If you’ve just moved into a new home for the first time, you might not be familiar with having an HVAC system and what you need to do to keep it working properly. Unfortunately, this is a case where what you don’t know can hurt you, because without proper maintenance, you’re going to get very familiar with a heating and air conditioning repair company.
That’s because like any major appliance, the HVAC at your St. Paul, MN home will start to fail if you don’t take proper care of it. Proper maintenance and avoiding unnecessary heating and air conditioning repair jobs starts with making sure to change your air filter regularly. Besides that, keeping your air filter clean benefits everyone living in your home. Learn a few reasons why you need to change your air filter regularly here!
Higher Power Bills
During the summer, it’s natural to see your electric bill rise along with the temperatures in Minnesota. However, when your bill shoots up out of nowhere, there’s a good chance that you’ve neglected something with your HVAC system.
That’s because when you use your air conditioner, it’s trying to bring the temperature of your indoor air down to the level that you find comfortable. However, the amount of energy it has to put out to achieve that goal depends on how hard it has to work in order to get the temperature where you want it, which is why electric bills rise in the summer. When your filter gets clogged with dust, it forces your HVAC to work harder to bring the temperature down, which leads to a much higher power bill to get a comfortable temperature. Over time, the dust can overwhelm the filter, causing serious problems for the HVAC.
Unfortunately, once dust gets into your HVAC, you’re going to need to call for heating and air conditioning repair to bring your power bills back to normal. The best solution is to never let things get that far in the first place by changing your filter regularly.
Moisture and Mold
Have you ever noticed moisture around your air conditioning unit while it’s working? It’s a common occurrence because your HVAC needs to process its coolants throughout the system, which leads to a few droplets of moisture as it cools the air. Normally, that’s not a big deal, but there’s one problem that comes when you don’t change your filter: Your air conditioner becomes the perfect environment for mold spores to grow.
When your filter is working perfectly, mold spores can’t nestle in the warm, moist parts of your HVAC. But when the filter gets clogged, mold has the perfect opportunity to grow and cause serious breathing problems for the entire household. Not only can mold inhibit your HVAC’s ability to cool down the home, but it can make people at your St. Paul, MN home very sick if they’re sensitive to mold spores.
Before you find yourself needing to either call for heating and air conditioning repair or for mold remediation, it’s important to stop the problem in its tracks by changing the air filter.
Covered with Dust
When dust gets into your air filter, you can expect a drop in efficiency from your HVAC. Unfortunately, that’s a best-case scenario for your HVAC system. If you continue to allow dust to build up and it makes its way into the main parts of your HVAC, you can expect to need heating and air conditioning repair in the near future.
That’s because your system has plenty of moving parts that help it heat or cool the air, depending on what you need from your HVAC at the time. Unfortunately, when your fans and motors get covered with dust, they don’t work anywhere near as well, and they can even stop entirely. In fact, one of the main reasons that people need to call for heating and air conditioning repair is because dust has caused their fans to stop working, making the air conditioner useless.
Even if your HVAC is able to keep working through the dust, there’s another reason you’ll want to replace your air filter: your indoor air quality. You spend roughly 87 percent of your day inside, so if you’re constantly blowing dust throughout your home, you’re exposing your body to airborne pathogens and difficulty breathing. Both of those will cost a lot more than heating and air conditioning repair — and a heck of a lot more than just changing the air filter in the first place!
Prematurely Aging HVAC
Let’s say that you get away with keeping your filter in place for too long, and your HVAC is able to work through it without a noticeable rise in either your power bills or breathing problems. Your luck isn’t going to hold out forever. Eventually, you’re going to need a heating and air conditioning repair earlier than you would have, and you might even need to replace your HVAC system entirely.
An average HVAC should last 10 to 15 years before you need to replace it, but that’s only if you take proper care of it by conducting maintenance and scheduling a heating and air conditioning repair technician when you need to make simple fixes. Failing to do these things, can lead to you replacing your HVAC well before the 10-year mark.
When it comes to keeping your HVAC system operational, a little bit of knowledge can make a world of difference. At Blue Ox Heating & Air, we’re happy to provide you with heating and air conditioning repair when you need it, but we know you’d prefer to call for help as infrequently as possible. Make sure to do the little things for your air conditioner and call us in for those big HVAC problems that need an expert’s touch!
