Tech Expert Q&A with Brian Friedman of Arco Home Services – Part 1

Q: What are some signs my A/C needs service?

A: Improper cooling, for a start. You’ll notice your air conditioner might be producing air but also struggling to hold steady the temperature of the room. If that air coming from your unit is making the room uncomfortable, it’s a pretty sure sign your A/C service is past due for service.

If your A/C is particularly noisy, there’s a good chance it needs a checkup. We recently had a family call in saying that the window unit in their young child’s room was keeping him up all night! Turned out the unit’s condenser coil was completely coated with dirt and grime and was causing the whole A/C to work over time to make up for it. All that hard work was causing the thing to rattle around in its window and keep the poor kid up. It’s little things like these that can be avoided with the ongoing maintenance offered by the Arco Service Partner Plan.

Another dead giveaway your air conditioner needs service is increased utility bills. Again, this will most likely come back to how clean the interior of your system is. It could be dirt, could be dust, and especially if you’re in Northeast Ohio- could be cottonwood pollen. Our customers are always surprised how filthy their air conditioner is once it’s opened up.

So remember to keep an eye on both the comfort level of the air being delivered into your home and the noise being generated by your system. But really the best advice I can give to anyone with a home cooling system is to sign up for the Arco Service Partner Plan. This takes the worry out of the equation for you. Let our experts drop by your home once a year and we guarantee you’ll never be anything but cool and comfortable inside your home.

Q: Is there any type of A/C more energy efficient than others?

A: Absolutely, yes. Although the federally enforced minimum efficiency rating is now 13 SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio), most homes we visit have older systems that average around 10 or lower SEER. That means that if you install a new A/C system in your home which only just meets the federal guidelines, you’ll still be ahead of the game in comparison to your neighbors when it comes to energy savings. If ‘green’ is truly your thing, you can save a bundle in the long term by plunking down the cash now for a system with an impressive SEER. The higher you go in SEER ratings, the more energy savings you’ll see each month (once you hit the mid-20s, you are in Prius territory). In many cases, a well maintained system with a robust SEER rating, will make up for that high initial cost within a handful of years

Another major variable that will impact the overall efficiency of your air conditioning system is the quality of its initial installation and ongoing maintenance schedule. An A/C installed by an Arco technician will have the benefit of properly cross-matched equipment and customization designed to maximize the system’s cooling capacity for your home. Air conditioners installed and maintained with this level of skill and attention to detail can even pick up a SEER rating or two. But in system’s that were shoddily installed with improperly cross-matched equipment, an advertised SEER of 13 could actually be performing as efficiently as a 10 or 11.