How Your AC Affects Your Summer Indoor Air Quality

Maintaining healthy home air is a year-round concern. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the air inside your Macon, GA home could be five times more contaminated than the air outdoors. This is especially true during the summer months. When the mercury soars, locals keep their homes tightly sealed and their air conditioners running. Understanding the connection between your air conditioner and your indoor air quality (IAQ) will help you and everyone else in your household breathe easy.

The Connection Between Your AC and Air Quality

Your central air conditioner or ductless mini-split AC does more than just cool your air. During each cooling cycle, this appliance also filters out airborne particulates and extracts excess humidity. You can support these activities by keeping your air conditioner clean and optimizing its operating conditions.

Your AC Can Work for or Against You

If your air conditioner has a dirty air filter, dirty coils, or a clogged condensate drain, ongoing humidity control and air filtration will decline. Worse still, your AC will underperform and create new IAQ concerns. Clogged condensate drains can add humidity to your living space and make your home feel clammy or muggy. This extra moisture will also set the stage for widespread mold and mildew problems.

When cooling systems have dirty air filters, AC blower fans can dislodge large clumps of collected filter debris and distribute allergens and contaminants throughout every room. These lint-like masses can also build up behind HVAC air vent covers, where they’ll constantly inhibit airflow and diminish IAQ.

Performing AC maintenance will keep your air conditioner working for you during the summer months rather than against you. Neglecting basic AC maintenance will make your air conditioner an active contributor to poor indoor air quality.

How to Keep Your Air Fresh in Summer

Priming your AC to provide effective IAQ support is easy. With the basic maintenance tasks that follow, you can limit the number of allergens and contaminants circulating throughout your home. You can also maintain compliance with your AC manufacturer’s warranty, ensure efficient cooling system performance, and avoid maintenance-related, mid-season breakdowns.

Regularly Check and Change Your Air Filter

Your AC cools your home by drawing warm air in and passing it over its refrigerant-filled evaporator coil. As air enters your cooling system, it passes through your air filter. A clean air filter will keep dust, dirt, pollen, and other allergens from settling on your air conditioner’s cooling coil and inhibiting heat transfer. With regular filter changes, you can also prevent large clumps of lint-like material from blowing off your air filter and reentering your indoor air.

The best schedule for standard air filter replacement is every 30 to 90 days. However, throughout the year, you should inspect your air filter monthly.

Schedule Pre-Season AC Maintenance

Scheduling pre-season tune-up service for your air conditioner is one of the best things that you can do to maintain healthy home air in summer. During AC maintenance service, our technicians replace air filters, inspect HVAC air ducts for leaks, and test airflow. We also clean AC condensate drains, evaporator and condenser coils, outdoor condensers, and air handlers. Professional AC maintenance will help you avoid problems like:

• Short cycling
• Icing
• Overheating
• Poor humidity control
• Unpleasant AC odors

Routine maintenance can also limit your risk of mildew and mold.

Identify and Address Airflow Issues

In addition to keeping your air filter clean and scheduling pre-season AC maintenance, you should regularly inspect your cooling system for potential airflow obstructions. Look for dirty, blocked, or closed HVAC air vents and blocked condensers.

Your air conditioner’s condenser requires no less than 24 inches of clearance on all sides. This is where your cooling system releases collected heat. During summer, fast-growing grass, shrubs, and tree branches can encroach upon this clearance. When you perform monthly air filter inspections, step outside and trim this invasive foliage back.

Closed air vents increase the static pressure in HVAC air ducts. This places strain on cooling systems and could lead to decreased humidity control, short cycling, or other functional issues that impact IAQ. Make sure that all your HVAC air vents are at least partially open. You can also wipe air vent covers clean or unscrew them and vacuum behind them.

Breathe Easy in Summer With Conditioned Air, Inc.

We help Macon locals maintain healthy home air with expert AC services. As an eight-time winner of The Telegraph’s “Best of the Best” award, we’re a top choice for air conditioning maintenance and repairs. To find out more about the connection between your AC and air quality or schedule AC tune-up service, get in touch with Conditioned Air, Inc. today!