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7:45 a.m. • 2-11-12

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The Green Home

Bobby Ferrel, founder of Green Horizon oversees The Green Home blog. Ferrel is co-founder of Green Horizon, with offices in the Triangle and Charlotte, offering home owners and builders a one-stop shop for energy efficiency and green building.

Services include home performance assessments, weatherization, closed crawl spaces, all types of insulation, HVAC and geothermal installation and maintenance.
Reach Bobby directly at bferrel@greenhorizon.com or visit him online at www.greenhorizon.com


green house

Are spring tune-ups worth the money?

The warm spring weather is here. You may be heading out doors to enjoy the welcome change of season before the hot summer arrives. After enjoying the out doors you come in and hit the air conditioning and all is well. Or is it?

You may wonder if your air conditioning seems to be working well “why fix it if it aint broke?”

Mother Nature may be pulling the wool over your eyes as you enjoy the nice weather. She has also been hard at work since last cooling season to leach your system of performance. So the real reason for a spring tune-up is to maintain proper operation and efficiency of your air conditioner. Tune-ups can not only help protect your investment directly, by maintaining the moving parts, they also help you to get your money’s worth out of the electricity the equipment uses. As technology pushes the efficiency of systems higher it becomes increasingly more important to maintain the health of the system. One big factor involved with this is the dirt that collects on the coils of the outdoor unit limiting the efficiency and capacity of the system. Even a well maintained system can collect dirt. A, shall we say, less than perfect filter changing regiment (we won’t name any names) can also contribute to dirty fan blades and indoor coils, with the same debilitating effects. Poor air flow is a major factor in the loss of efficiency of your cooling system.

A spring check-up can also find potential problems with your air conditioner before it gets hot. The technician will check for faulty wiring, electronics and also check the Freon level to ensure the dependability of the system.

So why wonder if you are getting your money worth? Schedule a spring tune-up and find out.

Content courtesy of Sustainable Building Solutions.

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