Modern air conditioning units are quite dependable and long lived, but that doesn’t mean you can install one and forget about it. If you’ve never given your air conditioner a checkup, now’s the time.
Photo by macinate.
There are a dozen little things that can contribute to your air conditioner being less efficient than when it was factory fresh. Worn fan belts, bent cooling fins, damaged insulation on the coolant line, and other small signs of wear and tear on your unit all chip away at efficiency. Individually, most of them won’t contribute to a catastrophic loss of cooling power but if you’ve got ten minor things wrong with your air conditioning unit that only sap 1% efficiency, you’ve got a cumulative drop of 10%.
At the home improvement site HomeOwner.Net they have a list of ways you can tune up your air conditioning unit whether you’re using an evaporation “swamp” cooler or a refrigerated air conditioning unit. Here are a few tips from the checklist for refrigerated units:
- Be sure the suction or cool line from the condenser to the compressor is insulated with snap-on urethane or other high R-value insulation.
- Straighten all of the evaporator and condenser coil fins with a small pointed stick or a special plastic fin comb. Bent fins do not allow proper air distribution.
- If the condenser is at ground level, be sure no vegetation or foreign material is restricting the air flow path. If possible, shade the condenser with trees or bushes, which will improve the cooling efficiency by elimination of direct sunshine.
I went through the checklist with my own air conditioning unit and found that exposure to sunlight had caused the insulation around the coolant pipe going into the house to start crumbling and there are a few spots that could use a little grooming with a fin comb. If your unit is more than a year old you’ll likely be able to find a few items off the checklist that require your attention. Once you’re done with your air conditioner checkup you’ll have lowered your energy bill and made your house an even more pleasant refuge from the summer sun.
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