HVAC Troubleshooting Basics
Posted by: Hvac at February 18th, 2009
Here at Dave’s hvac school we like to cover all the basics about hvac, and in today’s lesson I will be going over some basic troubleshooting for residential central air conditioning systems. There are literally hundreds of possible causes for an air conditioning system to malfunction, as I will be covering everything that I know with you, but the hvac training for now I will only be going over the basics, that does not require professional knowledge or an HVAC certification to troubleshoot the problem.
The most common problem that I come across is a dirty furnace filter, this is not good. If the filter is clogged with dirt and dust then that will restrict the air flow that is being sucked in by the blower fan, which will cause your system to work harder than it actually has to which is a bad thing. For one the room that you are trying to cool will not cool efficiently, and the dirtier the furnace filter gets the less efficient the air conditioning system will work. If the furnace filter gets too dirty then the refrigerant lines could even freeze up, and when there is a big block of ice that is covering the evaporator coils then there will be no cooling going on, and it is also very bad for your compressor. If this happens you must turn the fan on to the unit only, and let all of the ice melt off completely before you can start running the hvac system in cool mode again. You should be changing your furnace filter every 1 to 3 months depending on what kind of filter that it is.
Be sure that you are keeping the cage that is in front of the evaporator coil clear of everything, some people like to put their dirty laundry right in front of the air vent where it is sucked in, and this will also cause the hvac system to malfunction.
If you central air conditioning unit comes with a float switch, which every modern residential hvac system does these days, then you will need to make sure that the condensate line is kept clean. Even if you don’t have one installed the condensate line must be kept clean anyway as if it is not slime and sludge will build up in the pipe, and the condensate that is supposed to be draining outside or into a sewer line will back up and flood your home.
This is why the safety float switch is installed, once the condensate line gets clogged the water will push up on the switch and shut all of the power off to the hvac unit, saving you from cleaning up water and extra damages that could occur, like mold. The best way to keep these clean or to clean them out is with a wet/dry vacuum. Suck the line out for a couple of minutes, and flushing it with hot bleach water will help also. You can also purchase anti slime tablets that you put in the line every month, this will greatly help in the growth of algae and slime in the condensate system. Well that is today’s short lesson here at my hvac school if you have any questions please just drop me a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
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