HVACWe’ve been in this business for quite some time, and find that a lot of people do not understand the term HVAC. HVAC is a common industry term, but it does not translate very well to consumers. The purpose of this article is to explain HVAC in layman’s terms and also provide some timely and useful information on the air conditioning component in your HVAC system. And, we’ll provide some tips on how to avoid costly upsells you might not need.

HVAC

HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Your HVAC system is one of the most important parts of your home. HVAC includes the three major functions of your home comfort system. A complete system controls humidity, fresh air intake, maintains the quality of the air in your home, heats your home in the winter, and cools your home in the summer.

Air Conditioning

It’s that time of year. Customers are testing their air conditioning units for the long awaited summer months. And, they are calling us to perform service checks to tune up and make minor repairs to maintain their air conditioning systems. So, that’s our focus in this article.

How Does Your Air Conditioner Work: Here is a quick, simple and easy to understand video on how your air conditioner works.

 

In addition to the three major components mentioned in the video; the compressor, the condensor coil, and the evaporator coil, your air conditioning system relies on ductwork throughout your home to deliver cool air. And, of course, your system relies on freon to complete the cooling process. Please see our recent article on Air Conditioning Repair Tips before calling a professional repair service.

 

Be aware of scams or upsells.

Sadly, some companies pressure their techs to upsell regardless of the condition of the system. Conversely, some techs try to upsell to customers without the consent of their company. Let take a look at an example. An 84-yr old woman calls a local Plumbing and HVAC company to request preventative maintenance on her air conditioning system. She pays the company $89 for this service.

The company HVAC Tech recommends she replace and upgrade her entire system because its 15-years old and uses an old type of Freon. He estimates the price to be between $6-10,000. Yet, her current system is working just fine. The compressor works, the condensor coil and evaporator coil are both fine and she doesn’t need Freon. Nothing is broke! He promises to give her an exact price the following week. Coincidentally, this same company replaced her heating system about four years ago and she had to finance the cost. And, she’s still making payments on her very limited fixed income. Be careful folks!

Granted, there are a lot of good reasons to upgrade or replace the air conditioning component of your HVAC system, but there are also some bad reasons to make this huge investment. If you’re on a tight budget, it might be a whole lot better to know and understand the basic components of your air conditioning system and have them fixed if and when they break. And, they will break much less often if you take care of your system with yearly preventative maintenance. We, at Jerry’s Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, strive to meet our customer’s needs, not our own!

 

 

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