Maintenance in Summer Summer is heating up and hopefully; your HVAC system is cooling your home down. Make sure your HVAC unit keeps functioning correctly and cost-effectively by performing a little preventative maintenance. These five easy steps should keep your air conditioner running and your energy costs low. Replace Filters Replacing a dirty HVAC filter can reduce energy consumption by as much as 15%. A dirty filter also makes your unit work harder, which can lead to a breakdown. Most experts agree that filters should be changed at least every quarter. Change filters monthly if your system is in constant use. Clean filters also improve the quality of air in your home. If anyone in your home has allergies or if you have pets, you may want to change HVAC filters more often. Be sure to match the MERV rating of the filter you are replacing. Clean Up Cleaning your air conditioner and cleaning around it will ensure plenty of airflow. You can do this by cleaning out the drainage hole at the base of the unit. Vacuum the fins on the side of your air conditioner with the brush attachment on your shop vac. Remove leaves, debris, and plants from around your air conditioner. Turn your unit off before cleaning. The electrical disconnect box should be located close to your outside unit.

One of the worst discoveries you can encounter during the summer is a broken air conditioner. Even just one day without relief from the scorching heat is unthinkable, and you might not even be sure where to begin identifying the problem or how to fix it.

Springtime is traditionally the time when most people perform some home maintenance tasks. 

At Romano Brothers, we work hard to provide our clients with the best energy saving tips in the industry. That’s why we’ve put together the following tips to help you keep your energy bill down and your AC performing at its best. Clean your refrigerator Get rid of any old food you’re not going to eat. There’s no sense in cooling food you are never going to eat. Dust and remove the buildup of dirt on the refrigerator coils. Coils are the workhorse of your fridge and when they are dust and grime free they will save you money on energy. Replace or clean your HVAC filters Clean filters can help reduce your energy usage and costs by up to 15 percent. After a cold winter, it’s definitely time to get those filters replaced or cleaned for the spring. While this is something you can handle on your own, an HVAC technician can also help. Energy saving tips to change your habits Run full loads of laundry. Running your washer fewer times will save you energy and money. Drying your clothing on a line instead of running the dryer will save you even more. Take short showers instead of baths Filling the tub for a long relaxing soak uses a lot more energy than taking a short shower. Sometimes you need to unwind in the tub at the end of a hard week, but most days you can take a quick shower and use less energy to get yourself ready for the day. Turn off the ceiling fans when you are not in the room Ceiling fans make you feel cooler because the air from the fan is moving past your skin and cooling you off. If you’re not in the room, the fan is not doing its job. When you leave a room being cooled by a fan, turn that fan off.

Having an HVAC system should be great. It’s supposed to provide your family with comfortable temperatures conveniently. We aren’t at the mercy of the environment thanks to these marvels. However, when using these aren’t as convenient as before, what does that mean? We have to remember that they have an expiration date on them. No matter how good the manufacturer, or how well-known the brand, this is inevitable. The time will come when you’ll have to replace your HVAC unit, but which of those signs should we look out for? A Rise In Bills Naturally, consumers would prefer equipment that doesn’t have a big appetite for energy and gas. To make their products more competitive, they would design these to be as efficient as possible. After having them installed, you might have noticed how easily they met a certain temperature without consuming much. So be alarmed if you’ve noticed your bills have unusually increased. Your hardware might be telling you a story you don’t necessarily want to hear. Their components might be too worn out to be able to be as productive as before. Now they need more resources to produce the same amount of work they could have done for less in the past. Of course, if your unit isn’t that old, then a repair might do. Too Old After having read the last line, you may think: how old is too old then? That depends if you’ve been good to your system, meaning you had the essential routine cleaning and maintenance done. If you were, then you could be looking at 10 to 15 years. This would be appropriate to start considering new equipment. However, these won’t even reach a decade if they were frequently used with hardly any washing and upkeep done. Now would be a good time to start recalling what you’ve been doing to your hardware.

Nowadays working at home is becoming a trend and there’s no wonder why it’s popular, because who wouldn’t love to do their jobs in the comfort of their own houses? This is a dream come true for most. Imagine not having to endure that long and tiring commute to work and being able to wear anything you want. There’s no need to look formal here so feel free to sport your pajamas or get comfy in your baggiest shirt. There are concerns about the effects these may make to the energy bills of your residence. Unknown to many, it may be possible to avoid this from happening, and you may be even able to cut down on your power consumption. This all depends on how you manage your appliances, gadgets, and the different features of your house. Open Blinds/Curtains Sometimes we can go about our day, oblivious to our surroundings. There are tendencies where we forget about our windows where we instead switch on our lights. These may not seem like much since they don’t consume as much energy in contrast to other larger machines found in a household, but if you use them frequently, the costs it would accumulate may cause it to become a huge factor of what comprises your bill. Always make it a habit of opening your blinds or curtains every morning right when you wake up. This is the natural light that comes for free, so make as much use of it as possible. If your office is situated in an area which does not have a window or at least one that is big enough, transfer to a room with one (or more).