As the end of the year approaches, now is the perfect time to schedule a year-end HVAC checkup for your Metuchen, NJ, home. There are benefits associated with this process that can save you money and prevent a major problem with your heating and cooling equipment.
Catching Issues Caused by Wear and Tear
After a full year of using your heating and cooling equipment, there will inevitably be wear and tear that will occur to various interior components. A routine checkup allows us to spot these issues before they become a more serious problem. We can promptly make repairs such as tightening loose connections, repairing damaged wires, cleaning fan blades, or lubricating parts. A little bit of maintenance goes a long way toward protecting the overall integrity of your HVAC system.
Boosting Efficiency
As your system experiences wear and repair needs, its overall efficiency can decrease. This will lead to an increase in your monthly utility bills. You can boost the efficiency of your HVAC system by scheduling year-end service with an experienced professional. We know all the various components that should be routinely inspected, ensuring everything is working optimally.
Maintaining Optimal Indoor Air Quality
The quality of your indoor air is very important. In many cases, indoor air quality is worse than the outside. Contaminants such as pet dander, pollen, mold spores, dust, and volatile organic compounds can cause an increase in allergies, asthma attacks, and illness. Year-end checkups include things like inspecting your filter to see if it needs to be changed. We will also focus on cleaning off the interior components of your heating and cooling equipment so less particulate matter circulates through your living spaces.
If you would like, we can also conduct an indoor air quality assessment as an add-on to your maintenance. This testing will determine what kind of contaminants are in your indoor air. Based on this data, we can make recommendations for improving your indoor air quality. This can include the installation of whole-house air purification or ventilation. We recommend repeat testing to determine if beneficial changes have taken place.
Assessing HVAC Life Expectancy
Investing in a new furnace or an air conditioner is expensive. When we inspect your current setup, we will determine if you still have plenty of life left in your current equipment. Our goal is to provide you with time to budget for new HVAC equipment. If it’s time to have something new installed, we will help you find the equipment that is right for your home based on square footage, heating and cooling needs, etc.
Routine maintenance can go a long way toward protecting the integrity of your HVAC system. Homeowners who remember to schedule this service annually often experience more useful years out of their heating and cooling equipment. It’s also common to see fewer malfunctions over time when routine maintenance is utilized.
Preparing for the Year Ahead
While routine maintenance and checkups can address the wear and tear that occurred throughout the past year, this is also a great opportunity for our team to help you prepare for the year ahead. At the end of the calendar year in New Jersey, there will still be a few months of cold weather left. Then, we will turn to our air conditioning equipment to keep our homes comfortable and cool throughout the summer months. Preparing for spring and summer is important. If you wait to turn on your air conditioning in the middle of a heat wave and find it’s not working, this can leave you uncomfortable and potentially unsafe. We’ll perform routine checks ahead of time to spot any issues that could compromise the functioning of your AC in the summer. We’ll also make sure that your furnace will continue heating your home for the rest of the winter.
Saving on Emergency Repairs
While we can’t prevent every HVAC emergency from occurring, we can strive to catch issues early. Routine maintenance is a much more affordable process compared to an emergency repair in the middle of extreme weather or during a holiday. Not to mention, you may not be able to have your equipment repaired immediately if we need time to obtain a specific part. While we try to keep all the most used equipment with us during appointments, we can’t plan for everything. Save yourself time and money by investing in year-end HVAC checkups.
Avoiding DIY Maintenance and Repairs
We come across a lot of homeowners in the New Jersey area who try to save money by performing their own inspections, maintenance, and repairs. While it may seem like this will save you money, it’s common for more involved problems to occur down the line because of DIY work. What might seem like a simple repair can quickly cause permanent damage to your heating and cooling equipment, leading to a complete replacement. Year-end HVAC checkups are affordable compared to the investment of a new unit. This process is designed to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of your HVAC system throughout the year.
Key Components of Year-End HVAC Checkups
There are several tasks we will perform as part of year-end HVAC checkups. This includes the following.
Inspecting Your Filter
The filter in your furnace should be changed once every 30 to 90 days, depending on the type of filter you’re using. If you’ve neglected this maintenance task, we may need to clean the filter housing and interior components of your furnace as well as replace the filter. Not only is your filter critical for indoor air quality purposes, but it’s also important for protecting the integrity of your HVAC system.
Thermostat Inspection
It’s imperative that your thermostat reads the interior temperature correctly and communicates properly with your HVAC system. We may need to change the battery in your thermostat or perform a calibration.
Electrical Connections
We will inspect all electrical connections to ensure the wires are in good condition and affixed properly. This prevents HVAC shutdown as well as fire risk.
Safety Mechanisms
You have several safety mechanisms and devices that ensure your HVAC system is running properly. We will check things like carbon monoxide detectors and internal shutoff features to ensure they work correctly.
Checking Refrigerant Levels
Prior to using your air conditioning equipment, we recommend having your refrigerant level checked. Without enough refrigerant, your system will not efficiently cool your home. If you have a refrigerant leak that is causing low levels of fluid, this needs to be repaired promptly for safety reasons. Refrigerant can be dangerous to humans as well as the environment.
If you are in Metuchen or a surrounding area and would like to learn more about the benefits of year-end HVAC checkups, reach out to our team here at Sam's Air Control. In addition to routine heating maintenance and repairs, we also install and repair different types of heating and cooling equipment. We also work on boilers, commercial HVAC systems, and ductless systems and address indoor air quality concerns.
Contact our team at Sam's Air Control today to schedule an appointment. Ask us about our maintenance club!
