Kilowatt Heating, Air Conditioning and Electrical Blog:
Posts Tagged ‘Air Conditioning Replacement’

Can an Air Conditioner Ever Become Dangerous?

Monday, July 12th, 2021

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If you use a gas furnace to heat your home, there is some potential for the furnace to become dangerous. Toxic gas and combustion dangers can occur if the furnace isn’t given proper regular care. It’s not difficult to avoid these hazards with a gas furnace, but it’s important to know about the possibilities.

What about air conditioning systems? Can an AC malfunction in a way that creates hazards for your home? The answer is yes, but they’re different from natural gas concerns. They occur with extremely old ACs, and the best way to avoid these problems is to make sure you don’t keep an air conditioner that’s long past its estimated service life, i.e. more than 15 years. 

We’ll take a look at how an old air conditioning system can create health concerns.

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Still Have an R-22 Air Conditioner? It’s Time to Replace It

Monday, June 28th, 2021

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You can look for many different signs that you have an over-the-hill air conditioner ready for a replacement. General age is a good measure: most ACs don’t last far beyond 15 years. You can also watch for declines in efficiency that create higher electric bills, or a run of expensive repairs that indicate a system approaching the end of the line. 

One sign it’s time to repair your AC that is absolute is if it’s an R-22 unit. If you have an R-22 air conditioning system, arrange to have a replacement put in as soon as you can—otherwise, it will force you to replace it at some point when it’s much less convenient for you.

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Can I Save Money By Getting a Used AC System?

Monday, October 5th, 2020

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This is a question that occasionally crops up because people are used to hunting for bargains with used items. Often, buying “pre-owned” is great. Used books still have the same text, most used CDs and Blu-rays will run fine, and the used car is a classic.

But a used central air conditioner? Is that a possibility?

No. No it is not. No HVAC professional recommends purchasing used air conditioning systems. It won’t save money and will probably cost far more than getting a new system. It’s also simply not practical. Below we’ll go through the reasons why a “pre-owned” AC belongs in the recycling yard, not your house.

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Has Your AC Come to the End of the Line at the End of Summer?

Monday, September 7th, 2020

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The heat has subsided in Southern California after an intense heatwave. It’s still hot, but we’ve eased down to temperatures that require less work from air conditioning systems.

(Friendly reminder: Your AC can lower the temperature indoors by a maximum of 20°F. You never want to push it to lower the temperature farther than this. So if it’s 95°F, don’t set the thermostat lower than 75°F. In fact, aim for 78°F for best energy savings.)

Now that we’re moving toward cooler temperatures, it’s a good time to look at your AC and consider if it’s ready to retire. Planning an AC installation in Van Nuys, CA during October or November is an ideal time for the job.

But is your AC ready to go? You don’t want to replace it if it still has a few years of solid and efficient performance left.

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Uneven Cooling Is a Warning You May Need a New Air Conditioner

Monday, June 29th, 2020

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As the heat increases during the summer and you run your air conditioning system more and more often, you might begin to notice parts of your house are warmer than you expect. Some rooms are comfortable, but others are turning into hot spots. If this is a new occurrence, it’s often a warning sign you have an air conditioner that needs serious repair work—or may need to be replaced.

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Why Air Conditioning System Sizing From Professionals Is Necessary

Monday, June 15th, 2020

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Years ago on our blog, we warned customers about the dangers of purchasing HVAC equipment online. There are plenty of reasons for this, such as getting a system with a voided warranty. A common item people purchase on their own is high-tech thermostats, thinking they can’t go wrong with basic climate controls. Unfortunately, a mismatched HVAC system and thermostat can end up damaging the HVAC system.

But the most important reason to never purchase HVAC equipment online is the issue of sizing. Unless you’re a professional HVAC technician, you won’t know how to properly size a new air conditioner to work correctly for your house. Sizing must be precise. A system that’s too large or too small means years of trouble from an AC that never seems to work right.

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5 Reasons Your AC Fan Isn’t Working

Monday, June 1st, 2020

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When you’re enjoying a comfortable summer day inside your home with the AC sending around cooled air, the last thing you want to hear is the fan for the air conditioner shut down, leading to all the air from the vents vanishing. Or to have the air from the vents change to room temperature. Both of these are examples of what occurs when either the indoor or outdoor fan stops working.

The indoor fan does the job of pushing air through the evaporator coil to cool it down and then into the ductwork. The outdoor fan is responsible for moving air across the condenser coil to release heat and then exhaust it. If the indoor fan breaks–no air in the vents. If the outdoor fan breaks–no cooling indoors.

What causes this to happen? Here are the five most common causes.

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How to Handle a Second Floor That’s Too Hot

Monday, September 23rd, 2019

One of the reasons window air conditioning units are only useful for apartments or for a single office is because of their limited reach. The only way to cool a whole house with window units is to place them in windows in every room—which isn’t always possible and blocks up so many windows you’ll end up with a perpetual twilight in the house! And even with all the window ACs, you’ll still end up with hot spots.

With a central air conditioning system, you don’t have to worry about having rooms all around the house cool. Or you shouldn’t. Unfortunately, uneven cooling still happens, and the most common case we run into is an upper story of a house that’s hotter than the lower one. Heat rises, and in the San Fernando Valley the AC may not be equipped to deal with it.

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Is It Normal for the AC to Run Constantly?

Monday, July 1st, 2019

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Summers in Southern California are long and hot, with the heat often extending well into October. Air conditioning systems get extreme workouts during this time—so much so that it may seem as if a home’s air conditioner is always running from July onward.

But there’s a difference in an air conditioner that runs frequently and one that is actually running constantly and never powering down.

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When the Compressor Fails, Do You Need to Replace the Whole AC?

Monday, May 6th, 2019

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The compressor is the workhorse of an air conditioning system. It’s like the engine—without it, nothing happens and an air conditioner becomes a central fan blowing around room temperature air.

What happens when the compressor in your AC stops working and it can’t be repaired? This is a serious situation, and you’ll have a number of options to consider—one of which is to have the entire air conditioning system replaced. Is this the best option, or are the other choices more cost-effective?

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