8 Easy Spring Home Maintenance Tips
May 3, 2007 (Press Release) --
Energy Experts Offer Painless Spring Home Maintenance Tips
We have almost two months before summer and youre still behind with your spring maintenance program.
Taking a few steps now will not only safeguard your home from possible damage or expenses later, it will also, in many cases, reduce your energy costs which is another way of putting money into your bank account.
Here are easy, basic steps that everyone should follow:
Review Your Roof. Winter weather can leave its damage on your roof. Look for missing, broken or loose shingles. Be sure to use a sturdy ladder and a pair of binoculars so that you dont have to actually climb on the roof. If you have a leaky roof and a contractor is not immediately available, you can use roof patch as a temporary solution. Also, inspect the flashing around chimneys, roof windows and vents. This includes eaves and soffits. If you see excess shingle granulates in the gutter or downspout outlets, you might be ready for a new roof.
Get to the Gutters. Spring (and fall) is the best time to inspect and clean your gutters. Remove all twigs, leaves and debris that might have accumulated during the winter months. If you dont, the next heavy rain could cause clogging with water. If there are any holes in the gutter (look especially at the corners or edges), you can use roof caulk in a tube to make a repair.
Check Your Caulking. Winter weather can cause a home to expand or contract. This is the best time to check the caulking around doors and windows to ensure that you have no cracks that can allow cold air or water to seep in. Properly applied caulking will solve this problem.
Siding Sense. Inspect it and clean it for a fresh look and also as a blueprint for where repairs might be necessary.
Check Your Batteries. Even though weve turned back the clock, this is another opportunity to follow one of the most important home maintenance tasks. Make sure that you put fresh batteries in your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors.
Eyeball Your Furnace Filter. Make sure your furnace filter is clean. If its a reusable filter, wash it with a hose to ensure that its really clean, and then reinsert it. If its a disposable filter, replace it with a new one. A dirty filter is one of the most important and easy to do maintenance tasks. A dirty filter gets to the efficiency of your heating and cooling system and also leaves you susceptible to increased energy costs and the possibility of a fire.
Buy a Fire Extinguisher. Be sure you place it in a spot that provides easy access for everyone. If you already have a fire extinguisher, make sure that the expiration date hasnt passed. This might (along with changing batteries in detectors) be the most important maintenance job youll ever do.
Does Your Furnace Need a Checkup? All mechanical devices need maintenance. Your furnace is no exception, and with impending hot weather, youre going to place additional demands on it if you have air conditioning. You wouldnt drive a car forever without having a maintenance check. You should consider the same for a furnace. This is especially true if your furnace is more than 10 years old.
You should be careful working around a furnace. Have a qualified HVACR technician perform a maintenance check before the first heat wave hits. During extreme changes in temperature, HVACR businesses receive a deluge of phone calls from people who needs service in a hurry. If there is something you dont understand, ask the technician for a clear explanation. During the maintenance check, an experienced technician should:
Clean the evaporator and condenser air-conditioning coils before warm weather starts. Dirty coils reduce the systems ability to cool your home and cause the system to run longer, costing you more energy dollars and decreasing the life of the equipment.
Check your central air conditioners refrigerant pressure and adjust the charge if necessary. Too much or too little refrigerant charge can damage the compressor, reducing the life of your equipment and increasing costs.
Clean and adjust blower components to provide proper system airflow for greater comfort levels. Proper airflow over the coils will improve equipment efficiency and reliability. Airflow problems can reduce your systems efficiency by up to 15 percent.
With warm weather approaching, these preventive maintenance steps for your cooling system are particularly important, according to the U.S. governments Energy Star program.
- 30 -
Blaine Fox, a 25-year veteran of the HVACR industry, is the general manager of ServiceMark, a full-service HVACR company that operates in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Contact Fox at Blaine.Fox@servicemark.ws or visit www.servicemark.ws. Tom Peric is the editor of HVACR Distribution Business magazine and the creator of National Cut Your Energy Costs Day. Contact Peric at editor@cutyourenergycosts.com or visit www.thegalileo.com.
Energy Experts Offer Painless Spring Home Maintenance Tips
We have almost two months before summer and youre still behind with your spring maintenance program.
Taking a few steps now will not only safeguard your home from possible damage or expenses later, it will also, in many cases, reduce your energy costs which is another way of putting money into your bank account.
Here are easy, basic steps that everyone should follow:
Review Your Roof. Winter weather can leave its damage on your roof. Look for missing, broken or loose shingles. Be sure to use a sturdy ladder and a pair of binoculars so that you dont have to actually climb on the roof. If you have a leaky roof and a contractor is not immediately available, you can use roof patch as a temporary solution. Also, inspect the flashing around chimneys, roof windows and vents. This includes eaves and soffits. If you see excess shingle granulates in the gutter or downspout outlets, you might be ready for a new roof.
Get to the Gutters. Spring (and fall) is the best time to inspect and clean your gutters. Remove all twigs, leaves and debris that might have accumulated during the winter months. If you dont, the next heavy rain could cause clogging with water. If there are any holes in the gutter (look especially at the corners or edges), you can use roof caulk in a tube to make a repair.
Check Your Caulking. Winter weather can cause a home to expand or contract. This is the best time to check the caulking around doors and windows to ensure that you have no cracks that can allow cold air or water to seep in. Properly applied caulking will solve this problem.
Siding Sense. Inspect it and clean it for a fresh look and also as a blueprint for where repairs might be necessary.
Check Your Batteries. Even though weve turned back the clock, this is another opportunity to follow one of the most important home maintenance tasks. Make sure that you put fresh batteries in your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors.
Eyeball Your Furnace Filter. Make sure your furnace filter is clean. If its a reusable filter, wash it with a hose to ensure that its really clean, and then reinsert it. If its a disposable filter, replace it with a new one. A dirty filter is one of the most important and easy to do maintenance tasks. A dirty filter gets to the efficiency of your heating and cooling system and also leaves you susceptible to increased energy costs and the possibility of a fire.
Buy a Fire Extinguisher. Be sure you place it in a spot that provides easy access for everyone. If you already have a fire extinguisher, make sure that the expiration date hasnt passed. This might (along with changing batteries in detectors) be the most important maintenance job youll ever do.
Does Your Furnace Need a Checkup? All mechanical devices need maintenance. Your furnace is no exception, and with impending hot weather, youre going to place additional demands on it if you have air conditioning. You wouldnt drive a car forever without having a maintenance check. You should consider the same for a furnace. This is especially true if your furnace is more than 10 years old.
You should be careful working around a furnace. Have a qualified HVACR technician perform a maintenance check before the first heat wave hits. During extreme changes in temperature, HVACR businesses receive a deluge of phone calls from people who needs service in a hurry. If there is something you dont understand, ask the technician for a clear explanation. During the maintenance check, an experienced technician should:
Clean the evaporator and condenser air-conditioning coils before warm weather starts. Dirty coils reduce the systems ability to cool your home and cause the system to run longer, costing you more energy dollars and decreasing the life of the equipment.
Check your central air conditioners refrigerant pressure and adjust the charge if necessary. Too much or too little refrigerant charge can damage the compressor, reducing the life of your equipment and increasing costs.
Clean and adjust blower components to provide proper system airflow for greater comfort levels. Proper airflow over the coils will improve equipment efficiency and reliability. Airflow problems can reduce your systems efficiency by up to 15 percent.
With warm weather approaching, these preventive maintenance steps for your cooling system are particularly important, according to the U.S. governments Energy Star program.
- 30 -
Blaine Fox, a 25-year veteran of the HVACR industry, is the general manager of ServiceMark, a full-service HVACR company that operates in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Contact Fox at Blaine.Fox@servicemark.ws or visit www.servicemark.ws. Tom Peric is the editor of HVACR Distribution Business magazine and the creator of National Cut Your Energy Costs Day. Contact Peric at editor@cutyourenergycosts.com or visit www.thegalileo.com.
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