Top Interferences to Central Air Conditioning

The summer heat can be a strain on even the strongest air conditioning unit. Because of this, many homeowners frequently complain that their air conditioning does not keep their home as comfortable as they would like. There are many different things that can cause your HVAC system to work at a lower efficiency than it should, making the problem sometimes difficult to diagnose. Start with some of the following tedious yet important tasks before installing something new.

Leaking Air Ducts

One of the main causes of poor heating and air conditioning system performance is leaky air ducts. Your ducts are very similar to your plumbing pipes, except that they deliver air throughout your home. We can see damage to plumbing immediately, because water leaks everywhere. Air ducts, on the other hand, sneak up on us because the leaking is not readily apparent. Whenever our ducts leak, they are effectively wasting cooled air into the attic or other space that they are in. In order to prevent this, your ducts should be sealed at all metal-to-metal and metal-to-flex connections. To do this, your insulation should be pulled back and the joints sealed with mastic. Duct tape just doesn't quite do the job.

Too Little Or Too Much Refrigerant

Another common cause of poor AC performance is your refrigerant charge. Most central air systems use a refrigerant that helps to transfer heat between the inside and outside. Your particular system will work best with a certain amount of refrigerant, meaning that it will function at less than capacity with both more or less refrigerant. This can lead to up to 20-30% of a decrease in efficiency.

Incorrect Air Filter Installed

Always install the proper air filter. While most HVAC systems were designed to use cheap, fiberglass air filters to filter the air coming into the system, they are not always the best choice for the job. To remedy this, many people go out and buy a high-efficiency air filter that is much better at keeping the air in their home cleaner. The problem with this, is that these filters sometimes decrease the air flow. This can reduce the efficiency of the entire system. Choose a filter that both filters out unwanted particles and allows sufficient airflow.

Insufficient Return Ducting

Return ducts are absolutely necessary for the proper functioning of your HVAC system. Many systems, however, have only a single return somewhere in the middle of their house. Each room is supplied with its own source of conditioned air, but it all has to find its way back to this central location to be cooled once again. Whenever doors are closed, the space between the floor and the door is not always sufficient to allow the air to return back to the return vent. This leads to some rooms being hot and some being cold. One solution is to have a heating and air contractor install additional returns to assist in evening out your cooling system.