Heat Pump
Think of a heat pump as a heat transporter constantly moving warm air from one place to another, to where it’s needed or not needed, depending on the season. Even in air that seems too cold, heat energy is present. When it’s cold outside a heat pump extracts this outside heat and transfers it inside. When it’s warm outside, it reverses directions and acts like an air conditioner, removing heat from your home and transferring it outside.

Air Conditioner
The air conditioner in a central heating and cooling system provides cool air through duct work inside your home, by providing a process that draws out the warm air inside, removing its heat. In a split system, the compressor condenses  and circulates the refrigerant through the outdoor unit, changing it from gas to a liquid. The liquid is then forced through the indoor evaporator coil or cooling compartment. The indoor unit’s fan circulates the inside air to pass across the evaporator fins. The evaporator’s metal fins exchange the thermal energy with the air around it. There, the refrigerant turns from liquid to vapor, removing any heat from the surrounding air. As the heat is removed from the air, the air is cooled and blown back into the house.

Gas Furnace
A gas furnace, or forced-air heating system, reacts when the room air temperature drops below your programmed setting on the thermostat. The silicone nitride igniter lights a burner inside the combustion chamber. The heat created is pushed into the heat exchanger, where the air is then heated. This newly heated air moves through the duct work and into the rooms of the house. The combustion gasses used to create the heat are vented through a flue in the roof or wall.

Efficiency Factors
Air conditioners are not simply given a percentage to represent how efficient they are. Because there are so many factors that affect efficiency, they are given a number which represents how efficient an air conditioner would be if it is kept clean, maintained, and installed properly. This number is called a SEER rating.

SEER Rating
Older air conditioners can be as inefficient as a 6 SEER or worse, even some air conditioners that are only a few years old can be 10 SEER units built before the latest efficiency regulations. All new air conditioners have a minimum of 14 SEER.

Proper Install/ Refrigerant Charge
Several major universities have done studies showing more than 50% of air conditioners have an improper charge, and again over 50% of air conditioners are installed incorrectly. Either of these problems can cause air conditioner to lose efficiency, causing you to pay for a premium 16 SEER air conditioner and really get an 8 SEER air conditioner. That’s why at Cool Aid AC we go the extra mile to ensure you get exactly what you paid for. That means the technicians we send into your home all attend weekly training meetings and have a quality audit sheet that they complete when the job is done. Completing this form reminds them to check everything one more time and also makes it so we can check their work by reviewing the sheet. Of course we don’t stop there! We always send a technician our during the final inspection to ensure it has met our incredibly high standards. After all of that we also come back and do a complimentary tune-up on your unit within the next year. All of this is done to ensure that your heating and cooling system is not only installed and operating properly, but also to ensure your comfort and satisfaction.

Maintenance
An air conditioner quickly loses efficiency. The dirtier the indoor coil or the outdoor condenser gets, the more inefficient it becomes. This is why at Cool Aid AC, with every new air conditioner, we include a complimentary tune up within the first year, to ensure that we will return to maintain your equipment. Every manufacturer recommends you have maintenance/tune-up done yearly to ensure the unit’s performance at peak efficiency and we want to make sure that happens. Cool Aid Comfort offers heating and air conditioning maintenance in Tampa, Carrollwood and surrounding areas. Start saving money today!