When temperatures surpass 100 degrees, it’s tempting to crank up the AC to cool off.
But Danville Community College professor Mark Bryant, who teaches air conditioning and refrigeration repair for the school’s heating and AC program, said the best practice is keeping your AC at a steady temperature to maintain the life of your unit.
If you are constantly turning the air up and down when you are at home or leave for work, Bryant said an AC unit works harder on hot days to cool off a home than if it ran at a steady temperature throughout the day.
“It’s best to just leave it on one temperature,” he said, “especially when it’s really hot like this.”
Bryant explained that an AC system is only designed to make an indoor temperature 20 degrees cooler than the outdoor temperature. People may worry, he said, if they set their system to 75 and it won’t get below 80 on a very hot day while running constantly — but that’s normal.
“If it’s 102 outside, the best you can hope for is 80 inside if (your system) is sized properly,” Bryant said.
To properly maintain an air conditioning system, Bryant said the No. 1 tip for homeowners is to change their air filters monthly to maximize air flow. He suggested pleated-type filters (rather than the cheapest types that do not catch dirt as well), which are available at home improvement stores.
“A dirty filter restricts air flow across the coolant coil and reduces the cooling that the system can do,” he said. “It can even cause problems for the whole system.”
Homeowners should also have their systems serviced once a year, with the main priority of keeping the coil in the outdoor unit clean. Bryant said homeowners could clean the coil by turning the unit off, wetting the coil and spraying a cleaner such as Formula 409 or Fantastik to set for a few minutes before rinsing it off.
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