REASONS YOUR AIR CONDITIONER ISN'T RUNNING EFFICIENTLY

Your air conditioner is a key component to your comfort at home, so it can be frustrating when it doesn’t work properly. Air conditioners lose efficiency for many reasons. Knowing these reasons can help you decide what your next course of action should be.

Age

Air conditioners last about 10 to 15 years, and with each passing year, they lose some efficiency. If your air conditioner is near the end of its life span, it's not going to work as well as it did when it was first installed.

You can combat some of this problem by getting an annual tune-up for your unit, but no amount of attention from an HVAC professional will turn back the hand of time. If your air conditioner is more than 10 years old, the best way to make your home's air conditioner more efficient is to get a new air conditioner. Work with your HVAC professional to determine the best course of action for your home.

High Temperatures

As a general rule, air conditioners are designed to cool a home by about 20 degrees, although some units can cool more. This means that if your home is 100 degrees inside when the air conditioner is turned on, the best your air conditioner may be able to do is cool the space to about 80 degrees.

You can avoid this problem by turning the air conditioner on before the house reaches 100 degrees, but if the weather is hot enough outside, your house may become stuffy regardless of when you turn on your air conditioner.

Grime

Air conditioners work by removing hot air from inside the home and expelling it into the yard through the condenser. The condenser sits outside the house in the yard, where it can easily become covered in grime and debris. When this happens, air conditioner may struggle to do its job.

Many homeowners clean the condenser by removing the cover and spraying inside the condenser with a hose. Some go the extra mile and soap down the coils with a special coil cleaner.

To get started, turn off the unit and cut the power. Use a screw driver to remove the cover, and then clean the inside of the condenser. Remove all leaves and debris before spraying down the inside of the unit. If you get an air conditioner tune-up every year, your air conditioner repairperson can clean the condenser for you.

Poor Insulation

If your home is poorly insulated, your air conditioner will struggle to keep up with demand. Installing weather stripping can help improve your air conditioner's efficiency. You can buy weather stripping at home improvement centers or hardware stores. Weather stripping comes in different forms, including foam strips, rubber gaskets, and plastic that you can place over windows.

Unfortunately, all the weather stripping in the world can't completely make up for problems like poor insulation. If your house is under insulated, talk to a contractor about boosting insulation. Insulation can be added after building a home, so take care of this problem as soon as you can.

Improper Size

An air conditioner that is too small or too large for the size of your home will not run efficiently. If it is too small, it will run endlessly on hot days while your house stays stuffy and warm. An air conditioner that is too large will turn on and off frequently, which is inefficient.

Your air conditioner contractor should have chosen the air conditioner size for your home, but if the size of the air conditioner wasn't chosen by a professional, it could be improperly sized for your home. The only way to fix this problem is to buy an air conditioner that is the right size.

Coolant Leak

Coolant is what transports the heat from inside your home to the outside of your home. Coolant exists in a closed system, so your air conditioner should never need more coolant to be added.

However, if your air conditioner has developed a leak, get repairs and add more coolant to your system. If your system has a coolant leak, it will either cool very inefficiently or may not cool at all. Your air conditioner repairperson can tell you how much coolant you need to add.

Clogged Air Filter

The air filter is the part of the HVAC system that cleans and filters the air. If the air filter is very dirty, this can cause the entire HVAC system to work harder than it should just to get the job done. You'll be able to tell if your air filter is clogged by removing it from its slot near the blower. If the filter is dirty, replace it. Most filters need to be replaced or cleaned every month.

Contact Your Air Conditioner Repair Person

If you're not sure why your air conditioner is working less efficiently than it used to, contact your air conditioner repair person. At Dick Kearsley Service Center we're happy to answer customer questions about air conditioner efficiency. Contact us today to find out more.