Touchstone Heating & Air Inc Blog | Air Conditioning and Heating Tips

Closing Room Vents Isn’t Helpful: Here’s How It’s Hurtful!

September 6th, 2021

“How can I pay less to cool and heat my house?” You’ve probably asked yourself this before, and you can find many options to lower how much you need to depend on running your heating and air conditioning system over the year.

One method you might try is to close vent covers in unoccupied rooms. This seems to make sense: blocking the flow of conditioned air to empty rooms means less energy used.

Except … this is completely false! Closing room vents (or blocking them) won’t save money on heating and cooling. It does the opposite: it costs money in energy efficiency, repairs, and failed equipment! We’ll take a look at why closing rooms vents is a destructive move for your HVAC system.

Is Late Summer Too Late for AC Maintenance? No!

August 23rd, 2021

Did you forget to have maintenance done for your home’s air conditioning system in the spring? You may think that if you missed that window, you might as well skip it for the rest of the year. After all, it’s late summer, and if the air conditioner has already gotten this far…

We’re glad we’re here to stop that train of thought before you put off AC maintenance for a whole year. It’s late summer, but that doesn’t mean AC maintenance is a dead issue for the year. What might end up dead is your air conditioner, and far earlier than you expect, if you let maintenance slide. Spring is the best time to have a professional tune-up and inspect your air conditioner because it prepares it for the entire warm season, but if you get it done later it’s much better than never.

Ways to Tell Your AC Is on the Way Out…

August 9th, 2021

We’re now in the second half of the summer, and your home’s AC has put in an enormous amount of work already cooling down the house. It still has a ways to go too, since the Florida summer heat can last long into fall. You shouldn’t have too much to worry about when it comes to your AC, provided you arranged for routine maintenance at the start of the year. ACs are designed to last for many years against extremely hot conditions.

Of course, no AC is designed to last forever. At this point in the summer season, you may detect signs that your air conditioning system is beginning to fail—headed for a last breakdown that will require you to schedule an AC replacement in Lake City, FL. The best way to avoid getting trapped with a failed AC is to pay attention to the warnings the system is on the way out. Below we’ve listed a few major signs.

What Are the Best Ways to Have Better Indoor Air Quality for My Home?

July 26th, 2021

family-in-home Indoor air quality (IAQ) has never been more on the forefront of people’s minds than now. But poor IAQ has troubled homes for the last few decades: as construction creates more airtight houses to boost energy efficiency, indoor contaminants have fewer ways to escape, and less fresh air sweeps through to help keep the air clean. Chances are high that if you’re concerned about the IAQ of your house, you have good reason.

Thankfully, you can find great help to improve your home’s indoor air quality. Our technicians have more than two decades of experience working to help North Central Florida homes enjoy the best IAQ. We’ve listed below a number of ways to improve your home’s air quality.

What Does “Tonnage” Mean for Commercial HVAC?

July 12th, 2021

AC-units-on-roof We offer service for light commercial HVAC in High Springs, FL. “Light” commercial means we work with AC and heating units that are 25 tons and under. No, that doesn’t have anything to do with how much the equipment weighs. The “tonnage” of a system is a bit more complex, and it has to do with the amount of heating and cooling an HVAC unit can provide.

This applies to residential ACs and heaters as well, so even if you don’t own or operate a commercial facility, you may wish to stick around and learn about how professionals determine the amount of power necessary to provide climate control for a building.

Detecting Problems With Your Commercial Air Conditioning

June 28th, 2021

commercia-hvac-fans-in-rotation Along with our great services for homeowners throughout North Central Florida, we also provide service for light commercial HVAC in Alachua, FL, and the rest of our service area. (Light commercial means systems 25 tons and under.) As local business owners ourselves, we understand the difficulties a company can face when their cooling systems give out in the middle of summer. You may depend on the AC to keep customers, clients, and employees happy, or the AC may do a critical job cooling down equipment. No matter how you use your commercial air conditioning, when it fails you’ll need our experts on the job to repair it.

You want to catch potential AC problems early, before they turn into a full system breakdown leaving your facility without cooling. This presents difficulties, because AC equipment usually sits on the roof of the building. But you still can watch for these warning signs that will tell you to call our team for repair service.

Why You Hear Water Dripping in Your AC

June 1st, 2021

water One of the caution signs we tell homeowners about that will help them determine when they need repairs for their air conditioning in High Springs, FL is strange sounds. When you hear your AC making noises like hissing, bubbling, grinding, screeching, or clanging, it usually means something is wrong that requires the assistance of our HVAC professionals.

One sound you’ll hear from an AC that might be a bit odd but which is normal is dripping water. You’ve probably heard this many times before while your air conditioner was cooling down the house, and maybe you wondered at some point why it makes that sound. After all, an air conditioner doesn’t use water to cool the air. So why is there water dripping in your AC?

We’re going to answer that question here, not just because it’s an interesting bit of information, but because knowing the facts can help you recognize potential future problems.

Do You Have an Old R-22 Air Conditioner? Let’s Find Out!

May 17th, 2021

refrigerant-from-AC If you read the title of this post and thought, “A what air conditioner?”, don’t feel like you’re missing vital information that you’re supposed to know. Most homeowners aren’t aware of the specifics of the manufacture of their air conditioning systems, such as what type of refrigerant they use.

However, if you don’t know about R-22 air conditioning systems, we’re glad to provide you with this info. It’s likely that you don’t have an R-22 unit, but if you do, you’ll want to have it replaced as soon as possible.

So, on to the details of what we’re actually talking about…

Does My AC Have a Cooling Limit?

May 3rd, 2021

Your house is getting warm on a hot day, so you set the thermostat to switch on the air conditioning system. Soon, your house begins to feel comfortably cool, and the AC runs for as long as necessary.

At least, this is home cooling is supposed to work. If your air conditioning in Lake City, FL was professionally installed so it has the right cooling output to provide comfort to your house, then you can expect to have few problems staying cool during the summer.

But you might wonder if there’s an upper limit to your air conditioning system, a level of heat that it can’t beat. You look at the thermostat and see the lowest setting is 60°F, which is pretty cold and not a temperature you’d normally want to be at during the summer. But it does make it seem like the AC can always get the house down to that low a temperature if necessary.

It’s not true, however. Yes, your AC has a cooling limit because of its temperature differential. Understanding this can help you better manage settings for the air conditioner during the summer.

Want to Pay Less to Cool Your House This Summer?

April 19th, 2021

Money Summer weather means higher electricity bills for your house. There’s no way to avoid a rise in costs because the compressor that allows an AC to provide cooling draws on a great deal of power when it runs. The average central air conditioning system uses around 3,000 to 3,5000 watts an hour, adjusted up and down depending on the AC’s size. How much this costs you is predicated on the price of electricity in your area.

As a comparison, if you run the AC in “fan only” mode where the compressor does not turn on, it uses 750 watts an hour on average. This will give you an idea of the increase in electrical use that is part and parcel of running an air conditioner.

However, you might be paying more to cool your house than you should. In fact, you likely are, because there are many ways you can pay less for central cooling that don’t mean having to sacrifice your comfort and sweat it out all summer. Below are a few ways to cut down on the high cost of summer cooling.