Air Conditioning Repair That You Can Trust | Dallas, TX

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Are you worried that your air is not properly being distributed throughout your home? It may be time for air conditioning repair in Dallas, TX or it may be time to learn a bit more about air balancing. Sometimes you need a professional to handle air balancing in your home, especially if your HVAC system is improperly sized or there is a problem with your ductwork. In this case, you should still call for air conditioning repair, but sometimes you just need to make a few minor adjustments to help the air distribute evenly throughout your home.

Unless the air in your home is equally dispersed you can expect to continue to have hot and cold spots in your home which no one likes. Chances are you already have this problem, but may just have ignored it. For instance, if you had to answer is there a “hot” room in your house and a “cold room.” There’s a good chance the hot room is upstairs and the cool room is on the first level and rarely changes throughout the year. This is where proper air balancing combined with effective air conditioning repair can really make a difference.

What Is Air Balancing?

As previously described, air balancing is the act of ensuring that every room in your home is receiving the amount of air it needs to cool properly. It is important to note this does not always mean that every room receives the same amount of air, it means the room receives the air it needs to cool. A larger room should receive more air current than a smaller room and a room facing the sun may need more help than a room in the basement.

The aim of air balancing is to adjust the flow in your home to reach the perfect comfort balance in your home. Believe it or not, the simple act of air balancing is the number one way to increase your personal comfort within your home and create an efficient system. Any air conditioning repair expert will practice air balancing by improving air circulation in your home, enhancing the performance of your HVAC system, and refining energy efficiency. While there are a few tricks you can try, usually, an HVAC technician is required for perfect balancing. They usually have a few tricks up their sleeves with the tools of the trade to back them so if you suspect that the airflow is compromised in your house it’s a good idea to call for air conditioning repair in Dallas, TX.

Tips to Balance Your Home Temperatures

No one wants to tiptoe around hot and cold spots in their own home, and now that everyone is spending a lot more time in their Dallas, TX homes due to the pandemic it is even more important to be comfortable. Here are the top tips for effective air balancing. As mentioned, some you can try on your own but if they don’t work then it is time to call an air conditioning repair expert for assistance.

Off-Set Your Thermostats

This will not work for all homes, but if you happen to have a two-story Dallas, TX home with individual thermostats try offsetting the thermostats by two degrees. Usually, homeowners set both to the same number but in this case, you set the upstairs thermostat at 72 and the downstairs thermostat at 74 to try and move more air upstairs where it may get warmer. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t, but it is a simple solution to try before calling for air conditioning repair.

Play With Your Registers

Adjusting your registers is a simple way to try to balance airflow around your home on your own. Simply move the damper blade to slow down airflow in a cool room and then open up another to encourage the heavy flow of air into a hot area. It should be noted that you never want to close off a vent completely because that can cause damage to your HVAC system that requires an air conditioning repair expert to fix. So while it may seem logical to completely close the damper in a cold room, it’s not a smart idea.

A great way to adjust your vents on your own is by following a documented process to find out if you are getting the results you want instead of randomly playing with the damper as you like. Set your thermostat to a comfortable number like 72 and then wait a day for your home to equally cool. Now that you can see its performance level, in the cool areas of your home close down the dampers a bit. After 24 hours walk back into the cold rooms and see if you need to close the dampers more or if the problem has been resolved. During the winter months, you can do the same thing to resolve hot spots.

Check Your Air Filters

Take a moment and think about the last time you had someone out to your Dallas, TX house for air conditioning repair or service. Now, take a second and think about whether you have replaced your HVAC filters lately. If you can’t think of either, then it would be smart to book an air conditioning repair service for gentle maintenance and go downstairs and change your filter right now.

A lot of times if a home is not cooling evenly it is because the filter is dirty and not allowing air to evenly pass through it. Not only will changing your filters improve the air quality in your home by not encouraging the spread of dirt, but it will also make your HVAC system much more efficient. When your air filter is blocked or extremely dirt airflow is usually greatly reduced which can make the heat exchange overheat and shut down. Therefore, your system may be short cycling and not delivering a steady flow of cool air around your home. In addition, if you continue to allow your system to short cycle it will wear down internal components and leave you in need of emergency air conditioning repair at some point.

Finally, changing your air filters is the number one way to extend the lifespan of your HVAC system. Believe it or not, the number one reason that we get called for air conditioning repair is because of dirty filters that have forced the system to break down. Dirty filters simply make the HVAC system work harder, which also means you will pay much more in energy costs. Save yourself some money and simply change your filter every three to five months. If it helps, make it a point to change your HVAC filter every time you change your car oil.

Pick the Right Spot for Your Thermostat

If your home never feels as cool or warm as your thermostat says it is you may need to relocate where you keep your thermostat. Ideally, your thermostat should not be near anything that may affect its reading. For example, electronic equipment can give off heat so if your thermostat is near your TV it may be reading the room temperature as much higher than it really is. On the other hand, if your thermostat is close to a window with a draft it may be reading the room as much cooler than it really is. As a result, you will end up with uneven heating because the temperature your thermostat is attempting to maintain is not the real temperature in your home. If you are not sure where your thermostat should be placed, ask a technician the next time you have someone out for air conditioning repair or servicing.

Remember to Switch Your Fans’ Directional Settings

This is a simple but influential way to change the way air flows in your home without the help of an air conditioning repair technician. Simply change the directional settings of the fan. During the warm months, you want your ceiling fan blades to rotate counterclockwise and during cooler months you want the fan to rotate in a clockwise motion. You also want the air to move slowly during the winter months since you don’t want to create your own draft.

Fix Your Ductwork

If you have tried all of the above tips and your airflow is still not evenly distributed it is time to get some help from air conditioning repair experts. It may be time to have your ductwork inspected to look for damage or defects. If you own an old home it is very possible that over time your ductwork has fallen into disrepair, and since it’s hidden out of sight it has never been noted.

A lot of times when the ductwork is out of balance then hot and cold spots will pop up around the home. A properly trained air conditioning repair expert can fix any ducts that are loose by refitting them so that they snuggly fit together to prevent air from escaping. They will then reseal the junctions to reinforce the fit. A properly trained expert will also look for sharp turns in ductwork that may need to be reworked and insulate any areas of the duct where they suspect large amounts of air loss are occurring.

Insulation Investigation

Sometimes rooms are cold or because of poor insulation, not because of poor airflow. All of the cool or hot air in the world will not help if the room air is escaping out of the room at high rates. Air from outside can seep in easily and air from inside can seep out easily making it impossible to be comfortable in a poorly insulated room. If you have an isolated issue with heating or cooling one area in your home it may be prudent to call a professional to examine the insulation in that room before investing in anything else with your HVAC system.

Consider Installing an Air Handler

Some homes require an air handler to help promote cooling and heating within the higher floors of the home. This is something you can bring up with your HVAC technician during your next air conditioning repair or service visit to see if it would help your home. An air handler installed in the basement can help push warm air towards the second floor of the home while a second air handler on the second floor can help push warm air down during the cooler month.

Sometimes you can get the same effect out of a booster fan or by simply increasing the fan speed during air conditioning season. To ensure that you get the most out of an air handling system allow an HVAC technician to create the design and implement it within your home.

How Will An HVAC Technician Create Air Balance?

When you hire an HVAC technician to properly balance the air in your home they will look at the HVAC system you have in place and then look at the actual output of heat or cooling that is occurring. Then they will divide your entire home into zones and ensure that air circulates within each zone proportionately. A trained technician can take airflow readings before they make adjustments and after they make adjustments to ensure that their efforts and the final design is actually doing the job.

The result of proper air balancing is improved air quality and circulation, fewer hot and cold spots, lower energy bills, and a longer lifespan for your HVAC system which alone pays for the cost of air conditioning repair. If you are ready for air conditioning repair to balance the air in your home give One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas a call today. We would be happy to come out and inspect your HVAC system and ductwork to create a better cooling solution for your home.