Air Conditioner on Roof
by wfcadmin wfcadmin

6 Reasons Why Your AC Unit Is Failing This Summer 

What better feeling is there than walking inside your cool home after being outside on a hot, summer day? 

There is none!

This is a feeling that no homeowner wants to lose- but easily can. Follow these six tips to see what you can do to prevent your AC unit from failing and costing you more money this summer: 

1. Dirty Air Filters

Dirty air filters are the most common cause of an AC unit’s failure. When the air filters are clogged, this means that there is a particulate build-up, which prevents the air from moving around freely. 

If your air filter is clogged, you may run into these problems: 

  • The inability to cool your home properly
  • Excessive energy consumption (higher electric bill)
  • Poor air quality

These are problems that no homeowner ever wants to experience. Luckily, the solution is simple – just change out your air filters. Most filters cost around $15 for a set of three. 

*Note: Before purchasing air filters, make sure that they are compatible with your HVAC unit*

2. Refrigerant Leak

Refrigerant is a crucial part of your AC unit. It absorbs environmental heat, then provides cool air once run through compressors and evaporators.  

During the summer, your AC unit is working as hard as it can to keep your home cool- resulting in the increased use of refrigerant. These tubes that carry the refrigerant are placed under great pressure, and may begin to crack over time. If this happens, your unit’s refrigerant will leak out, causing your home to overheat. 

These leaks can be spotted by noticing a liquid near your outdoor condenser coil. If you think you are experiencing a refrigerant leak, schedule an AC repair with one of our technicians today. Refrigerant is a toxic substance, we’d love to take care of it for you and keep you safe! 

3. Frozen Evaporator Coils

Refrigerant works hand-in-hand with the evaporator coils in your HVAC unit. These coils transform refrigerant liquid into gas, removing hot air from your home. If these coils get too cold, they can freeze and stop working properly- resulting in AC failure. 

Potential causes of frozen coils:

  • Refrigerant leak
  • Dirty air filters
  • A system blockage

If you notice an icy evaporator coil, contact your HVAC team immediately. If you put this off for too long, it may result in your entire unit being damaged, which will require even costlier repairs. 

4. Faulty Thermostat

Your AC’s thermostat displays the current temperature of your home and allows you to adjust it to your liking. If your thermostat is not properly calibrated, your AC unit may turn on and off frequently- commonly known as short-cycling.

Here are some of the many consequences of short-cycling:

  • Decreasing the overall life of your AC unit
  • Wasting energy
  • Increased electric bill
  • Making your home either too hot or too cold

If you think you have a faulty thermostat, give your HVAC team a call to look at it. There’s a chance they can repair it. Otherwise, you’ll need to purchase a new one. 

5. Faulty Blower Fan 

Your AC unit’s indoor fan, also known as the blower, is responsible for blowing cool air out of the system and into your home. If your blower fan is not working properly, all of the cool air will stay trapped in the system. 

Reasons for a faulty fan:

  • An internal obstruction 
  • Broken fan motor
  • Dirty AC system
  • Long term wear and tear 

Since there are so many factors leading to a faulty blower fan, you’ll want to have an HVAC specialist come and check it out. 

6. Avoiding Regular Maintenance 

The final reason why you might be dealing with AC failure results from avoiding regular maintenance on your HVAC units. AC units run best when they’re regularly maintained and properly kept. Keeping up with your unit regularly will prevent most of the problems previously mentioned from happening.

It’s a good idea to schedule maintenance on your HVAC unit at least twice a year. During this time, your specialist will: 

  • Inspect the entire system
  • Clean your coils
  • Replace your air filters

By preventing problems before they occur, you can assure you will never have to go without AC during the summertime! 

Choose Steve’s Heating & Cooling

Since 1975, Steve’s Heating and Cooling has serviced thousands of comfort systems throughout the Northern Kentucky area. From the beginning, we have focused on offering only the best heating and cooling services in Northern KY. We provide quality installation, service, and replacement of heating and air conditioning comfort systems in single system homes, multiple system homes, multi-family dwellings, and commercial properties. Contact us today!

by wfcadmin wfcadmin

Why You Should Filter Your Air

Dirty air is a big problem. The World Health Organization estimates that over 6 million people die each year from the combined effects of household air pollution and ambient air pollution. Outdoor air pollution has been an issue for a long time, but people don’t tend to give as much thought to the quality of the air indoors. Indoor air is usually between 2-5 times dirtier than outdoor air, and that number is much higher if you use any sort of solid or liquid fuel to heat your home, like wood or oil. Indoor air is dirty because, for the most part, dust doesn’t have anywhere to go. In recent years, doors have become less drafty and windows have become less leaky. While this is great for electricity bills, all the dust particles that got carried outside by those drafts now remain inside the home. Even with constant washing and vacuuming (and we’re willing to wager that the average American doesn’t vacuum as often as they should), indoor air is still pretty dirty.

It’s counterintuitive, but the smaller the dust particle, the more dangerous it is. Big dust particles get stuck in the nose and throat and eventually get breathed out. Small particles escape these safeguards and end up going into your lungs, where they get absorbed into your blood. That’s bad for you whether the particle was toxic or not, and they sometimes are. What’s worse, a 2016 British study showed that air pollution is ubiquitously bad for everyone. Though unsurprising, that statistic only confirms what people had already suspected: they should be breathing cleaner air. The most effective way to achieve this is with an air filter. Steve’s Heating offers installation of Trane’s CleanEffects™ whole-home air filter. These are much more effective than standalone air filters or purifiers, which only clean the air directly around them. There’s an added bonus in that the Trane filter traps much, much smaller particles than HEPA filters, which are currently the gold standard for filtration. If that’s not enough to convince you, here are some other reasons you should consider purifying your air at home:

Reason 1: you live with a smoker

The first thing you should know about cigarettes and air purifiers is that they do a great job of dealing with the smell of cigarette smoke. The second thing you should know is that air purifiers don’t make cigarette smoke any less dangerous, even though they deal with smoke odor. That’s because the dangerous parts of cigarette smoke are all gaseous pollutants, which air purifiers can’t do anything about—air purifiers can only clean particles from the air, which account for the smell of cigarette smoke. So, keep in mind that air purifiers will make living with a smoker much more pleasant, but they won’t make it healthier. The only way to do that is to make them quit.

Reason 2: You have pets

If you have pets, it’s likely that they are the biggest contributor of dust in your home. Pets not only ensure that your house will be dirtier and require more cleaning, but their dust can also be dangerous to people with asthma, young children, or people with respiratory problems. Even if you don’t have any people in your household who are put in danger by excess dust, it’s still an irritant that can cause a runny nose and scratchy throat.

Reason 3: You have allergies

Excess dust affects people regardless of whether or not they have allergies, but it can be a nightmare for people who do. Dust allergies are most commonly triggered by near-microscopic creatures called dust mites. They are so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye—just a third of a millimeter—and their waste and dead bodies often float around in the air until they get inhaled or settle into fabric. Many of the people who experience symptoms of allergies in dusty homes are actually allergic to dust mites. Luckily, dust mites are not so small that they can escape Trane’s air purifier, which can pick up particles as small as .3 microns. For scale, that’s .00003 mm.

Reason 4: You just like the idea of breathing healthier air

Maybe you don’t have allergies, a sick baby, or pets. Maybe you just like the idea of breathing cleaner air. And why shouldn’t you? Your home is the one place that is completely yours, so it should be as comfortable and healthy as it can be. Purifying your air will make you feel better and give you the peace of mind you need to be your best self.

By now, you probably know a thing or two about dirty air and why it’s a problem. If you decide you want to take the next step, give Steve’s Heating a call. We’ll even provide a free estimate for installing the filter.

A bright-orange sunset over a snowy, wintry hill
by wfcadmin wfcadmin

3 Quick Tips to Get Your Furnace Ready for Winter

For many people, fall is the best time of the year. The temperature reaches a pleasant cool, allowing you to open your windows and keep both the furnace and air conditioner off for multiple months.

Not only are the fall seasons good for your mental health, but they save a few bucks in your wallet too. Unfortunately, when November rolls around, the days begin to get shorter and the leaves curl up and fall. Winter is here and its time to turn on your furnace again.

It’s likely been over half a year since you’ve last run your furnace. After all that idle time, your furnace needs some attention before it’s ready to run at peak performance.

Here are three ways you can make sure your furnace is ready to fight off the winter cold.

Replace the Filter

Pound for pound, replacing your HVAC system’s air filter is the most efficient thing you could possibly do. In other words, there is nothing else you can do so quickly and cheaply that will have as big an impact as replacing your filter.

Replacing your filter is easy, and it’s probably the one HVAC maintenance task that you should perform without hiring a professional. The filter is almost always on the side of the furnace, and replacing it is a matter of pulling out the old filter and sliding the new one in. But the benefits are huge. You’ll:

  • Lower your energy consumption (by up to 30%)
  • Extend the lifespan of your HVAC system (dirty filters contribute to more HVAC failures than anything else according to Angie’s List)
  • Dramatically improve the cleanliness of the air in your house

Ideally, you should change the filter every month, but changing it every three months should be considered a minimum. And since your furnace will (hopefully) only be running a little bit in the early days of fall, that’s the perfect time to change it to make sure your furnace does a great job of heating your home all winter long.

Make sure the vents are open

Let’s make it clear: all the vents in your house should always be open, without exception.

There’s a running assumption that by closing vents in unused rooms of a house, your furnace won’t heat those rooms, and you’ll end up heating fewer square heat, lowering your heating bill. That assumption is only half right. Closing vents does keep those rooms from being heated, but it actually causes your furnace to use more energy, not less of it. Here’s what closing your vents does:

  • Causes the return vents to pull air into the furnace from the now-cold room, lowering the overall efficiency of the unit
  • Decreases the amount of air flowing through your entire home
  • Increases the likelihood of causing some sort of leak
  • Increases the likelihood of a blown compressor

All in all, closing your vents increases the amount you spend on heating. The same principles apply if your vents are blocked, say by furniture or rugs. So if your vents are closed or blocked, make sure to open them!

Instead of closing your vents, just close the doors of unused rooms. It’ll be better for both your furnace and your wallet.

Schedule Professional Maintenance

Furnaces have gone from around 40% efficient to around 98% efficient over the past century, which marks a significant decrease in the amount of money and energy wasted by artificial heating. But with that increased efficiency comes an increased numbers of electronic and mechanical parts. Furnaces have a lot more parts that can break now, which is the reason furnaces went from lasting 50+ years to 30 years at maximum.

And 30 years is an extremely generous estimate. It’s far more common for furnaces to last between 15-20 years with proper maintenance. Shirk maintenance and you’re looking at lifespans closer to 10 (or fewer!) years.

When you schedule HVAC maintenance, a trained technician will come and perform all the tips and cleanings that you can’t do on your own, like:

  • Cleaning the pilot light and heat exchange
  • Making sure there are no fuel line (or duct) leaks
  • Cleaning and tightening the parts of the furnace that are easily broken
  • and much, much more

Not only will maintenance increase your furnace’s lifespan, but it will also ensure your furnace consistently runs at peak efficiency.

You should schedule HVAC maintenance at least once a year. We also have maintenance plans that will automate the process.

Schedule Furnace Maintenance Today

Planning for maintenance is an important part of any home heating and cooling strategy. Without it, you might unknowingly void your manufacturer’s warranty. If you’re interested in a longer life for your furnace and cheaper heating bills, Contact Steve’s Heating for maintenance today.

AC Unit Summer
by wfcadmin wfcadmin

End-of-Summer HVAC Checklist

Fall is just around the corner. And since it’s America’s most popular season (according to a poll from YouGov), there’s a lot to look forward to. With temperatures in Kentucky averaging a 68º high and 42º low, fall is the perfect season to shut off your air conditioner, open the windows, and relax.

Indeed, fall is the time to give your air conditioner a break and settle into the cool weather before it’s time to reprogram your thermostat and dust off that thermostat. Because of that, the end of summer is also the perfect time to get both your air conditioner and furnace ready for the colder months ahead.

So for your convenience, we put together a handy checklist you can consult when figuring out what to do with your HVAC system at the end of summer.

Central Air Conditioner Checklist

  • Remove and clean the fan
  • Straighten the fins of the outdoor unit
  • Vacuum the fins
  • Spray the fins with a hose
  • Clean the evaporator coils
  • Replace the filter with a HEPA-certified one
  • Cover the top of the condenser unit with a tarp
    • But not the entire thing

The best way to get your air conditioner ready for its long rest ahead is to make sure it’s clean and covered before autumn hits. Most central A/C units are very similar, so you shouldn’t have any trouble taking them apart if it’s your first time. If you’re having trouble removing the fan or finding where the filter is, try a few YouTube searches of your unit’s model number. If that doesn’t work, you’re best off just calling a professional.

To straighten the fins, you can either use a dinner knife or a fin comb. You’re more likely to have a dinner knife lying around, but fin combs do the job much better.

When you cover your outdoor A/C unit, you should never cover it all the way, like you would cover a grill. You should only cover the top. If you cover it all the way, moisture will get trapped inside the unit which will quickly mold and rust. Instead, just cover the top. In fact, a wooden plank a little larger than the unit itself will work fine for this.

While this is an excellent list for getting your air conditioner ready for it’s long rest and subsequent revival, there are still a lot of things that only a professional should do, such as checking the coolant levels or diagnosing oil leaks.

Furnace Checklist

  • Make sure the condensation drain isn’t clogged
  • Make sure the exhaust outlets aren’t clogged
  • Check for leaks in your ductwork and seal with them metal tape
  • Clean your vents and air registers
  • Switch your damper if you have one
  • Oil your blower
  • Replace the filter

A furnace’s filter is usually located around the base of the unit itself. If you’re having trouble finding it, consult your owners manual (a copy is usually on the manufacturer’s website if you don’t have it handy). Most of these steps can be accomplished without any special knowhow. Many furnaces have a sliding panel at the front that opens up, but yours might not. Again, owner’s manuals and Google are your friend here.

Dampers are switches that switch the flow of air between the air conditioner and furnace. If you don’t have a separate set of ducts for your air conditioner and furnace, you almost definitely have dampers. The location of your dampers depends, but they usually look like a round knob on the side of one of your ducts.

The inside of a furnace is an especially fragile place. If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s easy to break an essential part of your furnace: the igniter. Some furnaces have a pilot light, a small flame that burns all year long, and others have an ignition key, a piece of metal that heats up to ignite the flame. The ignition key is fragile, and it’s easy to damage if you aren’t careful. If you break your ignition key, not only will your furnace not produce any heat, but it could fill your home with explosive natural gas. If you’re at all worried about this, it’s best to call in for maintenance.

Other Things to Do

  • Dust your fans
  • Switch your thermostat programming
  • Test your thermostat
  • Schedule maintenance

Once you shut off your central A/C unit for the season, it’s time to run your ceiling fans! Ceiling fans help to circulate air and help the room feel more comfortable. But if you haven’t used yours in awhile, they’re probably covered in dust. Grab a ladder and some wipes and dust it clean.

You should also pay attention to your thermostat. Switch your thermostat from cooling to heating mode, and make sure you test it. An easy way to do that is by turning the thermostat to a few degrees hotter than it currently reads. So if your house is currently 70ºs, you should crank the thermostat up to 72º and wait a few minutes. If all is well, you should hear the furnace turn on and begin heating the home. If you don’t hear anything, you should get your equipment looked at.

Call Steve’s Heating and Cooling for Thorough Maintenance All Year Long

When it comes to keeping your HVAC system running smoothly, there is a lot you can do to keep your home comfortable and your energy bills low. But there are many things, like cleaning your heating coils, that only a professional should do. Without an expert’s expertise, you’re liable to ruin your system—a costly mistake.

So if you’re serious about taking care of your HVAC system, schedule a visit from Steve’s Heating. Our team has years of HVAC experience and will get your maintenance done in half the time it’d take you to do yourself. Plus, our Comfort Club members get 10% off any repairs that are needed.

A hammer against a wooden board with multiple bent nails.
by wfcadmin wfcadmin

Why DIY HVAC Repair is a Bad Idea

With the internet, it’s easier than ever for the DIY enthusiast to learn about the intricacies of the equipment that he uses every day. And most of the time, that’s a great thing. People should want to know how the things around them work. It’s exciting, and it helps you appreciate what you have more.

But HVAC systems should under no circumstances be worked on by anybody other than a licensed professional. Here’s why:

You’ll Probably Break Something

There’s a reason that most states legally require HVAC technicians to go through special training and certification programs: HVAC systems are complicated. Your air conditioner is a complex contraption of gears, chemicals, parts, and electricity. For the unit to work properly as a whole, each piece has to function correctly. If you don’t know how all the components work together, it’s easy to mess something up without realizing it.

And since the whole point of a DIY fix is to save money on some sort of repair, it seems counter-intuitive to us to pursue a DIY repair that’s more likely to fail than anything. And believe us: you’ll spend more to get a botched repair fixed than if you had just called a specialist in the first place.

It’s Dangerous

HVAC certifications aren’t just for show—they exist to protect the technicians and the people whose HVAC systems get worked on.

Air conditioners use various gasses as refrigerants, and furnaces typically burn either oil or natural gas. The coolants in air conditioners and natural gas in furnaces are both oxygen displacers, which means that in a small space, they’ll take the place of oxygen. This means if you get enough of either gas in your lungs, oxygen won’t be able to force it out, leading to loss of consciousness and even death. Not to mention, natural gas is explosive.

Even if you spring a link that doesn’t hurt you, it’ll still mean that your air conditioner won’t do any cooling, which, again, defeats the whole purpose of repairing it yourself in the first place.

Also, many air conditioners are high voltage. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since air conditioners are one of the highest-energy-using appliances there are. With this high voltage comes a very real risk of electrocution if you don’t know what you are doing. So leave it to the pros.

You’re Likely to Void the Warranty

If you aren’t concerned about your health, maybe this will sway you: by forgoing professional HVAC maintenance, you’re also forgoing your manufacturer’s warranty. If you have an owner’s manual for a Trane air conditioner or heating unit, you’ll notice this bit of text:

“The Products must be properly installed, operated, and maintained by a licensed HVAC service provider in accordance with the Product specifications or installation, operation, and maintenance instructions provided by Company with each Product. Failure to conform to such specifications and/or instructions shall void this limited warranty. Company may request written documentation showing the proper preventative maintenance.”

In other words, your HVAC unit’s warranty isn’t valid unless it was properly installed and maintained by a certified professional—and it’s on you to prove that.

A warranty is a company’s way of saying that they believe in their products. By offering a warranty, they’re telling you that their equipment is guaranteed to last a certain amount of time, and if it doesn’t, they’ll replace the part at no charge to you. But no HVAC unit can run for long without (proper) maintenance, just like your car couldn’t go 200,000 miles without an oil change. So hire an HVAC company for maintenance and spare your wallet the trouble.

By the way, Steve’s Heating has great warranties on both parts and labor.

Let Steve’s Heating & Cooling Handle Your Maintenance Needs

If it’s time that your furnace or air conditioner was maintained, get in touch with us. We’ve been serving Florence, KY for over 30 years and pride ourselves on making the community a better place.

If you’re a member of our comfort club, you’ll get a yearly or bi-annual tuneup and professional cleaning. Not to mention a 10% discount on all repairs and no overtime charges! If you’re interested in becoming a comfort club member, give us a call today at 859-795-2172.