Exposing Heating and Air Conditioning Repair Myths | Fort Worth, TX

Exposing Heating and Air Conditioning Repair Myths | Fort Worth, TX

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It’s tempting to give in to superstition, and live your life like the things you hear off hand are instantly true, but when it comes to air conditioning, it can be a little more serious. In the long term, following some of these myths can lead to a more expensive electric and gas bill, or potentially having to replace some of the equipment around your home. Take the time to spot these heating and air conditioning repair myths in action around your home, and you might be able to avoid having to spend more money than you have to.

Myth #1: Space Heaters Are Better to Heat Your Home than Central Heating

The thinking behind this myth makes sense at first, why waste money heating up every room of your house when you can just heat the room you’re in. Heating and air conditioning repair technicians agree, however, that unless you don’t have access to gas, space heaters are a huge waste of money. Electricity as a source of heat is much more wasteful than just using a gas heater, and the air flow that accompanies it. At the end of the day, heating and air conditioning repair technicians agree that using a space heater leaves you a little poorer, and a little colder if you have to go to the bathroom.

Myth #2: The Lower You Set Your Thermostat, the Faster it Cools Your House

Picture this, you’re home after a long day of work, and you turned off the air conditioner, or the heater for the day. You get home, and crank the ac to as low or high as it goes. In your head this makes sense, the higher or lower it is, the faster it’ll get there. Heating and air conditioning repair experts agree, however that heaters and ac’s work at constant rates, so cranking the thermostat only makes the system work harder after the fact by trying to cool your house down colder than you would normally want.

Myth #3: You Should Only Call a Heating and Air Conditioning Repair Technician When Something’s Broken

Air conditioners and heaters require annual servicing, as the hottest and coldest times of the year tend to cause the most wear and tear to your units. On the flipside, constant maintenance increases the lifespan of your units, keeping them efficient, and preventing them from breaking down out of nowhere. Every system is different, and consulting a heating and air conditioning tech is important to determining when to schedule these maintenance checks, and how much money you can save on the lower energy and gas costs.

Myth #4: Thermostats Can Function the Same Anywhere

It’s taken for granted by non-heating and air conditioning professionals that a thermostat is just a little device that changes the temperature of your home, at the press of a button. In reality, because your thermostat measures the ambient temperature of the home by the surrounding air, it’s possible that external factors are manipulating it. For example, in the event your thermostat is in a den or coffee room that gets a lot of sunshine, the sun can heat up the sensor on your thermostat directly, making it read the air as hotter than it actually is, making your home colder in compensation. It’s a simple process to have a heating and air conditioning repair professional install a new thermostat on a wall that faces away from natural sunlight, is away from an external heat source like an oven or lamp, and isn’t subject to strong drafts. All these together can make both your ac and heater run better over time by avoiding the undue stress they would otherwise accrue from overwork.

Myth #5: Fans Cool Down a Room

It makes sense to use fans to cool down a room instead of just running your AC for more money. Heating and air conditioning pros agree that fans are designed to make a person feel cooler, this is different than actually cooling down a room in your Fort Worth, TX home however. While ventilation is important, the actual mechanism of staying cool is powered by the human body’s ability to sweat. By evaporating the new source of water on your body, the fan acts to cool you down. On the flipside, if you have plants or electronics that are sensitive to hotter temperatures, the fan’s only going to marginally cool down a room, making it so that a room feels colder, but actually isn’t. In these cases, make sure to run the ac normally and protect your valuables from unnecessary this heating and air conditioning myth.

Myth #6: When it Comes to Heaters or Air Conditioners, Bigger is Better

Heating and air conditioning repair professionals are experts not only in the installation of HVAC equipment, but measuring the type of equipment a home will need to stay at room temperature year-round. While a Fort Worth, TX homeowner can be tempted to just buy a bigger unit for their home to cool it more effectively, it wouldn’t actually have the effect they think it would have. Properly sized units for a home put out just enough hot or cold air to make a home comfortable, while larger units not only use more power at similar rates, they lose efficiency by not using the ductwork they were designed to use, properly. Not only that, but because these units are larger, the air cycles they have are shorter, meaning over time, they’ll wear out faster than properly sized units.

Myth #7: Closing Vents Saves You Air

Closing the vent to a room doesn’t actually cut off the air to that part of the home. Because air flows normally between rooms, the only thing you get from closing a vent, is a call from your heating and air conditioning repair technician that you’re stressing the ductwork in your home by making it work harder.

In Conclusion

While heating and air conditioning repair technicians at One Hour Air Conditioning and Heating should be called in the case that a home is in need of maintenance, you can do your part to protect your Fort Worth, TX home by debunking these myths.