gutter cleaning attachment on a pressure washer. If you don’t own a pressure washer yourself, you can rent one from many rental and home improvement companies, or borrow one.
Along with the gutters, check the downspouts for any obstructions that can restrict the flow of water from exiting the drain. If they’re clogged, you can usually insert the tip of a plumber’s snake into the bottom opening of the downspout and clear the obstruction like you would a regular drain.
Check Your Roof
The roof is your home’s first line of defense against interior water damage, so ensuring it’s in good condition before winter can spare you from expensive roof repairs down the road. If you’re cleaning your gutters from the roof, that’s an excellent time to inspect the condition of your roof as well. Otherwise, you can use a pair of binoculars to inspect your roof from afar. In either case, check your roof for:
Cracked, damaged or missing shingles — especially on the ridge
Shingles with moss and algae buildup, which may indicate underlying water damage
Rusty, warped, loose or missing flashing
Cracked, loose or missing rubber collars (AKA boots) around roof vents.
These issues should be repaired by a qualified professional as soon as possible. If you’re in doubt about the condition of your roof, it’s wise to hire a professional inspector.
Minimize Mold Risk on Your Lawn
Leaving a thick bed of fallen leaves through the winter months leaves it susceptible to a fungus called “snow mold” that causes discolored patches of grass in the affected area. As a result, thick sections of leaves should be removed from your lawn with a rake or leaf blower prior to heavy rain or snow. However, keeping a thin layer of leaves on your lawn will provide a beneficial layer of mulch, which will naturally fertilize the lawn as the leaves decompose.
Mowing your grass down to 1 1/2 to 2 inches (4 to 5 centimeters) can also combat snow mold, and mowing over leaves will help promote decomposition.
Treat Your Lawn: Aerate and Fertilize
Three weeks after your last mowing for the year, aerating and fertilizing your lawn will help keep it healthy — and in some cases, alive — through winter. Aerating is the process of puncturing holes into, or removing plugs from, your lawn. Doing so helps relieve soil compaction and allows for more air, water and nutrients to enter the soil. Aerating can either be performed manually with a number of aerating tools, or mechanically with an aerator that is often operated like a conventional lawnmower. Mechanical aerators can be rented from a number of machine rental and home improvement companies.
Immediately after aerating, apply a fall fertilizer to give your lawn an extra boost.
Prune Your Trees
Late fall is the ideal time to prune, for the health of the trees and the safety of your home. Tree limbs should ideally be cut 3 feet (1 meter) away from your house — especially if they’re hanging above the roof. Overhanging limbs can accumulate moisture that will drip onto the roof and siding, placing both at heightened risk for moisture damage. They can also cause catastrophic damage to your home if they break off and land on your roof. If the limbs can’t be fully removed, the deadwood should be removed from overhanging limbs at a minimum.
Consider hiring a professional arborist to trim your trees if you’re not experienced or equipped to do so yourself.
Winterize Your Water Lines
Standing water in outdoor water lines (above-ground spigots and underground irrigation lines) can freeze and cause them to rupture when temperatures drop. To combat this, they should either be fully drained or properly insulated.
Start by closing the shut-off valves that service your outdoor water lines. Once the water is off, open the valves on your above-ground spigots to drain residual water pressure from the lines. If you don’t have a designated shut-off valve that controls your outdoor spigots, wrap the pipes with pipe insulation. Drain any garden hoses that were connected to the spigots and bring them indoors for storage.
Below-ground irrigation systems should have their controller shut off and their lines drained. The exact shut-off and drainage procedure will vary between manufacturers, so you should either consult with the manual provided with your system or call an irrigation professional. If your irrigation system doesn’t have integrated drain valves, you may need to hire a pro to blow out the lines with compressed air.
Your home’s central heating system should be inspected and serviced annually by a qualified professional. If your home has a central HVAC system — combining heating and air conditioning — you may have already serviced your system as a part of your summer maintenance. If you didn’t get around to it, or if your home has a central heating boiler system, fall’s the perfect time to have your system professionally checked.
You can perform the following tasks yourself:
Install a new furnace filter
Release trapped air from (bleed) your hot water radiators
Clean out clogged air vents on your steam radiators
Service Your Chimney
Your chimney should be cleaned after every 50 to 70 burns, or every 1 to 2 years. Over time, your chimney accumulates a compound called creosote that’s a major contributor to devastating chimney fires. A professional chimney cleaner will remove the creosote buildup from your chimney and inspect it for other potentially harmful elements, like a cracked liner or foreign material obstructions.
Store or Cover Your Window AC Unit
The exterior portion of window AC units can become damaged from excessive exposure to rain, snow and freezing temperatures. Protect your window AC unit from winter damage by removing it from the window and storing it indoors, or by covering the exposed portion. Window AC covers are available in a variety of sizes, so it’s important to take accurate measurements of your unit to order a cover with the proper dimensions.
Seal Gaps
Gaps between windows and doors are a primary contributor to heat loss, and large enough gaps can let rodents and insects into your home. Sealing gaps will keep unwanted critters out, and can slash up to 20% off your winter heating bill, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Start by visually inspecting around windows and doors for visible gaps or evidence of damaged caulking and weatherstripping. To locate gaps not visible to the naked eye, you can hold a stick of incense up to your windows and doors to see if any smoke gets sucked or blown outside. That indicates an air leak.
Weatherstripping can be installed around window and door frames, and you can apply caulk around trim, jambs and penetrations from plumbing, electrical or gas lines. Large gaps that can’t be caulked can be filled with insulating foam sealant.
Inspect Safety Devices
Your home’s safety devices — smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers — should be inspected and serviced annually. Giving them once-over in the fall can also be valuable, especially if you have a wood-burning fireplace.
Here’s what to do:
Replace the batteries in each one of your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.
Use the “test” feature on each smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector to verify they’re working properly.
Check the pressure gauge on each of your fire extinguishers to ensure they’re fully charged.
Check the purchase or manufacture date on each fire extinguisher, and replace any that are over six years old.
Change Your Ceiling Fan Direction
Over the winter, the blades on your ceiling fan should rotate clockwise to push the hot air collected near the ceiling towards the ground. Most ceiling fans have a switch on the side of the housing that controls the direction of the blades. If the switch on your fan is set to a counterclockwise rotation, switch it over to clockwise while the fan is off.
Prepare Equipment for Winter
Mechanical equipment that sits for long periods of time can develop start-up or running issues if it isn’t properly stored. Winterize mechanical lawn care equipment like lawnmowers, leaf blowers and chainsaws by draining their fuel tanks or adding a fuel stabilizer. You may also consider replacing the oil or having your equipment professionally serviced.
If you own a snowblower or similar equipment, make sure they’re in working order before the snow begins to fall. If they weren’t properly stored, they may have start-up or running issues, like a clogged carburetor or filter. Fall’s a great time to have your snow equipment professionally serviced to ensure it’ll remain operational all winter long.
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