Renewing And Upgrading An Older HVAC System With Heating And AC Repair | Richardson, TX
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Our heating and AC repair team at One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas helps families in the Richardson, TX area keep their comfort systems serving them well from year to year. If you’ve recently bought your home and aren’t planning to upgrade your older system this year or have an HVAC system renewal in mind in the future for the home you’ve owned for years, it’s time to talk about the present. How can you keep your existing system running well and as efficiently as possible, while planning for a future replacement when the time is right? We’ve been serving the area with expert heating and AC repair since 1988, and we know a lot about what systems need as they age. We also have a lot of options we can add to existing systems that will help owners enjoy greater comfort while still carrying over to an upgraded system in the years to come. With expert maintenance and repairs, and 24-hour service when you need it, we’re the team to turn to when you want to keep your comfort system serving you well.
Working with Our Heating and AC Repair Team to Keep Your Existing System Performing at Its Best
Our heating and AC repair team will start with a full maintenance overhaul of your outside AC unit, including compressor checks, motor starting current tests, fin cleaning, and overall unit cleaning. Our team will also make sure that the refrigerant level is right, and ensure that belts and hoses are in good shape and not cracked or worn. If your unit has not been maintained in some time, it’s possible that insects or rodents have built homes inside, and we’ll make sure that those are properly cleared out to allow proper air circulation and operation of the unit. Ensuring that the AC unit cover is in place and adjusted so that it properly protects the unit from further intrusions is also important. If there are issues such as landscaping or grass clipping blocking the unit’s ventilation or storm-washed mud in the way, we can recommend solutions such as weatherproof housings for your AC unit. We’ll also check the connections into your home to make sure that they are in good shape, resilient, without cracks, and ready to last for another season or more. We’ll also make further electrical checks to make sure the control systems are right.
Cleaning and Upgrading Your Inside Evaporator and Mechanical Components
Our Richardson, TX heating and AC repair team can deep clean and maintain your evaporator, fans, and other components of your indoor AC system so they operate as smoothly and reliably as possible. We’ll make sure that you’ve got the best efficiency you can out of older units, and check for leaks and other issues that could limit their lifetime even further. For fans, we can make sure that they not only operate, but are in good shape and clean so they’ll operate smoothly and not pull excessive current when they startup. Hoses and wiring also need to be checked, and our heating and AC repair technicians will make sure they’re not cracked, broken, damaged, or split. If necessary, our heating and AC repair team can make replacements so you can depend on them for the season to come. We’ll also check and maintain the connections between your outdoor air conditioner unit and the evaporator, making sure it’s all in good shape.
Whole-House Duct Cleaning Services
Duct cleaning can make a big difference in your system’s operation and your air quality. Our heating and AC repair team can clear out even the most clogged duct system with our special equipment, avoiding making a mess as we remove what is often years of accumulation, sometimes even significantly narrowing the ducts so your warm and cool air volume is restricted. We’ll clean back to the bare metal, getting all the dust, dirt, hair, pollen, dander, and whatever else that’s gathered and clung to itself over time. With it all out of there, there won’t be anywhere for new stuff to easily stick, and nowhere for bacteria and mold to grow, either. That will help keep your air cleaner and hopefully make allergies less troublesome indoors. If we notice any issues with the ducts, our heating and AC repair team can seal joints and fix dents that are causing airflow problems to add further effectiveness to your system.
Humidity Controls for Year-Round Comfort
Heating and cooling is only part of the comfort picture. Dry air in the winter and humid air during the summer can subtract from the heat and cool you’re experiencing. It’s true that air conditioners tend to remove some humidity, but regulating it is a totally different thing. An added humidifier and dehumidifier system for your comfort system can allow you to choose how you feel, getting rid of that strange cold-but-humid air you sometimes feel in the summer, and adding some moisture to the air in the winter so staying warm doesn’t bring static zaps and other effects that dry air has on your body from your skin to your breathing. Our heating and AC repair team can add these features to your current system, and keep them operating when you upgrade your central AC unit in the future so your investment is maintained. After all, comfort is key!
HEPA Filtration
If you’re concerned about allergens, pathogens, or anything else that carries through the air and affects your health, a HEPA filtration unit attached to your air handling equipment can pull all but the tiniest particles out of the air and help with your breathing and comfort. These are straightforward filtration units, just with tighter filtration such as is used in “clean rooms” and other areas where not only people but equipment can be affected by the presence of tiny particles in the air. Our heating and AC repair team can add this to your system, also usually ready for continued use when you upgrade without modifications. Adding centralized filtration can also help you avoid the hassle of having a number of small consumer units around the house, which many people find difficult to keep updated with the right filters for each model anyway. When your filtration is part of your whole-house system, life becomes easier as you breathe easier, too.
Hygienic UV Light Air Processing
Pathogens in the air can also be neutralized by another popular industrial hygiene item, the UV light system. You may have seen the purplish-blue light in restaurant kitchens and doctor’s offices, where they’re used to help control infectious agents that are present in the air. You can have our Richardson, TX heating and AC repair team add this light to your system and help reduce the pathogens that are circulating when your system is operating and moving air from one part of the house to another.
Zone-Based Air Distribution
If you don’t already have a zone-based duct system, our heating and AC repair system definitely should make this change for you. It will help your unit work less hard because you’ll direct the cool air only where it’s needed. That will help extend the life of your unit and will help your new unit, when it’s installed in the future, to be more efficient and effective. Zone-based systems are created by our heating and AC repair staff by separating your existing ductwork into several zones serving your bedrooms, living room, and basement for example, and using separate fans and thermostats to supply cool air and control each zone’s temperature. This will allow you to keep each area at the temperature you prefer, rather than feeding the whole home with cool air whenever the living room where the single thermostat is located needs cooling. If you upgrade the thermostats to timer-based, intelligent, or smart thermostats, you’ll get even greater benefits from zone-based systems. When you upgrade your compressor unit in the future, you’ll want to have a zone-based system anyway, so this is a great way to get ahead on your home HVAC improvements.
Upgrading Your Old Thermostats
Even if you have only a single thermostat and whole-house ducting, changing your thermostat can make a big difference in your efficiency and comfort with your existing air conditioning unit. Our heating and AC repair team can upgrade your thermostat, or several if you have a zoned system, to adjust temperatures based on the time of day, to follow the settings that you choose and keep them in effect on the proper days, or even to operate as part of a smart home system so you have both local control of temperature and centralized smart home control. Thermostats of course can also include humidistat control if you had our heating and AC repair team install humidity control equipment in your HVAC system, and they’ll be an important part of your upgraded system in the future.
Connecting with Smart Home Features and Energy Management Systems
Smart home thermostats and a zoned, humidity-controlled system are important parts of a modern, high-efficiency system. Even if you don’t yet have a flexible, variable compressor-based system in place, smart home technology can add flexibility to even the most basic home HVAC system by helping it adapt without you having to adjust the thermostat. Once it knows what comfort levels you prefer, it can use any available information to help calculate the heating and cooling required to keep your home just right on sunny days and cloudy days, extra-hot summer days and cold winter days. Our heating and AC repair team in Richardson, TX can connect your system to smart thermostats so you can have your smart home system programmed to operate them just the way you want. In many cases, the smart home system allows easy smartphone control for people in your family whose mobility is limited and can’t get to the thermostat easily, and even for you to put the house in vacation mode while you’re on the way to the airport, saving a lot of energy costs until you get back.
Planning for a Future Upgrade: What’s Out There for New Systems?
At some point, you’ll reach “diminishing returns” where your repair investment isn’t going to provide as much return as you’d like, either on longevity or efficiency. You’ll also increasingly encounter situations such as the reduced availability of older refrigerant as it gets phased out in favor of new, government-required, eco-friendly refrigerant used in newer air conditioner models. Newer units also provide amazing levels of efficiency, with one manufacturer offering a basic unit with a SEER rating of 13, and an advanced model with a rating double that at up to 26. Some of the secrets in the newer units include not only more efficient components but multi-stage or variable-performance compressors that adapt better to varying cooling loads in the home. Instead of simply cooling on, cooling off, they can turn on the power to bring your home down to a comfortable temperature after you’ve been away and throttle back to provide consistent cooling at maintenance levels. That adds other benefits including easier humidity management and less noise when the unit’s operating. High-end units are also available with more sound insulation and special sound reduction technologies so you don’t have to stay aware of the AC unit operating outside when you’re trying to sleep. Let us know when you’re ready to explore your options for the future, and we’ll get you informed ahead of your time to make a choice.
For Expert Heating and AC Repair in Richardson, TX Plus Professionally Installed Upgrades and Replacement Systems
We’re One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating of Dallas, serving the folks of Richardson, TX with round-the-clock heating and AC repair and careful seasonal maintenance. Turn to our team for all your needs, from repair visits ready with the right parts to new AC unit installations that are detail-oriented and convenient. Give us a call to arrange an appointment or ask your HVAC questions.