Prep your AC for the summer

Check if your AC works before the summer season hits

Since the weather is still fairly cool, you may not think that it is time to worry about AC just yet. This is precisely the time you should!

It is important to make sure that your AC is working well before the summer’s hot days are upon us.

As a homeowner, prepare your AC for the summer months by first testing it yourself. If you are lucky, your equipment may have weathered the winter just fine.

Follow the 4 steps below to check if your AC is ready for the summer.

1. Physical inspection

This involves physically looking at the AC equipment and clearing the dust, leaves and other debris around it. Clear out cobwebs and dirt from around it. You may also use your hose to give the equipment to clean the exterior of the AC. Check for any missing panels.

Change your air conditioner’s filter at the beginning of the season.

2. Turn system on

Before you turn the AC on, visually ensure that the electrical wiring is not damaged.

Turn the AC on. If it starts, hooray! If not, check to see if the equipment is plugged in!! The air conditioner’s plug could have gotten accidentally dislodged from the outlet.

Make sure all the the circuit breakers and fuses are in place and turned on.

Also, set the thermostat to ‘cool’ and make sure that the thermostat is working properly.

3. Check the ducts

Air conditioning ducts carry the cool air from the AC to all the rooms. Ducts are hidden from view. The way to check the ducts is to find out if the air is coming out of all the registers in the house. Initially the air may not be cool and that is ok. At this point, we are just checking to see if the air is coming out of all the registers in the house. If it is, then the ducts are working well.

If the air doesn’t come out the register with the same force as in the other registers, then we may have an issue with the ducts. Call your AC contractor.

4. Check the temperature

The last step is make sure that the AC is actually pushing cool air. You can use a regular meat thermometer for this.

After 30 minutes of running the AC, the temperature of the air being pushed at each of the registers should be 55 degrees. If it is not, then your AC may be low on freon or there may be some other issue with the AC.

Summer days will be here soon enough. Make sure you are ready for them with a well-maintained and efficient air conditioning system.

RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and has served the Bay Area with heating and air conditioning expertise for over 20 years. Call us at (650) 575-3915 if you need any help getting your AC ready for the summer. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs.

Filters & Allergies

Allergy season

Would you like to make sure that your home is a safe haven from allergies?

Often people buy filters for their heating and air conditioning installations but then are disappointed when their allergy symptoms don’t improve. In fact, having an air filter is just one of many things that need to be done to make your home safe from allergens.

When you call us to request changing your air filter, we first ask about the sensitivities you have. Are you allergic to mold, dust, pollen? We can’t control the outside, but we can certainly make sure that the air you breathe inside your house is keeping you comfortable.

Then we test the house for a variety of issues. We measure the rate of air changes per hour. The standard is 3-5. If it is 5 or more, then that means that there is air leakage into the home. The air is most likely coming in from either the attic or the crawl space.

Depending on how many symptoms you want to tackle, we can recommend the best air filter for your needs. Filters have merv ratings. The higher the number, the better the filter. Merv ratings go from 1 to 16.

We recommend an IQAir Perfect 16 filter for homeowners who want their air to be as clean as possible. These filters have a merv rating of 16. When we install this filter, we just don’t tell you how this filter is operating; we show you. We take air quality readings before and after we put the filters in.

When you use a cheaper air filter with a merv rating of 2 and under, you are helping protect the furnace but not doing very much to protect your health.

Have any questions about filters? RC Mechanical is an owner-operated Redwood City business and has served the Bay Area with heating and air conditioning expertise for over 20 years. Homeowners in Redwood City and throughout the Bay Area count on us for all their heating and air conditioning needs. Give us a call at (650) 575-3915 and let us help you.