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Transcript

🌡️☀️ Is Your AC Running Nonstop This Summer? Here's What It Means! · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

• 0:01
  Nathan Schaefer's joining me here on Checker Pro Radio. He's my HVAC expert. How are you?
• 0:07
  Phenomenal, Jim. How are you? I'm phenomenal, too. Perfect. Sometimes I say
• 0:11
  living the dream. I'm phenomenal today.
• 0:13
  Hey, a question's come in from Larry in Hillsborough. You ready for this one?
• 0:17
  Let's do it. All right. Last July, during the brutal heat wave,
• 0:21
  we had our AC run nonstop for two straight weeks, and our electric bill was
• 0:27
  absolutely through the roof.
• 0:29
  Can Nathan talk about what happens to an HVAC system that runs continuously
• 0:34
  in extreme Ohio summer heat, whether that kind of strain causes long-term damage,
• 0:39
  and what steps homeowners,
• 0:42
  in our area can take right now to reduce how hard their system has to work during
• 0:46
  those brutal July heat waves?
• 0:51
  I know, it was hot, and it is hot.
• 0:55
  Yes, yes and yes and yes, right? um yeah so i think he said larry sent that in so um,
• 1:02
  yeah i think number one important thing to remember um when we get to this time
• 1:06
  of year right it's july it's extremely hot you know,
• 1:10
  in this part of the country different parts of the country have different what
• 1:13
  they call design temperatures we don't get to pick that right but it's set off
• 1:16
  of industry standards and with that,
• 1:20
  for us here the design temperature is 90 degrees and cooling zero degrees and
• 1:24
  heating so when we hit 90 degrees, is it nine degrees and above on a perfectly
• 1:29
  sized system, we're going to expect it to run 24 seven, right?
• 1:34
  As it gets above 90, it's not uncommon depending on the house,
• 1:37
  right? And does it have direct sun or shade and different things?
• 1:40
  How many times you open and close the doors? Those all have infiltrations,
• 1:43
  right? And effects on the house and the lows.
• 1:46
  That it might fall a degree or two behind. And so, you know,
• 1:49
  last summer when we hit that and it ran for that couple of weeks there nonstop,
• 1:53
  was we at that point and we were above 90 degrees?
• 1:57
  Did it maintain or not? It's not necessarily initially a big worry.
• 2:02
  As far as affecting the AC, you know, and damaging it, it's kind of,
• 2:06
  once again, relate back to a car, right?
• 2:08
  Your car could run for, you know, actually I was down there close to you,
• 2:13
  Jim, not long ago, right? And I drove all the way down. I was an 18 hour drive
• 2:16
  down and my truck ran, you know, for 20 hours straight, doesn't hurt it one bit.
• 2:21
  You know, the cruise is set. We're just cruising. It's actually harder oftentimes, right?
• 2:25
  If I was driving through traffic, you know, or in town, I should say for 20
• 2:29
  hours and starting to stop and starting to stop and turning it on,
• 2:31
  turn it off, turn it on, turn off.
• 2:32
  That can actually have a lot more wear and tear components, you know,
• 2:35
  on that system. And so, um, doesn't
• 2:38
  necessarily hurt the system to run nonstop like that for two weeks.
• 2:43
  But, you know, we do want to make sure that, A, we are sized properly,
• 2:46
  but also, too, the system's clean, right? We have a clean filter.
• 2:48
  The system's been maintained and serviced.
• 2:51
  There are a lot of things that can come into place that could cause that to
• 2:54
  happen when it's not necessary.
• 2:56
  And or if we are at or above that design temperature, you know,
• 2:59
  for this part of the country in southern Ohio, then we are going to expect a
• 3:03
  perfectly running, tuned and operated system size to run, you know, most of the time.
• 3:10
  During those peak times.
• 3:13
  So I have a question. The air conditioning units that would be in,
• 3:17
  let's say, parts of Texas where they run all the time, are they manufactured
• 3:22
  different than the ones for Ohio?
• 3:25
  No, same ACs pulled off the same line, right?
• 3:29
  So I've been to some manufacturing place before and walked lines and seen them.
• 3:32
  And, you know, there's not a Texas line and an Ohio line, right,
• 3:36
  and different things. And so those same ACs for the most part,
• 3:39
  I mean, there are a few areas that are unique for different reasons.
• 3:42
  But all in all, yes, there's the same ACs going to go into both.
• 3:47
  So in areas like Florida and Texas and the South Louisiana and so forth,
• 3:53
  same systems versus Ohio.
• 3:57
  I mean, you know, same ones that Ohio gets, but they're probably going to break
• 4:02
  down sooner in the South because they run more.
• 4:05
  Yeah, absolutely. And you get some of the Southern markets, you get closer to
• 4:08
  the ocean and stuff, right? You have salt in the air.
• 4:10
  And so, you know, here an average lifespan, you know, according to consumer reports is 12 years.
• 4:16
  You know, you get down in other markets, right, that are closer to the oceans
• 4:19
  and stuff, or, you know, it might be every four and five years or seven years,
• 4:22
  right? And so there's different areas and lifespans as well as wear and tear
• 4:27
  and breakdowns, et cetera.
• 4:28
  You know, and the same thing as far as, yes, it's the same ACs,
• 4:31
  but the same, the house here, right?
• 4:34
  Let's say we take my house and move it to that area there, right?
• 4:38
  To let's say Florida or Texas or wherever, you know, and we even position it
• 4:43
  the same way, the front doors aiming, you know, North will say,
• 4:46
  and the back doors aiming South, right? Same amount of people living in it.
• 4:49
  It's going to require a different size system in a different market, right?
• 4:53
  So maybe that was a three ton here. It might be a four ton or a five ton in
• 4:56
  that particular market because the design attempts are different.
• 5:00
  Yeah, that's for sure. Everything's different.
• 5:05
  Okay. Thank you so much, Nathan. I appreciated all of Nathan Schaefer's information
• 5:10
  is located in the description of this podcast. We'll see you next time.
• 5:14
  Thank you. We'll see you later, Jim.