Here in Ohio, we experience nearly every weather condition Mother Nature can throw at us – sometimes all in one week! While we begin to think about transitioning through the seasons, we’ve seen our share of snow, rain, severe weather and high winds sweeping through the area.
What impact does this weather have on your home, especially on your heating and cooling system?
Read on to learn how different weather conditions affect your HVAC system:
High Winds & Storms
You likely took notice of some blustery days in our region recently. Did you experience any broken tree limbs or debris around your home? While your air conditioner should be built to hold up, it’s never a bad idea to inspect the outdoor unit after you experience high wind gusts.
Check for any debris that may have collected around the system, and ensure that your system is still sitting level on the ground/pad it sits on. If your system stops working altogether after a storm, check your circuit breaker to ensure that it hasn’t been tripped; this is often a quick and easy fix.
Heavy Rain
As we being the month of April, the season notorious for ‘showers’, you may wonder if there is anything you should do to protect your A/C or heat pump from the wet elements that it will be exposed to. While your outdoor unit should be built to withstand heavy rain, you’ll want to keep a watch on any flooding that could collect around the system, as that could lead to long-term damage and the inability to operate the system altogether.
The same can also be said about your furnace if it is located in a basement. While your furnace should sit up from the floor of your basement, it could still be reached with excessive flooding in your lower level. It’s important to check your basement anytime there are periods of heavy rainfall to react quickly to any situation that could lead to further damage to your home.
Snow & Ice
While there’s hope to not see any more snow this season, we understand how unpredictable Ohio weather can be. Snow is not harmful to your HVAC system, but it could cause performance issues if snowfall piles up too high on and around your A/C, heat pump, and/or furnace exhaust vent. While an air conditioner won’t be operating during snowfall, any built-up snow could cause damage to the outdoor unit with excessive moisture as it will block airflow within the system. In addition to the moisture concerns, a heat pump may actually be trying to operate while it is snowing outside, and any snowdrifts built up around the system could cause your system to perform inefficiently.
Your furnace operation could be impacted if your outdoor exhaust vent is blocked with snow. It’s important to check these outdoor components and do your part to clear away any collection of snow that could negatively impact your HVAC system.
Extreme Temperatures
Whether we are experiencing a polar vortex in the winter or a hot and humid 90+ degree day in the summer, your home comfort should not be compromised. Unfortunately, most HVAC system issues occur during the hottest or coldest days of the year, because this is the time that your heating or cooling system is working the hardest. The best way to help your system be reliable during extreme temperatures is to keep up on regular seasonal maintenance. A preventative heating tune-up and cooling tune-up can help identify and correct issues that can go unseen within your system before it leads to an untimely breakdown and/or a more expensive repair.
Listen to the advice of your HVAC expert if they provide recommendations to further clean, repair, or even replace the system; doing so should give you more peace of mind going into those cold and hot months of the year. In addition to maintenance leading up to those hot/cold months, it’s equally important to check/clean/replace your furnace filter more frequently during these times to ensure that you have proper airflow, as your system will run much more often and will be collecting more dust and indoor contaminants.
No matter what the weather throws at us this year, your local HVAC experts at Logan Services A/C, Heat & Plumbing are here to help you. Whether you are in need of routine HVAC maintenance, a furnace or A/C repair, or you are looking to replace your home heating/cooling system altogether, call on our fast, friendly team to help!
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