Five Tips To Improve Your Family's Comfort

During the hottest months, discomfort at home due to extreme heat makes the air inside top-of-mind for homeowners. Fortunately we have some easy steps to help improve your home's overall indoor comfort, some that may even surprise you.

1. Set the fan mode on your thermostat to the 'On' position. Unless your home is unoccupied for an extended period, keep the fan active. This keeps the air moving and helps improve overall comfort. Keeping the fan On also increases your home's air filtration, which could greatly help your home's air quality.
2. Change all your furnace or return air filters. Changing those often-overlooked air filters will improve the home's air flow and increase HVAC system efficiency. This can also help you breathe easier with less sneezing.
3. Keep duct registers and room doors open. When multiple registers or room doors are closed it's like having a clogged bath tub drain. Conditioned air can't flow properly when it's being forced to move by the system. This causes excessive wear and tear within the equipment. Try to keep all registers open, even a little.
4. Check the humidifier's settings. Some humidifiers have a seasonal setting that is often overlooked by the homeowner. If the humidifier is not manually set to the current season the humidity levels will not be correct in the home. The home will be more uncomfortable and condensation may occur, and believe us, you do not want excessive humidity and condensation. Have routine maintenance performed on humidifiers and other air quality equipment to help prevent problems.
5. Attempt to balance air flow. If a room does not seem to get comfortable, visually check the duct work if you can access it. If your home has flex duct (movable foil ducts), check for kinks or angles over 120 degrees. Try moving the ducts slightly to help increase air flow. Call 512-596-1257 if this doesn't help. A duct cleaning, installation of more return air openings, or a professional air balance may be needed. Strand Brothers Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning can provide these services for you.

Here are a couple other points you should look into if you just can't seem to make the temperature meet your needs.

Consider A Zoning System

Zoned systems, especially for 2 story (or more) homes is often the perfect, fairly low-cost solution for nearly all common heating and cooling problems. Call Strand Brothers Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning at 512-596-1257 for a free estimate on a zoning system for your home, which can often be easily installed into your existing HVAC system.

Get A Precision Tune-up

Annual furnace and A/C maintenance is still the best way to not only get expert heating and air conditioning recommendations from a professional HVAC technician; it can help to prevent future break downs of your furnace or cooling equipment.