What Summer HVAC Tips Are Least Known and Most Helpful?

It's probably not news to you that it's important to change your filter regularly and have your air conditioner tuned up in the summer. But what about sealing and insulating your home and checking your AC vents and your drainage hole? Here are some lesser-known but useful summer HVAC tips.

Add Insulation to Your House

Believe it or not, insulation is just as important to your home in the summer as it is in the winter, making this one of the most important summer HVAC tips. Insulation helps stop heat from flowing into your home, which improves your AC unit's efficiency. Make sure your home is adequately insulated. Replace any rotted or damaged insulation around the outside AC lines. You can also prevent heat gain in the summer by maintaining the seals around skylights, doors, and windows.

Clear Your AC Drainage Hole

Most AC systems have a drainage hole for clearing out the buildup of fluid resulting from condensation. A clogged drainage hole can cause water buildup and damage your AC unit. You can clean the hole out with a piece of wire or a paper clip.

Upgrade to a Smart Thermostat

A smart thermostat can help you stay cool and save money. You can adjust it remotely and program it to keep your home comfortable when you're around and warmer when you're away, saving energy. Some models can even communicate more ways that you can use to lower your energy use and save more money.

Keep Vents Clean

Dust and debris can accumulate in your vents and impede airflow. One of the best summer HVAC tips is to clean your vents to avoid blockages and allergies. An excellent way to ensure your vents stay clean is by scheduling routine maintenance. Make sure your vents are not blocked by furniture, draperies, or carpeting.

Have Your Ducts Cleaned

Dust, mold, and mildew can accumulate in your ducts over time. Clogged ducts make your cooling system work harder to push air throughout your home. Have an HVAC professional clean out your ductwork every few years to make your indoor air healthier and your air conditioner work more efficiently.

Following these lesser-known summer HVAC tips together with the more common pointers will be greatly beneficial to your health, comfort, and finances. If you need any heating, cooling, or air-duct cleaning services in the Broken Arrowarea, contact us at Air Assurance.

Make Sure to Get a Quality Air Duct Cleaning

You might not think too often about the ductwork in your Broken Arrow home, but it could be affecting your indoor air quality (IAQ) and HVAC efficiency. When you have air ducts that are filled with dust or other debris, you could be breathing in these particles when your heating or cooling system is running. Learn more about quality air duct cleaning, including how it’s done, so you can have healthier indoor air and a more efficient HVAC system.

How Quality Air Duct Cleaning Works

Since your air ducts are hard to get to, it’s not a good idea to attempt to clean them on your own. While you can wipe down the outer surfaces of vents and registers on your own, you should have professional duct cleaning done. When you have this type of cleaning done, professional HVAC experts come to your home and use the right tools and equipment to remove debris from your ductwork. In some cases, this might require the removal of mold or other harmful particles. These professionals generally start by using tools to loosen dirt and other debris inside air ducts. Once this debris is loosened, they typically use a high-powered vacuum cleaner to remove it from your air ducts. This helps prevent these particles from contaminating the air inside your home.

The Importance of Quality Air Duct Cleaning

When you have professional air duct cleaning done, it’s important to ensure it’s done properly. Professional HVAC technicians should clean every component that is part of your ductwork, along with any other HVAC components that could be contributing to debris buildup in your ducts. Cleaning all of these components helps lower the risk of having contaminants or pollutants build up inside your air ducts again. This helps keep the air inside your home cleaner when your cooling or heating system is running.

If you need quality air duct cleaning for your Broken Arrow home, contact Air Assurance today. We can thoroughly clean your ductwork to help improve your IAQ.

Air Duct Cleaning in Tulsa, Broken Arrow, OK

Looking inside a floor supply air duct by Air Assurance - Tulsa, OK

Duct Cleaning Services - Tulsa, OK

Dust and dirt continually accumulate on the inside surfaces of your ductwork. This environment provides the nutrients for molds, bacteria, allergens and fungi to reproduce and grow. Every time your system’s fan goes on, it forces this contaminated mixture into the air you breathe. When done correctly and duct work problems resolved, air duct cleaning should not be something that is needed every year. At best, with properly sealed ductwork, and filter changed and maintained - you should be able to go many years between cleanings. If you are cleaning your ductwork every year because of excessive dust, then give Air Assurance a call today!

Duct Cleaning Process

The duct cleaning process is called “Source Removal Process” and is the highest standard in the duct cleaning industry. Debris is loosened with special agitation tools inserted into each vent opening. All vent covers and interior surfaces of your ductwork are then “air-washed” utilizing many pounds per square inch of air pressure and special air tools to reach normally inaccessible areas. The large diameter vacuum hose attached to your ductwork assures that loosened debris is auctioned out of your home and not discharged into your living environment. Plus, your ducts will be sanitized.

Duct Cleaning Tulsa, ok

We generate a great deal of dust just through our regular daily activities. While the filters in your heating and air conditioning systems are meant to prevent most of that dust from entering into your ductwork, some of it will get through when ducts are not sealed properly. Other pollutants, like pet dander or chemicals can also enter the ductwork. Help prevent the spread of this dust and mildew throughout your home by having your ducts cleaned professionally. Air Assurance provides heat, air, and plumbing services for all of Greater Tulsa, OK.

Choose Air Assurance

With over 35 years in business, you can count on Air Assurance for heating, air conditioning and plumbing service. We provide everything from maintenance, to HVAC replacement estimates and installations services. When indoor air quality is a concern - Call on Air Assurance day or night. We would be delighted to be your heating and air conditioning company.

Oklahoma Allergy Season Tips

From ragweed to cotton, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma has its share of allergies. When allergy season hits, the itching eyes, stuffy nose, and tickly throat can be almost unbearable. Here are some allergy tips to help you reduce your suffering.

1. Upgrade Your Air Filter

The air filter in your HVAC system traps allergens to keep them from circulating in your home. Filter effectiveness is measured in Minimum Efficiency Recording Value, or MERVs, which range from 1 to 20. If you upgrade your existing filter to a high efficiency one with a MERV rating between 14 and 16, you will have fewer allergens in your home.

2. Remove Debris Around the Outdoor Unit

Plants and other debris around your outdoor unit can impact your indoor allergen levels, because the outdoor unit pulls air through that debris and into your home. Keep the area around your outdoor unit clean and clear.

3. Dust the Registers and Vents

Registers and vents that are dusty blow dust and pollen through your home. Dust these first, then dust the remainder of your home, to remove the dust and other indoor allergens that could be making your allergies worse.

4. Check for Mold

If you have never had your HVAC system checked for mold, schedule an inspection. Mold exasperates allergies and can cause other respiratory concerns. If you do have mold, have it professionally removed to ensure your family can breathe safely.

5. Consider Duct Cleaning

If you are using an efficient filter, have cleaned outside your system and have checked for mold, but you are still struggling with allergies, consider duct cleaning. Removing allergens from the ducts will prevent them from being spread around your home.

One of the best allergy tips, however, is to have your HVAC system professionally inspected and serviced at the start of the allergy season. In Broken Arrow, Air Assurance provides comprehensive HVAC service, including inspections. Contact them today to schedule your HVAC system inspection this allergy season.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Credit/Copyright Attribution: “Serhiy Kobyakov/Shutterstock”

Five Steps To Maintain Ducts And Keep Them Contaminant-Free

While duct cleaning is the most thorough way to remedy contaminated ductwork, you can perform simple duct maintenance to minimize contamination and help ensure that the air you breathe is as clean as possible. Here are the top five ways to maintain your air ducts and prevent dirt from entering the system.

1. Give the filters some attention. Never go without filters, and ensure that no gaps exist to allow unfiltered air to enter your system. Your heating and cooling systems most likely have a filter efficiency recommendation that you should heed. Change your air conditioning filter regularly throughout the seasons . If your filters become clogged faster due to pets or smoking, change the filters more regularly.

2. Have your heating and cooling systems maintained by a professional. As an added duct maintenance effort, ask the service provider to clean the cooling coils and drain pans.

3. Seal off ductwork during renovation projects. Construction within the walls of your home produces a great deal of dust, so it’s important to seal off the ductwork in the areas that the construction is taking place. Also refrain from operating your HVAC system until all the dust has been cleaned up.

4. Dust and vacuum your home regularly. Vacuum first with a cleaner featuring a HEPA filter. A little while later, after the dust has settled from the activity, clean the horizontal surfaces in your home to help remove dust that could later be sucked into your ductwork.

5. Run your humidifier as recommended by the manufacturer. Whole-home humidification is useful for maintaining a comfortable interior during the dry winter, but it should be operated correctly for proper duct maintenance.

These five tips are important for maintaining a contaminant-free duct system and keeping the air you breathe in your home as clean as possible. For more duct maintenance tips, please contact Air Assurancetoday.Our goal is to help educate our customers about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). Air Assurance services Tulsa, Broken Arrow and the surrounding areas. Visit our website to see our current promotions and get started today!