Getting Old

Hey everyone, I hope you’ve had a great week and are geared up for a greater weekend so let me be the first to wish you happy Friday. Today I want to talk about getting older. No, I don’t mean me so just stop that right there. I want to talk about your AC system and what happens as it gets older. As many of my readers are aware there are several analogies that I use that correlate the similarities between the human body and the buildings in which we live. Here in the sunshine state, our air conditioning systems are by far the heart of our homes and there aren’t too many feelings worse than coming how after a hard day to a house that’s 80 + degrees and climbing.

Quiz time!! How old is your existing air conditioning system? It’s a shot in the dark here, however, I’m willing to bet that many of you don’t know the answer. Again, I think the reason is that many of you often forget about your AC system as long as it’s doing its job and the house is nice and cool when you walk in.

If you want to find out the age of your system, it depends on the manufacturer how we go about it. If it’s a Rheem, American standard, Trane or Lennox the date of manufacture is usually on the label for the outdoor unit on the top right so those brands are the easiest to tell the age. Carrier, Goodman, Tempstar, and others can be a little trickier in that they show the date in the serial number of the unit. Again, nothing is ever set in stone, oftentimes the first four numbers in the serial number are the month and year of manufacture. Sometimes it’s the week of the year that is was made followed by the year, and of course to keep us all on our toes, the Goodman line does the year first then the month of manufacture. If you think it sounds confusing you’d be right, even after all these years and serial numbers I’ve seen, I still sometimes need to call the manufacturer to find out the age. If you are not sure how old your unit is snap a picture of the label and email it to me at THW@artplumbinganda.com and I’ll let you know.

Speaking of old, what is the definition of old in the air conditioning world? Typical South Florida air conditioner life is 12 – 15 years, with anything over 15 being the equivalent of a car that has 250,000 miles on it. As AC systems age, a few different things begin to happen. The blowers and coils get dirty reducing the amount of air the system can move. The biggest thing that happens is that the outdoor unit takes more and more electricity to start and run with the biggest amp draws coming when the compressor first kicks on.

So, now that you know the age of your system if it is past the 10 year mark you may want to start budgeting or planning on replacement in the not so distant future. People say all the time, why does my air conditioner always wait to break on the hottest day of the year? The simple answer is that it is working its hardest. I’m a planner, so I don’t wait until it breaks and neither should you. Call us at 1-800-475-1504 and we’ll help you plan for the future. I’m off to Miami, again…..

House Whisperer out!!