The end of summer signals the start of another school year, but it also means that it’s time to tackle essential HVAC maintenance and make necessary scheduling changes to your day-to-day comfort settings. Here’s a handy checklist to help you optimize your system’s performance and energy use for the back-to-school season and beyond:
Adjust Your Thermostat Schedule
Once everyone in the household goes back to their usual school/work routine and the house isn’t occupied on weekdays, you’ll want to make appropriate adjustments to your programmable thermostat schedule and temperature perimeters to help save energy.
To maximize your potential savings, you should set daily 7- to 10-degree temperature setback periods of eight hours or longer.
Replace the System’s Air Filter
Your cooling equipment had to work hard to condition your indoor air over the summer, so there’s bound to be accumulated dirt and debris on the air filter that also serves your heating system.
Checking and replacing the filter is vital, because running your HVAC with a dirty or clogged filter can affect its energy efficiency, or even damage key system components.
Eliminate Air Leaks
If you haven’t taken steps to reduce conditioned air losses around your home, now’s the perfect time to do so. You can use caulk, weatherstripping and/or expandable spray foam to seal gaps, cracks and holes around exterior doors and windows, the attic hatch, and wherever pipes, wires or vents penetrate through the exterior shell.
Having the HVAC ductwork properly sealed with metal-backed tape or mastic is important as well, because leaky or deficient ducts can waste up to 20 percent of your HVAC system’s output.
Schedule a Professional HVAC Tuneup
Use your back-to-school preparations as an easy reminder to call your trusted HVAC pro to schedule an end-of-summer system cleaning, inspection and tuneup. Tackling system maintenance now ensures that you’ll have time to get any needed repairs taken care of before heating season arrives, and your equipment will operate efficiently and reliably throughout the fall and winter.
To schedule a back-to-school HVAC maintenance appointment for your Lorain home, contact us at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.
Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area