Air Duct Cleaning Service: The Four Main Components Of Your Home’s HVAC System | Richardson, TX

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While the amount of energy used by a Richardson, TX, home may depend on various factors, including the type of home and its characteristics, a 2015 study established that the average American homeowner spends around 50 percent of their income on heating and cooling energy costs.

Since almost half of your hard-earned cash could go into keeping you and your family comfortable after a heating and air duct cleaning service, it’s only right that you understand everything there is to know about HVAC systems.

HVAC System In A Nutshell

First off, HVAC systems feature a combination of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units that work in tandem to maintain favorable indoor temperatures and a high level of interior air quality. After heating and air duct cleaning service, each of these units assumes different roles as explained below.

The heating component of the HVAC system in your home is responsible for keeping your indoors warm during the cold weather season. Most homes utilize forced air systems, but you can request your trusted heating and air service expert to install a radiant or geothermal heating system. All these systems keep your home’s interior spaces heated up by distributing heat created from a central point to the other rooms in the house through a complex duct network.

On the other hand, air conditioners ensure that you and your loved ones enjoy cool indoors during the warmer months. There are wide-ranging types of air conditioning systems available in the market, with each offering unique advantages and disadvantages.

You can ask reliable heating and air duct cleaning service technicians to install a window, ductless, or split air conditioning system. If none of the above options work for you, you can also request an air duct cleaning service service for a central AC, which often goes hand in hand with forced-air heating systems.

Past that, during HVAC installations, your preferred heating and air duct cleaning service specialist may also mount ventilation equipment, which is vital to the efficiency of the entire HVAC system.

Besides preventing air stagnation, ventilation elements help control moisture levels in the house, remove strange odors, and distribute and purify the conditioned air. Based on the age of your home and the HVAC type it has, the ventilation system may perform the above-described functions in various ways, which include mechanically as well as naturally via fans and windows. It may also improve your home’s indoor air quality through a combination of the two methods.

However, they’re most useful in homes that feature fixed heating and air conditioning systems. If your residence doesn’t use such a system, you can request reliable heating and air duct cleaning service experts to install humidifiers and dehumidifiers as well as air purifiers and cleaners. They can help in improving indoor air quality.

Each of these systems relies on various components to ensure that your indoors remain cozy regardless of the external conditions. Read on to find out the roles of the various HVAC components.

The Combustion Chamber

The combustion chamber, which some heating and air duct cleaning service professionals may call the burner, houses the heat exchanger and the furnace, which triggers the processes that ensure that your home stays warm during the winter. In that regard, it’s a vital component of the HVAC system and it must be handled with care to guarantee optimum operational efficiency. Due to their delicate nature, they have unique installation demands. Firstly, your furnace and air duct cleaning service technician should mount it in a spacious area, preferably in the attic, basement, or an exclusive storage compartment meant for the chamber alone. Also, since air is a prerequisite for any combustion process, it must be positioned in a well-aerated location.

As previously discussed, the combustion chamber contains the furnace, which is sometimes considered the heart of the HVAC system. Once mounted, the furnace is a sedentary beast that should work for between 15 to 20 years without needing a replacement. However, it should be serviced regularly by experienced heating and air duct cleaning service specialists for maximum efficiency. Past that, the furnace generates warmth that’s distributed throughout the rooms of your home via a series of supply vents.

During installation, your HVAC installer may place it beyond reach, and with good reason. Its inner workings can be quite difficult to understand, and homeowners that may attempt to fix any issues therein not only risk their safety but also incurring substantial repair and replacement costs. Despite that, you can still go to its storage compartment to see if everything’s working as it should. While you’re here, you may notice many aluminum ventilation ducts on the side. These ducts carry the heat produced by the heater to the supply vents, which then distribute it accordingly throughout the home. There are several types of furnaces that homeowners in Richardson, TX, and beyond can choose from. They include electric and gas furnaces along with heat pumps.

Electric furnaces keep your interior living space warm and cozy during winters with the help of electricity. In theory, this involves blowing air from the house over some heated electric coils and then pumping the heated air into the house using ventilation components.

Most electric furnaces perform this action in stages to prevent energy wastage. While they may guarantee a higher level of energy efficiency, improperly maintained furnaces can malfunction and cause significant damages such as blown fuses. In terms of their energy efficiency, they may feature advanced sensor technology that allows them to automatically detect when they’ve consumed more energy than the circuit’s limits.

Moving on, if an electric furnace can’t adequately serve your heating needs, you can consult with your trusted heating and air duct cleaning service technician to help you find a heat pump. This furnace type helps regulate indoor climate conditions by transferring heat or cold from one section to another. Essentially, they often cool or heat air that’s closest to the inherent condenser coils, which makes them quite similar to conventional HVAC systems.

Past that, your HVAC expert may also recommend fitting a combustion-based furnace, which usually relies on energy from natural gas or propane to produce heat. They generate heat through the complete combustion of the fuel. The warmth created then moves into your home through the supply vents. On the downside though, it can be quite hard to find a gas-powered furnace that features an air conditioning system.

Heat Exchanger

While it may be within the combustion chamber, the heat exchanger contains the furnace. Its main job is to facilitate heat absorption when the thermostat powers up the furnace. The heat exchanger is an important part of the furnace since that’s where the heating system’s electrical units lie.

These electrical components are usually created from heat-resistant stainless steel to keep the heat exchanger from cracking when the temperatures get too high. However, you can ask your preferred heating and air duct cleaning service contractor near Richardson, TX, to mount a more recent HVAC unit, which may have specialized ducts that allow cool air to enter the heat exchanger much faster.

Besides that, you should keep in mind the catastrophic implications of failing to detect or fix heat exchanger leaks. A leaking heat exchanger can emit carbon monoxide gas that can be lethal to human beings if inhaled for prolonged periods.

Besides death, it may also cause nausea and mild headaches and the worst part is that you may not even know you’re getting poisoned since it’s odorless and colorless. This is why every home must be fitted with functional carbon monoxide detectors to prevent unexpected disasters. Apart from this proactive measure, you should also watch out for the following signs as they often mean that you could be having a leaking heat exchanger.

Firstly, a strong smell that resembles formaldehyde within your home is a sure sign of leaks within the heating and air duct cleaning service present. These odors can trigger headaches and nausea and you should call a reliable HVAC company immediately to remedy the issue for the safety of your family.

Additionally, the presence of soot in the HVAC system should tell you that something’s not right. Soot is often formed due to extensive carbon buildup, which may happen as a result of incomplete combustion. Corrosion and cracks can also indicate the presence of leaks within your home’s HVAC system along with a noticeable change in the natural color of the furnace flame.

Blower Motor

Once the furnace has generated just the right amount of heat to warm your indoor spaces to the preset temperature on the thermostat, the blower motor then handles the distribution of the air through the ductwork registers and eventually into your home. Before it stops moving the heated air, the combustion process must first stop to allow all the heat to reach all the rooms. While in action, the motor speed also changes constantly to regulate airflow within the premises.

HVAC systems with clogged or dirty air filters may work harder and consume more energy to make up for the lost efficiency. Typically, the blower doesn’t produce as much noise when heating as it may when it’s cooling indoor living spaces. Moreover, most homes may attain the desired temperatures without the motor rotating at full speed, a phenomenon that goes a long way in saving energy.

However, since they may be in constant use in some areas, blower motors may malfunction due to good old wear and tear, and it’s unavoidable. Signs that denote blower motor issues include elevated energy bills as the system overworks to keep your interior space comfortable.

Another indicator of a malfunctioning blower motor is overheating due to unchecked dirt and debris buildup in the HVAC system over time. You may also need to call an experienced heating and air duct cleaning service expert for blower motor repair options if you begin hearing odd noises coming from the HVAC unit. Strange noises in the system may arise from damaged belts, bearing problems, and broken or loose internal components.

In the same context, you may need to schedule an HVAC service if you’ve noticed weak airflow. If your unit’s blower motor is struggling to push enough air, a damaged capacitor, dirty air filters, and an aging motor may be to blame. Similarly, if there’s no airflow at all, you should have reliable heating and air duct cleaning service technicians visit your home for HVAC inspection and repair.

Thermostat

Some heating and air duct cleaning service experts consider the thermostat as the console or motherboard of the entire HVAC system. Often mounted on a visible location on the walls of your Richardson, TX, home, the thermostat is used to determine exactly how the HVAC unit will heat or cool your indoor spaces. Most have a read-out display that shows your home’s current indoor temperatures, the fan status, and the predetermined temperatures you often enjoy. Some advanced models may also show you the current date and time.

Professional heating and air duct cleaning service experts in Richardson, TX, and beyond say that the majority of thermostats have two buttons which are essentially up and down arrows. These arrows should be used by the homeowner to either increase or reduce the preset temperature.

The value increasing and decreasing is known as the optimal temperature and it stands for the temperature you want your home to achieve. In this context, you should press the upward arrow to increase the preset conditions and the downward arrow to decrease them. Once you’ve implemented the settings, wait for the system to gradually adjust.

Modern thermostats also allow homeowners to adjust fan settings at just a few clicks of a button. Fans have a vital role in indoor air quality since their outward motion allows air to move outside faster. Additionally, technological advancements in the HVAC industry have led to newer thermostat models having automatic settings that allow homeowners to adjust preset temperatures using a timer.

If your preferred heating and air duct cleaning service specialist is up-to-date with the latest HVAC trends, they may fit a thermostat that has an automated mode. Such a thermostat can alter temperature presets based on the lifestyle patterns of the Richardson, TX, homeowner.

One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth, A Heating and Air Conditioner Installation Company near Richardson, TX, You Can Trust.

While you may have comprehensive knowledge of the main components in HVAC systems, you will still need a professional to help with furnace and AC installation and air duct cleaning services along with HVAC repair, replacement, and maintenance.

Luckily, you can trust the specialists at One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Fort Worth who’ve been dedicated to the heating and cooling needs of Texans since 1988. We respond to HVAC emergencies, and our technicians are NATE-Certified. Call us today to schedule an air duct cleaning service.