The arrival of fall weather is a good time to consider how well your air conditioning system served you through the middle of the year. You’ll still need to have an AC running at times through the fall and winter—you live in Florida, after all!—but you won’t rely on it as much. During this lull, you may wish to consider services for your AC if it didn’t meet your expectations throughout the year. The air conditioning system may require a repair, or it may need a full replacement.
In this post, we’ll examine the future of your air conditioning system if it lagged behind in performance this year. Look to our team for honest opinions and expert advice about cooling your home.
Always consider the air conditioning system’s age
A central air conditioner that receives annual maintenance and prompt repairs can often last 15 years without suffering from a downturn in capacity or energy efficiency. The standard life-expectancy for a central air conditioning system is 10–15 years, and once a system is past that range, we strongly recommend scheduling a replacement—especially if the AC is showing signs of trouble, such as taking longer to cool the house, leaving hot spots, breaking down frequently, or any of the other problems we’ll go into more detail about below. Continuing to repair an old AC rather than investing in a new system will turn into a major money drain.
Look over your history of summer electrical bills
One of the major signs of an AC that’s in decline is when it starts to cost more to run than it once did. Check over your history of electrical costs over the past few summers (keeping in mind factors like the cost of electricity and times of increased usage) to see if costs have risen. If they have, an over-the-hill air conditioner may be the cause—an air conditioner that isn’t likely to run for much longer.
Watch out for repairs that are too expensive
If you think your air conditioning system can be repaired, make sure you balance the potential cost of any repair against the cost of replacing the system. Our technicians can help you with this, and they’ll always give you honest recommendations when it comes to “repair vs. replace.” A good guideline is to replace an AC if the cost of a repair is more than half the cost of the new system.
Think about how much your indoor comfort may have declined
If your AC has kept your home effectively cool for many years, a drop in comfort often means the system is starting to fail. Uneven cooling is an early warning of a system in decline. If you start lowering the thermostat more and more to get the comfort you once took for granted, it’s probably time for a new AC.
If you are considering installing a new air conditioner this fall, we recommend you look into the possibility of heat pumps in Clearwater, FL. Heat pumps work as both cooling and heating systems, so if you have an aging electric furnace, you can have both it and the old AC replaced at the same time with a single, energy-efficient HVAC unit.
Experience the Balanced Air, Inc. difference! We’ve served the Tampa Bay area since 1988.
