Air Conditioning Company
Gainesville, Florida

The single most important thing you can do to maintain your unit is to make sure you check and change your air filters regularly!!!!

High-Efficiency Furnaces
Condensing furnaces with efficiencies over 90 percent offer the most energy savings. These furnaces achieve 90 percent AFUE rating by sending flue gases through a secondary heat exchanger. This device further extracts heat that is usable energy for your home. Remaining flue gases then exhaust outdoors through a special plastic-type vent pipe inserted through the wall of the home. This "direct-vent" piping configuration also draws in outside air for combustion. Since indoor air is not used in the combustion process, cold air leakage (infiltration) is reduced--an added energy savings.

In addition, it is important to realize, that when installing new furnaces, the chimney must be properly lined to avoid corrosion that can occur during condensation. This is typically the case when replacing equipment in existing construction.

Most new high-efficiency gas furnaces carry up to a lifetime warranty on the heat exchanger. Many manufacturers and contractors also offer warranties from two to five years on all parts.

Condenser Coil Cleaning
The condenser coil is the outside unit coil. As you see, it does not have a filter as the indoor coil does. It gets cleaned, in theory, when the rains come. Well, that is not good enough, and needs a yearly cleaning also. The best way to do this is hire a licensed professional. But for the "do it your selfer", if you shut off the breaker for the outside unit, (breaker usually next to outside unit), take a garden hose with a spray nozzle, and standing back about a foot, spray top to bottom to remove any loose dirt, grass, etc. this should take about 20 minutes to do completely. Allow the water about 10 minutes to drain away, restore power to the unit, and all should be good for another year.

Thermostats - What You Should Know
There are many types of thermostats on the market today, and Digital is taking over where the old "Mercury Bulb" type is becoming obsolete. The Mercury type was great in its time, but was a slower responding stat. this caused longer off times, and longer on times as well. The swap over to digital can be very complicated, as many digital stats say they work with all types, when in fact, they may, but not correctly. If you have replaced your stat yourself, and your power consumption has increased, it is suggested that you have a trained service tech check out the wiring, and or programming. If you are planning on purchasing a stat at your local home improvement store, make certain that they will take the old mercury stat from you and dispose of it properly. DO NOT THROW THE MERCURY THERMOSTAT IN THE HOUSEHOLD GARBAGE. IT IS A HAZARDOUS WASTE, AND MUST BE DISPOSED OF PROPERLY. A service company will be responsible for this for you if you have them install a stat you purchase from them.

What is An Air Conditioning Tune-Up?
The purpose of a system tune up is to have your system at peak performance when the weather gets either hot or cool. Tune ups are recommended no less than once per year, and sometimes twice, depending on the type of system you may have. An oil or gas furnace being serviced for its annual service in the spring is not as wise as late in the fall, prior to being needed. A heat pump, however, can be tuned up any time, as it is a reverse cycle system, and the Freon characteristics remain the same, the temperatures vary, but a trained technician will know this.

What is the most important thing a homeowner can do?
The most important thing a homeowner can do to protect their air conditioning and heating system is to remember to change the heating and air conditioning air filter. Changing furnace and return air filters is crucial to the proper performance of your HVAC system, not to mention your home's air quality.