Summer months in Texas get hotter than George Strait strumming his guitar. Luckily, indoor temps don’t have to be hotter than blue blazes thanks to air conditioning.
Though A/C saves Texans countless gallons of sweat each summer, it comes with both a monetary and environmental cost. Tuning up your A/C helps save your money and the earth’s atmosphere, allowing you to continue enjoying summertime in Texas.
Joshua Zapalac is the founder of Ecozapp, an A/C company started in the Brazos Valley with the vision of eventually becoming a state wide nonprofit. Zapalac works to improve energy efficiency, which he defines as lowering your energy bills.
Several steps can be taken to improve your A/C unit’s efficiency and lower your bills, so write this down.
Cleaning your system The first step to tuning up your A/C unit is something you can do. Cleaning your system and the area around it prevents your A/C unit from getting gummed up. Most importantly, clean your filters. “If you have a clean system, then you’re going to have an efficient system,” Zapalac says.
Though you can clean your system on your own, there are safety precautions you should take. “Don’t hose off coils,” Zapalac warns. “That’s bad for corrosion and you could electrocute yourself. There’s a lot of energy going through your system, and if you hose them off it can connect.”
It’s also important to prevent your system from getting dirty. “Don’t let your lawn guy blow lawn clippings into your system,” Zapalac says.
If you are not a “do-it-yourselfer” your system still needs a proper cleaning. Ask your A/C or repair company to clean your system during your A/C tune up.
Air Purification Zapalac speaks highly about improving air quality with improved A/C technology. “Air purification comes from better filters and air purification technology, which helps eliminate bad odors, allergens, pet dandruff, and pet smells,” he says. “ENTs love them. It basically purifies all the air and surfaces inside your house.”
Installing an air sanitizer in your A/C unit will improve both your homes’ air quality and your family’s health by killing mold, bacteria, and viruses that commonly grow in your air system. “These make the absenteeism go down 20 percent in schools,” he points out. “Basically, this will kill 99 percent of sneeze germs within three feet.”
Air sanitizers and better filters also help reduce allergies and asthma attacks. “It basically enables the allergens to get caught on the system in the return of cycle,” Zapalac explains. “It makes allergens and pollens clump together and get caught in the filters easier. Basically, what these do is turn H2O into H2O2, so it’s basically making hydrogen peroxide molecules at super, super low parts per million.”
The final step to purifying your air is investing in a U/V coil sanitizer. Mold grows on your unit’s coils while dirt, dandruff, and dust collect on them. “[The U/V coil sanitizer] is the power of the sun cooking your coils 24 hours a day,” Zapalac says. “It’s always cleaning your coils and keeping them brand new.”
Look for Leaks Leaking systems cost you money and have a negative impact on the environment. “Each refrigerant molecule with R-22 that gets to the ozone layer basically destroys 100,000 ozone molecules,” Zapalac shares. “So if your system leaks one pound of Freon a year, you are theoretically destroying 100,000 times that pound of Freon a year, which is not okay.”
R-22 is being phased out and will increase significantly in price by 2020. “It’s becoming illegal to import or export,” Zapalac says. “What’s left is what’s left. Once it’s gone they’re not making any more of it.”
If you’re A/C unit is rusted, the chance of a leak increases. Ecozapp has a leak detection process to help spot the problem. Zapalac recommends replacing leaking systems to avoid dealing with the rising cost of R-22 in the future and improve your systems efficiency.
By tuning up your A/C this summer, you can cool things down when temps are smoldering hot. Ecozapp offers A/C tune ups for $59. Their tune ups include checking your system for diagnostic and installation problems and maintaining warranties.
