Avoid These Health & Home Hazards of a Dirty Air Conditioner

Avoid These Health & Home Hazards of a Dirty Air Conditioner

Reporter   March 21, 2018

Depending on what type of air conditioning unit you have, part or all of your units may be located outdoors.

Over time, the outdoor components can work up a good layer of dirt, dust, and debris.

Similarly, as some of that debris gets sucked inside along with fresh air, the indoor components of your air conditioner can be adversely affected as well. Some of this debris will naturally get stuck inside your indoor air duct system as well as in your air filter and interior components.

Over time, this can lead to inferior unit performance, increased energy bills and noticeable health issues for you and your family.

In this post, learn about the different components of the average air conditioning unit, how they can be affected by dirt and debris, and what type of cleaning and maintenance can help keep efficiency high, costs low, and you and your family healthy and cool.

Air Filter

Depending on the make and model of your A/C unit, you may have the kind of air filter that can be washed and re-used or the kind that needs to be replaced regularly. In either case, it is generally recommended that you clean or replace your air filter monthly during the warm season.

When you don’t, you run the risk of decreased operational efficiency along with increased energy costs. As well, any dirt or debris that gets caught in your air filter can get pushed back out into your home, creating contaminated air.

Air Ducts

The air ducts are the unseen components tasked with transporting temperature-controlled cool air to every room in your home.

Of course, you will have air ducts only if you have a ducted air conditioning unit (the new ductless air conditioners use a zone system instead of ducts to achieve the same effect).

When your air ducts begin to accumulate dust and debris, not to mention uninvited guests like bugs and rodents, their job transporting air begins to get harder. The air conditioning unit has to push harder to propel the air through the ducts, which means it draws more energy.

Even worse, a small portion of the built-up, trapped debris inside the ducts will get pushed out of the air registers into your home, where you will then breathe it in. Health symptoms can include itchy, watery eyes, runny nose, sore throat, congestion, asthma attacks, and worse.

The Condenser

The condenser is the largest and most important component in an air conditioner. The condenser is constantly working to repel incoming heat, create vapour, and then condense that vapour into liquid. This is a major process to ensure temperature controlled air output.

When the condenser housing or exterior coils begin to get dirty, a number of issues may arise. 

• First, the moisture level may rise, attracting colonies of bacteria and fungi. As these colonies thrive in high-humidity conditions, they send out spores that enter your indoor air supply, causing a wide range of respiratory and health issues.
• The condenser itself will also begin to function less efficiently
• Drawing more energy to do the same job and hiking up your cooling bills while providing less cool for the money.

The Evaporator

Your A/C unit has two sets of coils: the condenser coils and the evaporator coils. Where the condenser coils are responsible for releasing extra heat back to the outside, the evaporator coils are responsible for delivering the heat to the condenser coils.

As such, both sets of coils are equally at risk of becoming dirty and clogged with dust, debris, pollen, and other detritus. They are also both at risk of becoming too moist, and can begin to host colonies of bacteria, fungi, and mould that affect your family’s health.

But most importantly, every component in your air conditioner has an impact on all of the other components as well. For example, a dirty evaporator can impact how well the fan motor and the compressor can function. When these components overheat or break down, the opportunity for cleaning and repair has passed and you are now talking about an expensive replacement.

Sign Up for Regular Air conditioning or Cooling System Maintenance

It can be a real challenge to remember to clean your HVAC unit regularly. That is why Bright Cooling & Services Centre has developed a series of Service and Maintenance Plan to help you with this necessary chore.

When you sign up for one of these plans, you transfer to us the responsibility of remembering to perform routine HVAC cleaning and maintenance. You also reap plenty of valuable savings. We will even call you when it is time for your maintenance checkup!

Problems Caused By A Dirty Condenser Coil

Problems Caused By A Dirty Condenser Coil

Reporter   June 19, 2017

The condenser coil is one of the most important parts of your air conditioner. It’s job is to take the heat that has been extracted from your home’s air and move it outside. When dirt builds up on your coils, it can have a major effect on the performance of your air conditioning unit.

Today we’re going to tell you about the symptoms of dirty condenser coils and what you can do to keep them clean!

Air conditioning units include two coils…the evaporator coil or “indoor coil” and the condenser coil or “outdoor coil”.

What is a Condenser Coil?

Illustration 1

A condenser coil is one of the key parts responsible for the reliable, cost efficient, effective and long-term operation of your air conditioner. It is located outside your home in the condensing unit.

Your air conditioner works by a process of converting gas to liquid in a continuous process. With the use of a refrigerant material in the tubing, the hot air from inside your home travels outside to the condenser coils where the heat is released and removed. A huge amount of air transfer is demanded of your air conditioner unit, The cleaner the condenser coil , the better the fan can do its job and handle all that hot air.

Illustration 1. A simple stylized diagram of the refrigeration cycle: 1) condensing coil, 2) expansion valve, 3) evaporator coil, 4) compressor

The Condenser Coil is a Vital Part of Properly Cooling your Home

Air moves across your “indoor coil unit” where heat is absorbed into the refrigerant in the coil and circulated, through tubing, to your “outside coil unit” aka “condenser coil”.

The fan in the condenser unit helps to disperse the hot air from your house to the outside air … blowing it across the condenser coil. As noted, the air conditioner actually “removes” heat, it does not “add” cool air.

Issues Caused by a Dirty Condenser Coil

A dirty condenser coil creates a number of troubling problems:

• Your air conditioners energy efficiency drops dramatically
• Your air conditioner is no longer able to cool your home effectively. Your energy consumption goes up significantly while your cooling efficiency and effectiveness drops like a stone.
• The life of your air conditioner unit, a huge home investment, is reduced. Manufacturers assume you will properly maintain the unit when they project years of service.
• Cooling efficiency can drop over 30%. At that point, your system is cooling at only 60 or 70% effectiveness. (Note: as little as 0.042 inch or 1/23 of an inch of dirt can reduce cooling efficiency up to 21%)

NOTE

The investment you make to maintain your air conditioner system, such as having your condenser coil cleaned, is well worth the peace of mind it provides you. 

Hence, frequently air conditioners service is very important!

i.e after every 3 months

Benefits Of Air Conditioner Service and Maintenance

Benefits Of Air Conditioner Service and Maintenance

Reporter   June 12, 2017

An air conditioner, often referred to as AC, is among the most essential equipment that we need to make our lives comfortable. They help keep our houses warm when it is hot so that we are comfortable in it. Also, these gadgets decrease humidity levels so that we do not have to feel sticky. But that is not all they do. They purify air by filtering out smoke particles, mites and odors. Owing to the advancement of technology, air conditioning manufacturers today design ACs that not only have faster cooling rates but which also save up to 60% electricity. Today's air conditioners also come with anti-dust filters, built-in stabilizers as well as auto adjust temperature feature so that you can have good night's sleep. But just like other equipment, air conditioners need to be regularly maintained for them to give peak performance.

Why it is important to service your air conditioner?

There are several reasons why aircon servicing is very important. 

The first one is that it ensures that your air conditioner functions at its peak especially when you want it most. 

Regular servicing also improves the efficiency of your air conditioner. Experts warn that for every year of operation in which you do not service your aircon, it loses 5% of its efficiency. After 3 years therefore, the efficiency of your air conditioner will have decreased by 15%. This adversely affects its performance.

Regular aircon servicing also finds and addresses small problems that if left, could grow into much bigger problems that are more expensive to repair.

However, the encouraging news is that, with regular maintenance, you can actually recover a high percentage of the lost efficiency. According to research, regular aircon servicing will give it 95% of its original efficiency. Thus, the amount of money that you use to service your unit can be recovered very quickly in terms of reduced monthly electricity bills and reduced costs of repair. An air conditioner that is properly serviced also dehumidifies your home.

So how frequently should you service your air conditioner?

HVAC professionals say that even if you do not suspect that your air conditioning unit has problems, you need to have it serviced and inspected at least once every year. This will ensure that it operates at maximum efficiency. It will be ready to cool the house in the months when you require it most.

As the air conditioning unit runs, it tends to accumulate dirt and dust in critical areas such as the air filters and the condensing coils. This can adversely affect its efficiency. The buildup of dirt and dust, if not checked, reduces your machine's operating efficiency by 5 %. This means that that your air conditioner cannot cool the house as much as it should when clean.

Many service companies also wash the condenser of the air conditioner and this can save you a lot of headache as well as money in future. Although it is a simple thing, failing to wash your condenser could cause it to malfunction and even ruin it totally.

As a homeowner, the best thing you can do for your air conditioning unit is changing your filter. Ideally, you should change the filter at least once every 30 days.

How much does it cost to service your air conditioning unit?

Most of companies that offer Air conditioning and Cooling Services in Tanzania provide such service, they charge from Tsh.20,000 to Tsh. 200,000. It depends on the quality of service, number of air conditioners, system type, materials used, service environment, location etc. REQUEST A QUOTE HERE

What aircon servicing should include

Aircon servicing ought to include checking blower, the motor, drain line, operating pressures, coils, temperatures, refrigerant levels, returns as well as supply lies and connections. Therefore, a good company should carry out a thorough check that includes all these things etc

Conclusion

Air conditioner tune-ups should be carried out once a year with a regular service and check up after every 3 months. This ensures that your unit can perform for you at its peak when you need it. Servicing also uncovers problems and addresses them before they become worse.

How Often Should you Service Your Air Conditioner?

How Often Should you Service Your Air Conditioner?

Reporter   June 12, 2017

Normally, the service of air conditioners must be done four(4) times in a year. i.e every three months but it depends on environmental condition where the air conditioners operate. 

Why?

To maintain air conditioners life span

To maintain good performance(cooling performance)

To reduce operational cost due to low energy consumption(electricity cost), maintenance and repair cost.

To prevent other negative impacts for air conditioners

Contact us now to avoid unnecessary cost for your air conditioners

Our rates are more affordable and it depends on number of air conditioners a customer has.

For more information or inquiries, please contact us.

E-mail: inquiriesbcsc@gmail.com

Hotline: +255 625 618 808