It’s hard to understate the value of a good air conditioner. It’s reliable when little else is. There’s a lot in life that’s out of your control. You can’t do much if the barista messes up your morning coffee order or if you hit traffic on your way to work. But with the right cooling system, you can take complete control over the climate in your home.
When it’s hot out, you want to be cool. That applies to most warm-blooded individuals, and human beings across Maryland aren’t any different. But as we write this, there are homes in our community that are currently functioning without air conditioning for one reason or the other. And many homes that do have an air conditioning unit installed are facing their own problems.
These two categories overlap in one single core component: AC installation. So how can you tell that you need an AC installation, and what else is there to learn about how a cooling system can improve your home today?
Signs You Need an AC Installation
To put it simply, if you don’t have an air conditioner in your home, consider this to be your sign to get one. They come with a variety of benefits, and even if your home is unable to support the duct system of a traditional AC installation, there is still an option to keep you cool when it’s hot out. Not to mention that it makes a fantastic selling point if you choose to put your home on the market in the future.
For homes that do have an air conditioner, that doesn’t mean you’re entirely in the clear. An air conditioning unit is designed to last around fifteen years—less so if it’s an older model or one that has been unable to be serviced. Once it passes the decade mark, it’s inevitably going to start losing efficiency.
You may find that it no longer cools your home consistently. It might struggle to reach any stable temperature level, and it may turn on and off at random. When it does function, you should keep an eye out for any unusual banging or grinding sounds. These are both signs that the core components of your air conditioner are breaking down.
And as parts inside your air conditioner start to fail, it will eventually affect the mechanics of the unit that controls cooling. The condenser coil may freeze over, or the drip pan might overflow. You’ll find signs of leakage around your unit and rust build-up on the exterior in both of these cases.
Repairs are possible to an extent, but sometimes the repairs outweigh the unit’s worth. When that happens, a new AC installation is the best course of action.
Types of AC Installations
You may have a particular image of what a home air conditioner looks like. It’s some bulky appliance that hums from your window or outside your home. Wherever it is, it cools air and transfers it through a ventilation system that hits all the rooms in your house.
If that’s what you think of when you think of air conditioners, you aren’t entirely wrong. You are, of course, missing an altogether separate world in cooling technology. Some homes in Maryland don’t have ducts, or if they do, they cannot handle the load of a traditional AC installation.
Homes like these don’t need to settle for a life lived in a series of strategically-placed fans. As you may have been hoping, there’s a better way.
Ductless Mini-Split
A ductless mini-split is an innovation for the Maryland homes it was designed for. Your standard air conditioner works by having ducts pump air through a central indoor unit, cooled and pumped into every room in the house.
For a mini-split, however, you don’t need any ductwork to function. Instead, you separate your home into cooling zones that are given their fan and evaporator unit. Each of these units is connected to an outdoor compressor that cools the air and circulates it back to the room.
Qualities of a Ductless Mini-Split
As you may have gathered from the previous section, ductless mini-splits are not made to cool the entire home with one unit. That is both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on your current lifestyle. If you mainly use a specific section of your house throughout the day, you can prevent wasting energy by cooling spaces that you aren’t using or aren’t occupied.
You can save even more than that. There is an annual loss of over 25 percent of the energy used in a household with a standard air conditioner. With a ductless air conditioner installation, you get to feel all the energy you use. If you choose to install an ENERGY STAR mini-split, you can save up to 30 percent of cooling costs for the space you install it in.
Mini-splits are more of an investment than a traditional model, but depending on the needs you’re trying to fill, they can pay for themselves pretty quickly. And depending on the county you live in. You may qualify for a federal tax credit or local utility incentive.
Benefits of an AC Installation
It’s nice to have something new. A new friend can bring excitement, and a new haircut can make you more confident than almost anything else. So when we talk about a new AC installation, part of what makes it so special is that it’s new, which goes more than “skin deep.”
HVAC technology is constantly evolving, and new advantages and capabilities get put on the market year after year. If you’re still trying to squeeze some life out of an air conditioner that was there when you moved in, you deserve better for yourself. A new air conditioning unit will work better, quicker, and with less energy. With all that, what’s not to love?
Air Conditioner Maintenance
Once you get your new AC installation, you want to make the most out of your new investment. That means keeping up with annual air conditioner maintenance, but what exactly does that mean? Why would you get maintenance on something that’s running perfectly fine?
All air conditioners need an annual tune-up. If they’re working well, they can always be working better with over a year of use. The trick with a yearly air conditioner tune-up is that you do it preventatively instead of waiting for your system to break down.
Our team at Buric Heating and Air Conditioning can inspect the state of your new air conditioner to tighten and lubricate what’s needed. If we see signs of a future repair down the line, we can solve the problem then and there and cut out a lot of time and hassle.
Buric Heating and Air Conditioning
If you’ve been scouring the web for the best “HVAC near me,” you’ve found it. Buric Heating and Air Conditioning has been serving the community of Ellicott City for over twenty years. Our team is family, and when you call on us for your cooling and heating needs, we think of you as a family, too.
At Buric Heating and Air Conditioning, we have someone on the line to answer your call 24/7, day or night, early or late. Our first estimate is free, and our advice is always honest. So whether you’re breaking a sweat in Howard, Montgomery, or Prince George’s County, you can come to Buric Heating and Air Conditioning. Our work is guaranteed to chill you out.
