AC Repair | Grapevine, TX
Photo By LightFieldStudios at istock
Anybody who lives in Grapevine, TX, will know how hot and humid it gets during the summer. If you are unfortunate to suffer an air conditioner breakdown, life inside your home can soon get very uncomfortable. If you are looking after young children or elderly adults’ conditions can also get dangerous, with an increased risk of heat exhaustion and dehydration.
That is why One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth is ready to respond to any emergency AC repair that you have. You and your family’s safety are our biggest concerns.
How Can I Prevent a Call-Out and AC Repair?
This one is easy to answer, have your air conditioner regularly serviced! This is the advice we give all our customers. A service will save you money by ensuring that your unit is working as efficiently as it can, thus reducing your energy bills.
This will more than offset the fee for the service. Compared to the cost of an emergency call-out charge and AC repair, which can run into hundreds of dollars, we think a service represents good value.
Things That Can Go Wrong with Your Air Conditioner
An air conditioner is most likely to break down during the summer season. This should come as no surprise as many of us will have the units on all day and night during a heatwave when the temperature will often climb above one hundred degrees. There are some signs that you can be on the lookout for, that indicate trouble ahead.
- Short cycling of your air conditioner
- Increased energy bills
- The evaporator coils are frosting over
- Reduced cooling effect
- Increased Humidity levels
A service from One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth will resolve most of these problems without the need for an AC repair.
Short Cycling of Your Air Conditioner
A typical cooling cycle in an air conditioner lasts about 20 minutes, during which the compressor is switched on for ten minutes and then off for a further ten. This provides the optimum level of cooling in your home.
Short cycling occurs when the compressor switches itself off too early, and the cooling effect is reduced. If the short cycling is allowed to continue, the increasing amount of switching on and off will cause a breakdown and the need for an AC repair.
The main causes of short cycling are numerous but are more likely to be dirty air filters, frozen evaporator coils, and low coolant levels. Another cause of short cycling is having an oversized air conditioner. This is because the cooling effect will be so rapid that the compressor turns off before cool air is delivered equally throughout your home.
Increased Energy Bills
An air conditioner that is not serviced regularly will be less efficient than one that is. Likewise, an aging unit is never going to be as efficient as when it was new. In either case, less efficiency means higher energy bills.
Any component that has suffered too much wear and tear will use more energy and there is a greater chance that it will overheat and need replacing during an AC repair.
The Appearance of Frost and Ice on the Evaporator Coils
Any appearance of frost and ice on the evaporator coils is a bad sign. Without any further action the coils could completely freeze over, and your air conditioner will shut down. You cannot turn it back on until the evaporator coils thaw out, and this could be up to 24-hours you will be without your air conditioner.
There could be several reasons why frost and ice start to form. These include low coolant levels, a faulty fan, and dirty air filters and again all these problems will be remedied during a service, but you could replace the air filters yourself more often yourself.
This has the added benefit of improving air quality because a cleaner filter will allow fewer particles of pollen and dirt into your home.
Reduced Cooling Effect
Faulty fans, dirty air filters, freezing evaporator coils, and low levels will all reduce the cooling effect inside your home. A regular service from One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth will soon restore things to normal.
Increased Humidity Levels Are an Indicator of a Necessary AC Repair in Grapevine, TX
You do not need to be Einstein to figure out that less cooling effect will mean your home is warmer. Warmer air will contain more moisture, so your home will feel more humid too.
Your Air Conditioner Is Getting Old
Probably the biggest factor in needing an AC repair is the age of your air conditioner. A well-serviced air conditioner has a useful life of between 10-15 years, but eventually, things will start to go wrong.
As it gets older it will cost more to run and your energy bills will go up. You will find less cool air coming from your unit and it will start to get noisier. As more of us are working from home, increased noise levels are going to be a big irritant.
Increased energy bills also enlarge your carbon footprint. Another environmental concern is the use of the Ozone damaging coolant Freon (R22). Many older models still use this chemical, and it will become increasingly more difficult and expensive to find replacement supplies as the chemical is no longer made in the USA.
As your aging unit starts to need more and more repairs, it will become less economical to run. It may be a better use of your money to install a new air conditioner.
Yes, it will cost a lot at the beginning, but it will pay for itself in time, as a new install will use about 25 percent less energy. It will be quieter too, ideal for the home-worker and those light sleepers.
A Trusted AC Repair Company
One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth has been serving the people of Grapevine, TX since 1988. A qualified technician must arrive quickly at your home and get your air conditioner back into action again. That is why we have highly trained technicians on hand 24/7. Do not delay, call us today.