How to Transition your HVAC system when the season changes

Winter in Texas never lasts long and when spring comes around, it’s time to start thinking of your HVAC system. While transitioning from heating to cooling seems as simple as flipping a switch on your thermostat, there are a few additional steps that can help keep your HVAC in good shape through the changing seasons.

Air Out Your Home

This may not seem like a critical spring cleaning step, but airing out your home by opening windows and doors on a nice day has several benefits. Airing out your home can help improve air quality after keeping your house shut tight during winter. In addition, it can give your HVAC system a brief break while you let the weather regulate your home’s temperature. Remember to ensure all of your windows and doors are shut again before turning your HVAC system back on to avoid overworking it.

Clean Air Vents

During your spring cleaning, don’t forget to clean off your indoor air vents. Air vents can gather a surprising amount of dust throughout the year. When your air conditioner comes on, you don’t want that dust being picked up and circulated through your home. This can affect your indoor air quality, and aggravate allergies for you and your family. A quick cleaning with a duster or cloth that captures the existing dust will prevent you from having to deal with these air quality issues.

Change Air Filters

You’ve probably heard it before, but we’ll say it again. Change your home air filters monthly or as recommended by the manufacturer. Changing your air filters regularly is an important part of both keeping your HVAC system in good condition and maintaining your indoor air quality. When filters get dusty and blocked it causes your heating and air conditioning system to work harder than necessary to keep your home comfortable, which will hurt the life of your unit.

Clear The Outside Unit

Your outdoor air conditioning unit can accumulate dust and debris over the winter months. Once you start using your unit regularly when the weather warms up you’ll need to clear away this debris for better function. Before you turn on your air conditioner for the first time in spring you can rinse it off with a hose being careful not to damage any of the fins. Additionally, plants that have encroached on the unit should also be cleared to keep about a foot of space between your unit and anything else.

Schedule Spring Maintenance

Finally, when it comes time to transition from heating to cooling, it’s important to schedule a professional maintenance appointment. Having your HVAC system inspected by a professional technician regularly will not only keep the system in good shape, it will help catch small problems before they snowball into system failures. HVAC technicians will notice signs that your system is struggling that you might not, and they’ll be able to take action to fix the problem right away. The change of season is a great time to have this maintenance done to prevent outages during the hot summer.

Still need to schedule your next maintenance appointment? Contact AirOne Heating & Air Conditioning, a professional HVAC company in San Marcos, to set up an appointment today!

Photo credit: Furniture San Antonio on Visual hunt / CC BY-SA