Facts are facts, the climate is changing. It?s hotter and hotter every summer and colder and colder every winter. And we spend a ton on our utilities bills. But professional air conditioning services can improve your comfort, and save you money
Fully two thirds of all households in the U.S. have air conditioners and the average HVAC unit lasts 12 years. As long as it?s probably time to get an AC contractor to put in a new HVAC unit anyway, taking actions like switching to high-efficiency air conditioners to keep your home cool could help to reduce energy used by air conditioning from 20% to 50%. In fact, the best air conditioners made today use 30% to 50% less energy than air conditioners made in the mid 1970s to produce the same amount of cool air.
Air conditioning services, such as replacing a dirty, clogged filter with a clean one can lower your air conditioner’s energy consumption by 5% to 15%. Really, most American homes could benefit from a regularly scheduled maintenance visit from air conditioning services contractors, as only 42% of people who use central air conditioning equipment have it serviced yearly. Faulty or poorly maintained fans and air conditioning equipment accounted for 35% of home structure fires (2,500 out of 7,200), from 2006 to 2010, while broken heating pumps made up only a fifth of that at 7% (500 of 7,200). With regular AC service those fires might have been avoided.
Today, air conditioning equipment is more commonly found in single family households than it is in residences in buildings with apartments, with air conditioning in 89% of single family homes vs. 82% of apartments. And most homes built since 2000 (91%) have a main space heating system including central ducts as opposed to only half of the homes built prior to 1940. If your home was build before 1940 or you live in an apartment without air conditioning, call an air conditioning services specialist to see what can be done to make your home cooler or more efficient.
With summers growing ever hotter and homes ever grander, energy consumed by residential air conditioning in the U.S. doubled from 1993 to 2005, and jumped another 20% by 2010. Utility bills are shooting up and it?s only going to get worse. Do yourself a favor now, before it does, and see what air conditioning services can bring your HVAC system up to par and save you money.