Think you need heating and cooling service? Read this first!
A strange sound coming from your air conditioner. Your furnace suddenly stops blowing warm air. Every single one of us has been in a position of dealing with a heating or cooling problem, big or small, at one point or another. Whenever any kind of problem with your heating and cooling system happens, what is the first thing you think to do? For most, the answer is calling for heating and cooling service.
It is a perfectly reasonable thing to do, of course. Air conditioning or furnace problems aren’t just an annoyance for your comfort level, but if left unchecked they can contribute to even more serious problems. For a situation as important as this, it is always best to lean on the skills and knowledge of the experts to diagnose and fix the problem.
However, the reality is that some heating and cooling issues aren’t really issues at all. You wouldn’t believe the number of times one of our technicians gets a call for heating and cooling service and the solution was something incredibly simple that the homeowner could have resolved themselves. If only they knew what to look for they could save themselves time, money, and frustration.
That is just the problem, isn’t it though? The average homeowner doesn’t have the knowledge and experience of an HVAC service technician. But we can change that! Knowing what to check before calling for heating and cooling service might be able to save you an unnecessary service call.
Before you pick up the phone and call for heating and cooling service, make sure you check these four things first.
Check Your System Settings & Temperature Set Point
The very first thing you should check is to make sure your system settings and temperature point are properly set to what you want. We know, we know, this sounds really silly and obvious but you would be surprised how often we have seen this happen. Someone might have been messing around with the thermostat and changed the settings, someone might have bumped up against it, who knows!
No matter the reason, having a service technician come out to your home just to press a button on your thermostat is a very bad and embarrassing feeling. No matter how silly it may seem, just always make sure that if you want it to be cool in your house your system is set to “COOL” and set to “HOT” if you want it warm.
Check Your System Power Supply
Next, a good thing to double check is to make sure your system is getting the proper supply of power and nothing is preventing it from getting the power it needs. Here are a few different power sources throughout your home you’ll want to check.
First, go to your breaker box in your basement or utility closet, wherever yours is located, and double check that there isn’t anything out of place with the high voltage breaker that supplies power to the outdoor unit and to the indoor unit. A recent power surge may have tripped them. Next, check the indoor unit’s power switch. We have seen many instances where someone hit the switch on accident while carrying something and not realized until after the fact.
Finally, the last electrical component that you should check is the outdoor unit disconnect. This switch is often located in a metal box near the outside system and can sometimes be the target of some very unfunny pranks. We have had calls where someone pulled the disconnect switch out for no real reason other than to be “funny”. Not so much.
Check Your Filter
You might be surprised to learn that one of the most common (and preventable) things that can cause heating and cooling issues is a simple dirty filter. People might not normally think about their filter since it is in many ways out of sight and out of mind. However, it deserves your full attention.
Over time your filter gets full of hair, dirt, dust, dander, and all sorts of other stuff that you don’t want blowing around your home’s air. Once it gets too full, however, trouble starts happening and can cause your system to overheat or freeze up. You wouldn’t be very happy if you couldn’t breathe and your system feels the same way. Make sure you are staying on of regular filter replacements
If you have just recently changed your filter and are still having issues, it might also be worth your time to check the indoor system safety switch. This needs to be closed in order for the indoor unit to operate correctly and sometimes it is not reinstalled correctly after a filter change. This pressure switch is usually located to the upper left of the latch door, so try opening and closing this door and pushing on the latch for good measure.
Check Your Fuel Supply
For furnace issues, a good place to check is to your furnace’s fuel line. Telltale signs of this happening are your furnace automatically shutting off or only a partial ignition in your furnace. Make sure you have plenty of fuel oil and make sure the natural gas hasn’t been shut off to the house.
Sometimes a blockage or air bubble can occur, restricting the fuel supply. If there appears to be nothing wrong with your natural gas supply, this is likely the issue and you’ll want the help of an expert to clear the blockage safely.
Even if after you check all of these to-do’s off your list and you haven’t been able to resolve the issue, it will still be time very well spent. Your findings will help the service tech who comes out to your home narrow down possibilities and hopefully find the solution faster.
If you are struggling to figure out why your heating and cooling system isn’t working like it should even though you have tried everything, you can always count on Hoosier Indoor Air to come to the rescue. We’ll do a thorough inspection of your system, checking every possible problem source, and making sure we find the right solution to help get your system back to full strength.
Schedule heating and cooling service online or call us now at 317-466-7437.
