Fall is the season when you will feel burdened with house repairs. You need to focus on the usual home maintenance, get the minor issues fixed and ensure that you have a well-maintained home for the upcoming winter.
In our initiative to discuss the most urgent repair and maintenance tasks for fall, this is the first post where we’ll talk about essential HVAC maintenance tasks for fall.
What kind of challenges an HVAC system face in fall?
First of all, anything you do or don’t do in autumn will have consequences in winter. Imagine turning on your HVAC system on a chilly night only to find out that it’s not working. All you would wish for is that you acted a bit early.
Probably, that’s why fall exists; to remind the homeowners that it’s time to get prepped up for the winter. The list of to-dos might seem overwhelming, but if you start working on it during early fall (or anytime during the autumn season would be fine), you can do it easily.
HVAC maintenance tasks for Fall
1. Schedule the maintenance at the beginning of September
Call your nearest HVAC repair specialist to check your system for any breakdowns. It’s also a good time to ask him to clean the entire unit, so as to improve its efficiency. It’ll ensure that the unit is tuned-up and works to its full efficiency when the winter begins.
ALSO READ: How to improve the efficiency of your HVAC system?
2. Replace the filters
The actual frequency to replace the filter must be once a month, but if you haven’t done that, you shouldn’t ignore it during the fall maintenance. Clean filters are crucial to the efficient working of the HVAC system and hence, require adequate attention.
3. Insulate your attic
Department of Energy has been introducing several changes in different states to save energy. One of such changes is a recommendation to homeowners to insulate their attics. Apart from that, you can also protect your windows & doors to fix all the probable areas that might cause heat loss. It may be the loose grip of your front door or a small crack in the window pane; it needs repair urgently so that you save as much energy as you can while your HVAC system is up and running.
4. Have a generator for backup
Although we did make an argument that the fall exists to prepare for winter, it is also the fact that it’s the hurricane season. And you need to be ready for the worse. What if the storm is so strong that you find yourself in a blackout situation? A backup generator will always keep you prepared. Remember that if you already have a generator, you must keep it maintained at all times.
5. Check for common heating problems
Look for visible cracks, broken seals and leaks in the duct work and consider hiring an air duct cleaning service if you haven’t got them cleaned since long. Thermostat malfunctions are also pretty common during the beginning of the winter. Stay on a lookout for hot and cold spots in your home. We’re sorry to say that, but if it’s happening in your home, you must upgrade your HVAC system as mostly it happens because the system is too small to heat up the entire space.
6. Please don’t close the vents
We can’t count the number of people who have done this. Closing the air vents in the rooms that are not in use wouldn’t do any good to your energy bill or HVAC efficiency. On the other hand, it does disrupt the heat circulation in the home and make your system work harder causing it more wear and tear.
You must also do a test-run of your heating system and see if there are any weird noises or foul smell. Foul smell indicates that there’s something wrong with the system, or some animal has died in the ducts. Both are severe enough situations to call an HVAC repair service. You can find them here. Weird noises often happen due to some loose equipment or disruption in the system.
7. Clean up the area around the outdoor unit
If you have an outdoor unit, ensure that you pull off all the grass and weeds growing around the unit. Even just 1-2 inches long grass can be harmful if it’s close enough. And let’s just accept that it is too easy a task to be ignored. Do it.
These are the seven essential HVAC maintenance tasks for fall. Have you already started working on fall home maintenance? What job do you plan, to begin with?
Also, don’t forget to check our future posts in this fall home maintenance series. It will act as an excellent resource for planning out your to-dos this season. Thanks.
