From our friends at T-Square Properties

Cost, convenience, and control are three things you want in your home’s HVAC maintenance. You want the cost of managing the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems to be affordable. You also want to avoid unexpected breakdowns and you want to be able to deal with issues at your convenience.

If you get a handle on cost and find a way to do maintenance according to your own schedule, you have gained the third criteria, control. But achieving this level of HVAC maintenance requires a time commitment and technical know-how that most homeowners simply do not have, T-Square Properties explains.

Air conditioners must be inspected before summer and heating systems checked every fall. In between, minor issues, which happen without warning, must be given attention to keep them from becoming major problems.

It is usually the failure to do these important tasks in a timely fashion that causes most homeowner’s HVAC maintenance problems. The question is how can you gain control of HVAC maintenance to make it affordable and convenient?

Finding an effective way to manage your HVAC is not hard. The recommended way to deal with this problem is through an HVAC maintenance agreement. This solution is the best way to get the most out of your HVAC systems.

What is an HVAC maintenance agreement?

It is a contract with an HVAC maintenance company that transfers the responsibility for staying up to date with HVAC maintenance from you to the company. Instead of waiting until you have a problem with the HVAC before you hire a technician, the company works to keep the system from breaking down at all.

In all probability, you have an HVAC technician available that you can contact whenever your system has issues. But an HVAC maintenance plan is different from this type of arrangement. That is because your current HVAC technician does not really work for you. The technician is able to do your work subject to their availability and this can be a problem.

It is the ad hoc nature of your HVAC maintenance approach that is responsible for many of your HVAC problems. But with an HVAC maintenance agreement, many of your HVAC problems are automatically resolved by the maintenance plan the company implements. What are the tangible benefits of having an HVAC maintenance agreement?

Good reasons to have an HVAC maintenance agreement

• Timely service

The service company ensures the HVAC is maintained according to the right schedule. Since this is all the company does (unlike you, who may be caught up in doing other things, and forget), there is no chance of HVAC maintenance being overlooked. The result is you are able to maximize the performance of your home’s HVAC.

• Protect HVAC warranties

With an HVAC maintenance agreement, you do not have to worry about the warranty on your HVAC being voided. Firstly, the HVAC maintenance company is recognized by the HVAC manufacturer as a professional HVAC service. Secondly, the service company will keep detailed records to show that your HVAC is being cleaned and inspected as required by the manufacturer.

• Preferential treatment

HVAC maintenance companies give priority to customers who have a service contract with them. This is important for those times when there is high demand for the company’s service. The company will move homeowners with a service contract up the queue. The company will also give customers with service contracts priority in the supply of critical HVAC components if these components are scarce.

• On-demand service

 If you suffer an HVAC emergency in the dead of night, on a holiday, or during inclement weather, the company will come out to fix the problem at a regular rate. Without an HVAC service agreement, you may be stuck without cooling or heating for hours. If you manage to get hold of an HVAC technician, you may have to pay twice the normal rate for the service.

• Lower prices

HVAC maintenance companies get bulk discounts from manufacturers of HVAC spare parts and disposables. They will pass these discounts on to their most loyal customers because they know they are assured of those customers’ business for the foreseeable future. An HVAC maintenance agreement will let you save money on important HVAC supplies.

• Fewer breakdowns and longer equipment lifespan

 The overall effect of timely oil changes, filter replacements, and other essential services is you will have fewer problems with the HVAC. Proper maintenance can extend the life of the equipment and its components by as much as 50%. You will not need to replace the HVAC as soon as you would have if you did not have a maintenance contract.

• Lower energy costs

HVAC systems use up more energy as they lose their efficiency; the system has to work harder to achieve the required level of cooling or heating. This increases the amount of gas or electricity used up by the HVAC. A maintenance agreement improves the system’s overall performance; this can significantly lower your home’s energy bills.

 

 

 

Let’s face it– unless you’re in the industry, the topic of HVAC also known as Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning… might not seem all that interesting. We personally love anything and everything heating and cooling related.  However, we thought you’d still enjoy these rather interesting facts about HVAC systems. Here are ten interesting facts about HVAC you (probably) didn’t know. Who knows, they might help you win trivia night!

1. The New York Stock Exchange was the first building to have air conditioning in it.

2. Before HVAC units, it was thought that summers were too hot for children to learn, which is why we have “summer break” now.

3. The first modern air conditioning unit was invented in 1902 by Willis Carrier, with the intent of keeping temperatures and humidity low for a publishing company in New York. It made their paper a more consistent product.

4. It is estimated that the amount of energy used just on air conditioning and heat in the United States exceeds the total amount of energy used on the entire continent of Africa.

5. The first car with air conditioning was introduced in 1939 by the Packard Motor Company. It wasn’t very popular due to it’s high cost and the fact that the system took up half the trunk space.

6. The first fully air conditioned home was built in a mansion in Minneapolis in 1913. The owner, Charles Gates, unfortunately died before ever getting to use it.

7. Herbert Hoover was the first President to enjoy air conditioning in the White House. He spent $30,000 to install the system in the oval office, just after the start of the Great Depression.

8. Movie theaters were some of the first establishments to have air conditioning as a strategy to get more people to go to the movies. It worked handsomely, and this is why we have the term “summer blockbuster”.

9. Studies have shown that since the invention of air conditioning, humans’ natural tolerance for heat has lowered. Therefore, a hot summer day seems much hotter nowadays than it would have centuries ago.

10. Without the invention of air conditioning, many medications would never have been invented. In turn, some diseases would’ve never been cured.