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AC Maintenance in Lake Havasu City, AZ

How To Keep Your AC Running Strong Through Arizona’s Heat

Written by Amanda Zink on . Posted in Cooling.

Living in Arizona means facing hot summers, which makes your air conditioner work overtime to keep you cool. Constant use can wear down your AC over time, leading to expensive repairs or a breakdown when you need it most. However, with proper care and maintenance, you can extend the life of your air conditioner and avoid the hassle and high costs of replacements.

Simple cleaning, using the correct thermostat settings, and scheduling regular maintenance can help keep your system running smoothly during the hottest months. At Air Control Home Services in Lake Havasu City, AZ, we’re here to help you maximize your AC’s performance so you stay cool all summer long.

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Power of Shade: Protecting Your AC and Home

In Arizona’s heat, one of the best ways to keep your home cool and lighten the load on your air conditioner is by providing shade. Direct sunlight hitting your house can raise indoor temperatures, causing your AC to work harder than necessary. While window coverings such as blackout curtains and blinds can help, you can improve their effectiveness by adding outdoor shading.

Planting trees and vines or installing awnings and shade sails can reduce the heat entering your home. Planting shade trees on the west side, where the sun is strongest in the late afternoon, helps block the sun’s rays and cools your home. This simple change also reduces the load on your air conditioning system.

You can also install reflective window films that block UV rays while still allowing beneficial natural light to enter your space. These films can reduce heat gain by up to 60 percent, making them a smart investment for homes in Arizona. Keeping your home cooler reduces the workload on your AC, prolongs its lifespan, and lowers energy bills.

ways to keep ac running hot days

Yearly Maintenance: Keep Your AC in Top Shape

To ensure your AC system lasts longer and operates in the Arizona heat, annual maintenance is essential. As your AC runs in triple-digit temperatures, it collects dirt, dust, and debris that can clog filters and impede airflow. An air conditioner with clogged filters and dirty coils must work much harder to cool your home, resulting in energy waste, higher bills, and unnecessary wear on the system. With professional AC maintenance, you can rest easy knowing your system is in great condition.

Schedule professional maintenance at least once a year, before summer. A technician will clean the coils, check refrigerant levels, and perform other necessary tasks to ensure your system runs. HVAC technicians should only perform maintenance. Yearly maintenance helps prevent expensive repairs, improves cooling efficiency, and keeps you compliant with the manufacturer’s warranty.

In hot climates like Arizona, it is especially important to keep up with maintenance since your air conditioner runs almost every day from June to September. Regular service ensures that your system is ready to handle the summer heat without significant issues.

Insulation: Unseen Protector of Your Home’s Coolness

Proper insulation is crucial for keeping your home cool and ensuring that your AC system runs in Arizona’s extreme temperatures. It helps maintain a steady temperature by preventing cool air from escaping and warm air from entering. If your home is lacking insulation, your AC will have to work harder to cool it, leading to higher energy bills. With the right insulation, you can stay comfortable without overworking your AC.

Begin by checking the insulation in key areas of your home, particularly in the attic. Since heat rises, your attic is where you will lose the most cool air if it is not insulated. Adding or upgrading attic insulation can improve the temperature regulation of your home. If you live in a multi-story house, be sure to consider the walls and floors between rooms as well. Insulated walls and floors help retain cool air and prevent heat from entering your living spaces.

In addition to adding insulation, seal any cracks or gaps around windows, doors, and ducts. Even small leaks can make your air conditioner work harder. Caulking and weatherstripping are easy solutions that help create a tight seal and maintain your home’s internal temperature.

Airflow Management: Let the Cool Air Flow

Good airflow is essential for a working air conditioner, especially in intense heat. Without proper airflow, your system struggles to distribute cool air, making your home uncomfortable and causing the unit to overwork. To improve airflow, clear any obstructions like furniture or curtains from vents and registers. If you have ceiling fans, adjust them to enhance the circulation of cool air. Simple adjustments can improve both comfort and efficiency.

In Arizona’s climate, it’s important to clean your ducts. Over time, dust and debris accumulate in your ducts, obstructing airflow and spreading allergens. Having a professional duct cleaning every few years keeps your system running and ensures that cool air flows throughout your home.

Don’t forget to check the filters in your air conditioner. Clean filters improve airflow. If your air conditioner is in an attic or another dusty area, you might need to replace the filters more often. Maintaining proper airflow is one of the easiest and most effective ways to keep your AC system running.

Avoid Overuse: Know When To Take a Break

In Arizona, it might be tempting to run your air conditioner all summer. However, doing so can cause wear and tear on the system. Although your air conditioner can withstand the heat, constant use without breaks can reduce its lifespan.

If your home feels too warm even with the AC running, check if your thermostat is set too low. Setting the temperature too low can make your system work harder than necessary. Try setting your thermostat to a more reasonable temperature, like 78°F. This keeps your home cool while preventing the system from running nonstop.

Another way to prevent overuse is by using a programmable thermostat. This device allows you to adjust your air conditioning when you’re not at home or when you’re sleeping. For instance, you can increase the temperature while you’re at work or during the night, and then cool your house back down before you return home or wake up.

Bring In Smart Tech

Smart thermostats are a game-changer for managing your AC in Arizona’s heat. You can control your home’s temperature from anywhere, even when you’re not at home. Many of these devices learn your schedule and adjust. For example, your thermostat can raise the temperature while you’re at work and cool down right before you get home.

Take Care of Your AC Today

Taking the right steps to care for your air conditioner can impact its lifespan, especially in Arizona’s extreme heat. Regular maintenance, proper settings, and proactive repairs can all help keep your system running. If you want to ensure your AC runs, Air Control Home Services is here to provide expert cooling services and advice. Let us assist you in staying cool for years to come. We also offer expert HVAC services, plumbing repairs, electrical installations, and advanced air quality systems.

AC Maintenance in Lake Havasu City, AZ

Causes of Uneven Home Cooling and Ways to Resolve It

Written by Amanda Zink on . Posted in Cooling.

On a hot and humid summer day, you want to be just as comfortable watching television in the downstairs den as you are doing so in your upstairs bedroom. However, it’s not uncommon for houses to be cooler in certain areas than they are in others. There are a number of reasons for this that you can remedy in a timely and affordable manner.

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Ducts or Vents Are Clogged

Over time, dust, dirt and other particles gets inside of your ducts and coat them with a thick layer of debris. This debris reduces the amount of air that can get through the duct as well as the distance it can travel before it is completely blocked. While less common, a clogged vent prevents air from getting from the duct into a given space.

Typically, rooms that are closer to where the cold air is distributed throughout the home are cooler than those farther away. If a vent is clogged, it will struggle to make the room it’s in as cool as other rooms that don’t have clogged vents or similar airflow issues.

The easiest way to take care of this problem is to have your ducts cleaned by professionals such as those at Air Control Home Services. Ideally, you’ll have your home’s ducts cleaned at least every three years, but you can choose a schedule that meets your needs and budget. You can time this service with your regular AC maintenance appointments to stay on top of it.

Ducts Are Loose or Damaged

Instead of a clogged duct, your home might have a damaged or loose duct that is allowing air to escape before it gets to its intended destination. In some cases, the accumulation of debris inside a duct will cause it to sag or disconnect from other ducts.

A hole or crack can also form, allowing air to escape before it can get around to every room in your home. The easiest way to fix the issue is to have ducts inspected on a regular basis to catch these and other potential issues.

Regular cleanings can prevent sagging, while repairing or replacing ducts can take care of any problems that already exist. Sealing HVAC ducts may also prevent them from becoming clogged or otherwise ineffective at distributing cool air.

The Cooling System Is the Wrong Size

A cooling system must be properly sized to ensure that it is able to evenly cool your home without incident. If a system is too small, it won’t be able to generate enough cold air to reach every part of your house. If the system is too large, it could cool the air too quickly.

While this may seem like a good thing, it also means that the system won’t run long enough to take humidity out of the air. Ultimately, you could be left with interior spaces that are cooler but still full of sticky moist air.

Also, if your AC is too large, it won’t allow for gradual cooling in all areas of the house. Therefore, you may find that certain rooms remain both hot and humid even after the cooling system has run.

Finally, a system that is too large for your house is prone to short cycling. This means that it will continually start and stop instead of running for a few minutes, turning off and staying off until the house warms up again. Continuous short cycling means additional wear on parts and a shorter lifespan.

To remedy this issue, contact a professional to review product options in the area. This will enable you to make a confident purchase decision that can help you save on maintenance and other costs for up to two decades.

Your Cooling System Is Old

A cooling system generally lasts for about a decade, but proper maintenance may help to extend its useful life for another few years after that. However, regardless of how much upkeep you do, your current cooling system has a finite useful life. As it approaches the end of that lifespan, it will likely be less efficient than it was at first.

It’s also worth noting that it is probably less efficient than new products available today. This is in large part because efficiency standards have improved over the last two decades. Ultimately, you’ll start to notice that only certain parts of your home are getting sufficiently cool air.

To resolve issues related to an aging system, you can simply have a new one installed. A professional can complete this project in a matter of hours after it arrives at your home.

Your Home Lacks Adequate Insulation

Even if your ducts are clean, and your air conditioner is relatively new, you could still have uneven cooling in your home. This is because a lack of insulation could allow cool air to escape your house during the summer months. It’s also possible that warm and moist air could be allowed to enter the home in areas that aren’t properly insulated.

In many homes, the attic, basement and garage have little or no insulation. You may also discover that living room walls or floors lack insulation or that other areas of the home have older material that has worn away.

To resolve this issue, you can have an indoor airflow test conducted to determine where air is entering or escaping your home. From there, you can have problem areas insulated or add more insulation in areas where it’s simply too thin.

You may also want to consider sealing doors, windows and other gaps throughout the house to ensure that air isn’t allowed to go where you don’t want or need it to. You can seal gaps with a simple weatherstripping product or by caulking around the frame where the door or window isn’t flush.

Physics May Work Against You

If you live in a multistory home, you’ll likely find that the air is warmer upstairs and cooler downstairs. This is because warm air rises, so it will typically be hotter in an upstairs master bedroom than a first-floor den during the summer months.

The solution to the problem is to implement a zoned cooling system in your house. Installing such a system allows you to set the thermostat lower in areas that need extra help reaching your desired temperature.

Is the Thermostat in the Right Place?

A thermostat that is not installed or placed correctly may have a hard time sensing the temperature in your house. Therefore, it might decide that your home doesn’t need to be cooled or that certain zones in a zoned cooling setup don’t need to be regulated.

When this happens to you, the best solution is to have the thermostat moved, repaired or replaced. At Air Control Home Services, we can replace older products with a smart thermostat that is easier to control whether you’re home or away. In addition to installing or repairing a cooling system, we can clean and seal ducts to ensure that they allow air to flow as it should.

When you need air conditioning service, contact our team at Air Control Home Services in Lake Havasu City, AZ.

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