After a long, hot summer, it’s time to put fall maintenance on your calendar to save energy and increase your indoor comfort. The improvements you make will last well beyond the heating season, and not only will they lower your energy bills, they may also improve your indoor air quality.
Outdoors
- Inspect your home’s exterior. Look for peeling paint that could let moisture into your home’s wood siding during the winter rainy season. If your home has a stucco exterior, seal any cracks with patching material you can find at home improvement centers.
- Replace any missing shingles or cracked roofing tiles to avoid roof leaks, which can wreak havoc on your home’s structure.
- Look around the window frames to identify cracks. They can allow your home to lose heat, especially on a windy day. Seal with exterior caulk.
- Identify any places where pipes or wires enter your home and seal with expanding foam to reduce air leaks, including your attic, where vents or your furnace flue exit. To seal gaps around the flue, use silicon caulk.
- Make sure you rain gutters are cleared out, and check periodically during the call if you have leafy trees in your yard.
Indoors
Have your HVAC system serviced before the heating season starts. This part of fall maintenance is likely to save you the most on energy bills and assures your family’s safety if you use gas appliances or a furnace.
Seal air leaks you can access from inside, including around windows and doors. Use caulk or weatherstripping, depending on the situation.
Part of the system check should include an examination of your ductwork. If ducts are leaking, the air flowing through the ducts can pull carbon monoxide from the vented gas appliances into your home. Ductwork leaks also contribute to higher conditioning bills year round, as well as dust and debris from the areas through which they travel.
Regardless of your heating system, the HVAC technician will clean the system, tighten all the connections and oil the motors, all of which increases efficiency. The technician can also show you how to change the air filter for the air handler, and tell you when to change it.
If you’d like to learn more about fall maintenance for your HVAC system, please contact us at Donald P. Dick Air Conditioning. We’ve provided superior HVAC services for the Fresno area for more than 40 years.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater Fresno, California area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).