HVAC

Preparing for annual air conditioning (AC) maintenance is an essential step in ensuring your system runs efficiently and lasts longer. Ideally, you should schedule your AC maintenance in the early spring, before the weather REALLY starts to heat up! By booking a service appointment a few weeks before the summer season, you allow technicians to perform a thorough inspection, clean key components, and make any necessary repairs before you begin relying on your AC daily. Scheduling maintenance ahead of time helps you avoid long wait times, especially during peak service months when HVAC technicians are in high demand. Trust me when I say – our fellas fill their schedules up FAST this time of year, so don’t wait!

Regular AC maintenance helps to catch potential problems early, preventing costly breakdowns during the hottest months. During an annual service, a technician will inspect and clean the evaporator and condenser coils, check refrigerant levels, test the thermostat calibration, and ensure that the air filter is clean or replaced. These tasks help improve your system’s energy efficiency, enhance indoor air quality, and extend the lifespan of the unit. Plus, a well-maintained system is less likely to experience unexpected breakdowns, which can be uncomfortable and expensive to repair when you need cooling the most.

In addition to enhancing your comfort and reducing the risk of breakdowns, annual AC maintenance is often required to keep your warranty valid. Many manufacturers mandate that their systems be serviced by a professional on a regular basis to maintain coverage. By staying on top of these maintenance requirements, you ensure that you’re covered if an issue arises during the warranty period. Overall, scheduling AC maintenance in the spring is a simple but effective way to protect your investment, improve system performance, and enjoy a cool and comfortable summer season!

Before calling a professional to address HVAC issues, homeowners can troubleshoot a few common problems themselves to save time and money. One of the easiest and most effective steps is to check and replace the air filter. Clogged or dirty filters restrict airflow, which can cause the system to overheat or freeze, leading to inefficient heating or cooling. Most filters should be replaced every 1-3 months, depending on usage, and doing so can often resolve poor performance or strange noises from your HVAC system.

Another simple step is to check the thermostat settings and ensure that the thermostat is functioning correctly. Sometimes, the issue can be as simple as a misadjusted setting or dead batteries. If your system isn’t responding to temperature changes, try replacing the thermostat batteries and confirm that it is set to the correct mode (heating or cooling, depending on the season). Additionally, make sure the thermostat is located in an area with good airflow and isn’t being influenced by nearby heat sources, like lamps or direct sunlight, which could cause inaccurate readings.

If these basic checks don’t solve the issue, consider inspecting the outdoor unit (for cooling systems) or the furnace (for heating systems) for any obvious signs of damage or debris. Make sure the outdoor unit is clear of leaves, dirt, or other obstructions that could block airflow. Similarly, ensure the furnace vents are unobstructed and clean. While these quick checks can’t replace a professional inspection, they can help identify and resolve simple issues, saving you from unnecessary service calls. If the problem persists after completing these checks, it’s time to contact Alpine’s office to schedule a licensed HVAC technician for further diagnosis and repair!

Today we want to look at quickly troubleshooting possible and extremely common reasons for those pesky HVAC problems. I wish I had a dollar for every call we’ve taken for a downed furnace, where we’ve arrived on site to inspect the issue and have determined one of two things:

1 – The batteries in the thermostat. If your thermostat batteries are dead or dying, some potential signs would be the thermostat not reading correctly, the thermostat failing to operate at all, and/or the unit itself not holding temp. Change the batteries to a fresh set, send out a quick prayer, and if all is well – you just saved yourself a due invoice and costly service call.

2 – The filter. Filters need to be changed at a bare minimum every few months, though any reputable technician that wants your home up and running at its best will tell you that the filter should be changed monthly, especially if you have pets, are an indoor smoker, or have a large family home. Filters can become clogged with dust, skin particles, smoke build up, pet hair, etc. and nobody wants to be breathing that in! Not changing your filter could not only lead to a costly repair or replacement unit all together but may be a detriment to your health as well. If you notice your HVAC unit not getting to temp, sputtering to call for heat, not igniting properly, etc. – we highly suggest checking on the state of your filters before spending the money on a service technician.

We see the above issues and simplistic resolutions far too often to sit quietly by without bringing up the point of conversation. We know that not all issues are easy-fix solutions and that not everyone is attune to home service and upgrades. We do, however, believe in sparing you unnecessary costs, loss of valuable time, and want to do our part in upholding the integrity of honest home service companies like Alpine Plumbing Heating & Cooling. Thank me later!

As mentioned in our most recent blog, the average person can easily misuse the lingo and/or mistake the actual root issue. While our team of certified experts will inevitably get to the bottom of the issue, we thought it useful to compile a short list of industry terms and their definitions that people often mistake. We have covered some easily misused plumbing jargon. Now, today, we want to dive into some HVAC terminology.

Furnace- A furnace system runs on natural gas, propane, or electricity. It heats up air and pushes it through the ductwork of your home using a blower. This creates a high level of ambient temperature in the home, but the air is sometimes less comfortable due to dryness.

Boiler- (different from the term “furnace”) A boiler is a closed vessel in which water is heated. The heated or vaporized water exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications. Boiler systems run via natural gas, oil, electricity, or even wood pellets. They use a special pump to heat radiant flooring systems, cast iron radiators, or baseboard radiators throughout your home. Due to the lack of a blower, radiantly heated air is often the most comfortable option for use inside your home.

Floor Radiant Heating- Radiant heating systems supply heat directly to the floor or to panels in the wall or ceiling of a house. The systems depend largely on radiant heat transfer — the delivery of heat directly from the hot surface to the people and objects in the room via infrared radiation. There are three types of radiant floor heat — radiant air floors (air is the heat-carrying medium), electric radiant floors, and hot water (hydronic) radiant floors.

Thermocouple- Thermocouples are sensors used to measure temperature. It is a device used inside a gas furnace and/or water heater, to assist the pilot light in keeping your furnace running and safe. It works rather like a fail-safe to keep unburned gas from accumulating and burning, exploding, or causing another type of health risk. The thermocouple working principle is based on the “Seeback Effect.” This effect states that when a closed circuit is formed by jointing two dissimilar metals at two junctions, and junctions are maintained at different temperatures then an electromotive force (e.m.f.) is induced in this closed circuit.

Flue- (Not to be confused with the flu.) A duct for smoke and waste gases produced by a fire, a gas heater, a power station, or other fuel-burning installation.

Flue Vent- A metal chimney which is “thin walled” – either a single wall of metal or a thin double wall in some areas is called a “vent”. A double-walled metal flue used for venting gas fired appliances in the U.S. and Canada is a Type-B vent. In some areas a single-walled vent might be used for gas-fired equipment such as a water heater. A single-walled metal vent or a Type-B vent would be unsafe if used to vent a woodstove or oil-fired equipment.

Composite Heating Element- (such as a “heating coil”) Tubular (sheathed) elements normally comprise a fine coil of nichrome resistance heating alloy wire, that is inside a metallic tube (of copper or stainless-steel alloys) and insulated by magnesium oxide powder. The heater generates the electric current which flows into the coil. The heating coil transfers the electric energy into heat energy. It may be directly immersed in the medium to heat it up or radiate heat through an open space.

                Now that we’ve covered some common terms, we hope we’ve helped to better educate some folks out there! Again, we here at Alpine want to help spare you as much stress as possible in keeping your home at its best. Feel free to give us a call Monday through Thursday, 8am-4:00pm (Fridays 8am-3pm), at 406-252-7100 and we will try our might to figure things out together!