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Preventative Maintenance

From the experts at Trane, one of the leading manufacturers or AC units:

You wouldn’t drive your car 100,000 miles without changing the oil. The same logic holds true for your home comfort system. Regular preventative maintenance is the best way to ensure trouble-free operation and peak performance. Pre-season maintenance is also important. It can help to avoid a system failure in severe hot or cold weather when you need it most, and it can also keep your energy bill from getting out of control.

WHEN SHOULD I DO MAINTENANCE?

The old adage is true: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Below you’ll find our Preventative Maintenance Checklist, which is our proven method to keep your system in the pink and your home in constant comfort.

• For a system that heats and cools: perform maintenance in the spring and fall.
• For cooling only: perform maintenance at least once a year, before the cooling season.
• For heating only: perform maintenance at least once a year, before the heating season.

PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE CHECKLIST

Many dealers provide priority service for their customers who have an annual maintenance or service agreement. Bi-annual preventative maintenance will ensure that your system runs as efficiently as possible. Your local dealer will perform the following tasks, depending on the unit:

OUTDOOR UNITS

• Inspect unit for proper refrigerant level and adjust if necessary
• Clean dirt, leaves and debris from inside cabinet
• Inspect base pan for restricted drain openings—remove obstructions as necessary
• Inspect coil and cabinet—clean as needed
• Inspect fan motor and fan blades for wear and damage—on older models lubricate as needed
• Inspect control box, associated controls/accessories, wiring and connections. Controls may include contactors, relays, circuit boards, capacitors, sump heat and other accessories. All control box and electrical parts should be checked for wear or damage.
• Inspect compressor and associated tubing for damage

INDOOR UNITS

• Inspect and clean blower assembly (includes blower housing, blower wheel and motor)
• On older models, lubricate motor and inspect and replace fan belt if needed
• Check combustion blower housing for lint and debris and clean as necessary
• Inspect evaporator coil, drain pan and condensate drain lines. Clean as needed
• Inspect for gas leaks in gas furnaces
• Inspect burner assembly—clean and adjust as needed
• Inspect ignition system and safety controls—clean and adjust as needed
• Inspect heat exchanger or heating elements
• Inspect flue system—check for proper attachment to the furnace, any dislocated sections, and for signs of corrosion. Replace if necessary.
• Inspect control box, associated controls, wiring and connections
• Clean or replace air filters
• Inspect conditioned airflow system (ductwork)—check for leaks

WHILE YOUR SYSTEM IS OPERATING

• Monitor system starting characteristics and capabilities
• Listen for abnormal noise
• Search for source of unusual odors
• Monitor air conditioning and heat pump systems for correct refrigerant charge
• Measure outdoor dry bulb temperature
• Measure indoor dry and wet bulb temperature
• Measure high and low side system pressures
• Monitor gas furnace for correct line and manifold gas pressure—make adjustments as needed
• Measure temperature rise and adjust airflow as needed
• Check vent system for proper operation
• Monitor system for correct line and load volts/amps
• Monitor system operation per manufacturer's specifications
• Provide system operation report and recommend repairs or replacement as necessary

NOTE: Trane recommends all maintenance and service work be performed by a professional air conditioning and heating dealer that holds the appropriate credentials to install and service air conditioning and heating equipment.

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About GMC

GMC Air Conditioning Services was created to provide Residential, Commercial, and Industrial customers with a "one stop shop" for all of their indoor comfort, indoor air quality, HVAC service and maintenance needs.

Our founder, John B Flathe, has spent his entire career in the HVAC field. Upon graduating from Vanderbilt University with a Mechanical Engineering degree, John secured Engineering positions, first with Lennox Industries and then York.

Being a true entrepreneur, John decided to branch out on his own and formed Georgia Metal Corporation. For over 30 years Georgia Metal Corporation has installed HVAC systems in some of the most prestigious Retail Centers, Office Complexes, Condominiums, and Residences in South Florida and Georgia. Our extensive list of clients include Publix Supermarkets, Kohl's Department Stores, Staples Office Supplies, Wallgreens, Best Buy and Whole Foods Market, just to name a few.

While much was accomplished over the years, John still had one goal; to build a HVAC Service and Maintenance Company that would delight customers in the same fashion that Georgia Metal Corporation has for over 30 years. To achieve this goal GMC Air Conditioning Services was created.

The 1st step was to find a leader for the new entity. John hired Skip Farinhas, an industry veteran, as General Manager. Skip is a University of Miami graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management. Skip also has spent his entire career in the HVAC Industry, beginning his career in his family's HVAC contracting business, then co-owning and operating a wholesale HVAC distribution company. Skip also spent several years with York as the Sales Manager for Florida. As General Manager of GMC Air Conditioning Services, Skip has built an organization that is focused on exceeding your expectations each and every time!

You can trust GMC Air Conditioning Services to provide solutions to the most difficult cooling problems. We pride ourselves on honesty, integrity, and dependability.

Changing Filters: How & Why

Trust This Old House to inform us on how and why you need to change your air conditioner's filters monthly:

Dirty filters kill your AC's efficiency, so install a new one every month during the cooling season for central and window units (or clean them if you've got the washable type). Look for the filter's minimum efficiency reporting value, or MERV, which ranges from 1 to 12 for home AC units; the higher the number, the better filtration it provides (and the more energy needed to pull air through it, so balance air-quality concerns with energy costs).

How Air Conditioners Work

Today, a little educational message about how air conditioners work from How Stuff Works.

The actual process air conditioners use to reduce the ambient air temperature in a room is based on a very simple scientific principle. The rest is achieved with the application of a few clever mechanical techniques. Actually, an air conditioner is very similar to another appliance in your home -- the refrigerator. Air conditioners don't have the exterior housing a refrigerator relies on to insulate its cold box. Instead, the walls in your home keep cold air in and hot air out.

Air conditioners use refrigeration to chill indoor air, taking advantage of a remarkable physical law: When a liquid converts to a gas (in a process called phase conversion), it absorbs heat. Air conditioners exploit this feature of phase conversion by forcing special chemical compounds to evaporate and condense over and over again in a closed system of coils.

The compounds involved are refrigerants that have properties enabling them to change at relatively low temperatures. Air conditioners also contain fans that move warm interior air over these cold, refrigerant-filled coils. In fact, central air conditioners have a whole system of ducts designed to funnel air to and from these serpentine, air-chilling coils.

When hot air flows over the cold, low-pressure evaporator coils, the refrigerant inside absorbs heat as it changes from a liquid to a gaseous state. To keep cooling efficiently, the air conditioner has to convert the refrigerant gas back to a liquid again. To do that, a compressor puts the gas under high pressure, a process that creates unwanted heat. All the extra heat created by compressing the gas is then evacuated to the outdoors with the help of a second set of coils called condenser coils, and a second fan. As the gas cools, it changes back to a liquid, and the process starts all over again. Think of it as an endless, elegant cycle: liquid refrigerant, phase conversion to a gas/ heat absorption, compression and phase transition back to a liquid again.

It's easy to see that there are two distinct things going on in an air conditioner. Refrigerant is chilling the indoor air, and the resulting gas is being continually compressed and cooled for conversion back to a liquid again. On the next page, we'll look at how the different parts of an air conditioner work to make all that possible.

How Many Tons Do I Need?

Whether you want to install a window unit to cool a single room or are putting in a central air conditioning unit to cool the whole house, it is good to remember that bigger is not necessarily better. A unit that is bigger than is required will not only have a higher initial cost, it could cost you more by short cycling. Of course a unit that is too small can quickly run up your energy bill by running constantly in a futile attempt to keep the area comfortable

Manual J
The Air Conditioning Contractors of America is the industry organization responsible for developing a method for calculating residential cooling loads. The result is the Manual J. Professional contractors should use it to determine the proper size of any home air conditioner they plan to install. Manual J takes into account numerous factors including the average geographical temperature, type and amount of insulation, ceiling height, exterior construction materials and square footage.

Homeowner Calculations
Most do-it-yourselfers don't have access to Manual J, nor to the sophisticated tools available to professional installers. Still, armed with a tape measure and hand-held calculator, most people can make a relatively accurate estimate of their cooling needs. The process is simple--measure the length and width of the room to be cooled and multiple the two factors to get the square footage of the room. Repeat the process for each additional room that is to be cooled and add all of the sums together to get the total square footage that requires cooling.

BTU to Ton
A ton of cooling capacity is equivalent to the cooling effect of a ton of ice melting over a 24-hour period. However, most air conditioning units today are measured in British thermal units, so a little conversion math will be required. Twelve thousand BTUs is roughly equivalent to 1 ton of cooling capacity. A well-insulated room with 100 square feet will require a 4,000 to 6,000 (a half ton) BTU air conditioner while a 12,000 BTU (one ton) unit can cool up to 500 square feet. A 2-ton (24,000 BTU) central air conditioning unit can effectively cool a 1500 square-foot residence.

Source: eHow