Our summer weather can sometimes arrive abruptly during spring. We’ll switch from cloudy and cool weather straight to the big heat. You want to know that the first time you need your air conditioning system for the year that it will turn on and do its job right.
Before you switch on your AC for the hot weather, go over these recommended steps. They’ll help you prepare the air conditioning system and give it a better start to the season.
We’re currently experiencing triple-digit weather here in the Central Valley—and this can make a faulty air conditioner a critical emergency! Weather this hot can lead to major health problems, such as heat stroke and dehydration, that can be life-threatening if emergency steps aren’t taken. We have a few tips for spotting heating emergencies during this time to help keep you safe.
Watch for heat stroke: Heat stroke (aka sunstroke) is when the body overheats beyond 104°F. It’s a medical emergency that can cause damage to the nervous system if not treated, so if you suspect you or someone near you has it, call 9-1-1 immediately. It’s most dangerous for people over age 50. Fortunately, heat stroke doesn’t hit all at once: there’s a progression of symptoms you may notice that can give you advanced warning. Watch for people who seemed confused, disoriented, feel nauseous or are experiencing vomiting and trouble breathing. Watch out for these signs in yourself: throbbing headache, dizziness, weakness, and muscle cramps.
Dehydration: You’re always losing water from your body, but you usually replace it by drinking and eating. But extreme heat can lead to losing water faster than it’s replaced. Mild dehydration is common and not a serious problem—just drink some water! But major dehydration during brutally hot days will cause dizziness, fast heartbeat, rapid breathing, fainting, rough skin and chapped lips. As with heat stroke, this is a medical emergency that needs treatment, not just water!
The Yosemite fire has brought a steep drop in the air quality in our area. Because of the amount of smoke in the air, the air filter in your home’s HVAC system is going to get dirty extremely quickly. If you usually change your filter every few months, we strongly urge you to change it now, no matter what your regular schedule is. This isn’t just our recommendation, either! The CDC urges regular changing of the air filter to prevent the circulation of outside smoke through your home during times of major fires.
If you need AC help to get through this intense summer weather, or you’re looking for indoor air quality assistance, call on Purl’s!
Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning: Quality Is the Cornerstone of Our Success Since 1952!
During the winter, we looked at how a tripped circuit breaker can occur with a furnace. It can happen with your air conditioning system as well—it definitely has to work hard during our hot summers here in the Central Valley! An air conditioning system is a powerful appliance that draws on large amounts of electricity, which makes it possible for it to demand too much and cause a breaker to trip to protect the circuit. When that happens, the air conditioning system won’t run.
We advise people to always check their breakers when their AC suddenly shuts down. If you run into this situation, but the air conditioner continues to cause the circuit to trip, you have a more serious issue that will require professional air conditioning repair in Oakhurst, CA or elsewhere in the Central Valley.
We place a special emphasis on regular air conditioning maintenance during the spring. There’s no better way to protect your investment in your HVAC equipment and ensure a long service life. Maintenance also helps keep your air conditioning system running at high efficiency and with reduced chances of breaking down suddenly during a hot day.
We’d like to explain in more detail exactly why maintenance is so essential. To do that, we’re going to list some of the ways that lack of maintenance creates trouble for an air conditioner. Explaining to people that “wear and tear” is bad news for an AC only tells part of the story. Actually showing people what this wear and tear is and what it does gets to the heart of the necessity of annual air conditioning system maintenance.
March is a strange time for the weather in the Central Valley. It’s hard to predict the swings in temperature, which can run into near-summer warmth only to drop back to the lowest points of winter. It’s an important month for the transition between heating season and cooling season: you need to have a furnace in good shape and an air conditioning system ready for the heavy work ahead.
No matter which forced-air comfort system you use the most during March, there’s a component the two systems have in common that requires special attention, the air filter. This filter must be changed on a regular basis as part of ongoing heating and air conditioning maintenance.
With the official start of spring less than a month away, people are thinking about preparing their home for hotter weather. Although here in the Central Valley we’re not quite ready to stop using our heating systems, there are some steps to take now that will help prepare for the seasonal transition. The most important is to schedule your regular maintenance in Madera, CA. Getting on the schedule for the spring maintenance visit at this time of year means you’ll have your air conditioning system inspected, tuned-up, and ready to go when the time comes.
If you haven’t already, contact our team to sign up for our Ultimate Service Agreement, which provides superb maintenance during the year for both your air conditioning and heating system. The benefits you’ll receive thanks to regular maintenance are immense.
March is an unusual month when it comes to heating and cooling a home, especially in a place like Northern California, where temperatures often swing back and forth between warm days and cold rainy days. This is probably the ideal time of the year to think about making changes to your HVAC system, such as putting in a new air conditioner or heater. It’s also the time to arrange for the annual maintenance service that will see that your air conditioning system is prepared for the coming summer.
One of the more common repair problems that an air conditioning system might encounter is refrigerant leaks. The refrigerant in an AC, as we’ve discussed before, does not dissipate during operation. The air conditioner should use the same amount of refrigerant (referred to as its charge) for its entire service life. The exception is when leaks start. When an air conditioning system loses refrigerant through leaks, it will result in frozen coils, a drop in cooling power, and possibly a burnt-out compressor.
Regular maintenance for your air conditioner is one of the most important steps to take every year to protect your home comfort and energy bills. The best time to have the maintenance visit done is during the spring; a professional provides a thorough inspection and tune-up for the AC so that it will work at its best throughout the coming hot season.
When your home’s air conditioning system won’t turn on, you know you have a problem. But the opposite condition can also occur: an air conditioning system that keeps running continuously no matter how you adjust the thermostat. Why does this happen? We’ll take a closer look at some of the reasons and what you should do about it.
