When your air conditioner or furnace malfunctions, there are steps you can take before calling a professional. These can include:

- Check your thermostat to make sure it is on.

- Check to see if the light at the front of the furnace is green. If it is, continue to troubleshoot. If it’s red, then you need to call for repairs. Check to see if a circuit breaker was tripped.

- Inspect the filter and see if it needs to be changed.

- Make sure the furnace door is closed.

- Ensure the vents are free of leaves and other debris.

- If your air conditioner is acting up, check the condenser to see if it’s running.

Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (SEER) is the ratio of cooling output of an AC over a typical cooling season, divided by the energy it uses in Watt-Hours. The minimum SEER for air conditioners is 13, but most modern units range from 13 to 21. The efficiency of your system can vary based on the size of your home or building, your ductwork, and other issues.

Ductless systems are energy-efficient alternatives to forced-air cooling systems. If you’re wondering if this unit is right for your property, consider the following:

- Your home doesn’t have a central HVAC system or ductwork installed.

- You want to heat or cool an area that’s not connected to your central system, like the garage.

- You want to install a system that doesn’t use ductwork.

- You want to control the temperature in specific areas of your home.

- You live in an area that doesn’t experience extreme hot or cold temperatures.

Should you keep repairing your air conditioner or is it time to replace it? Our technicians recommend watching for symptoms that can indicate if it’s time for an AC replacement. Some of these can include the age of your unit (if it’s older than 15 years old), if it’s losing efficiency, and if it can properly cool your house or building to the desired temperature. You should also determine how many repairs your unit needs. If it needs several repairs or a costly fix, it can be more cost-effective to replace the unit with a newer model.

When buying a new air conditioner or furnace, one of the first things you need to determine is what size unit you need to properly heat or cool your property. Some of the criteria our technicians use are the square footage of your property, the climate, the number of windows in your home or building, the quality of your insulation, the number of people living in the property, and other specific factors to your home or office.

An odor similar to burning plastic coming from your heater can indicate there is an object in the unit - such as a wrapper, debris, or even a toy. This object can melt while the furnace runs, causing the odor. To resolve this, shut off the system and try to remove the object, and call for professional services.

Fortunately, modern gas furnaces have safety standards in place to help prevent the systems from starting on fire or exploding. While it is still possible for this to happen, typically the unit will shut off before a dangerous event can occur.