Maximizing Energy Efficiency with Ductless Heating System Maintenance
Your ductless system is awesome! And this time of year, its most amazing qualities are on full display. Heating is the thing that your system does so efficiently, it knocks the socks off all other heating systems like furnaces and boilers.
There is something you need to remember, though. Any system accumulates wear and tear. Any system can have tiny things go wrong or slip out of alignment, forcing it to work harder to accomplish the same task, and increasing system strain. These things cause your ductless system to become less efficient. How can you bring the efficiency back up? By being diligent about regular maintenance.
Why Ductless Systems Are So Efficient
First, your ductless system begins with a heat pump. This technology is tremendously efficient at heating when compared to other systems. The actual creation of heat, the process of generating warmth, uses a huge amount of energy. The heat pump sidesteps this issue completely by not generating heat at all. It only has to move heat that already exists, which scarcely uses any energy in comparison.
Second, your ductless system puts the warmth or coolness right where it’s going to be used because the refrigerant travels to each individual air handler. A ducted system generates all that warmth or coolness in one location and then has to move it around through ductwork. By the time the air gets to the vents, it has experienced thermal loss, wasting some of that energy.
Third, ducts are particularly vulnerable to being damaged or simply deteriorating due to their age. This leaves them with cracks, tears, or holes, places where your precious hot or cold air can escape. Estimates suggest that the average home has enough duct damage to lose 30% of its heated or conditioned air. Just think how much energy—and money—that wastes!
Finally, ductless systems are also given a bit of an efficiency boost by their motors. In general, they use smaller motors than typical air conditioners or furnaces, which reduces energy consumption. It also makes them quieter!
How Maintenance Improves Efficiency
Cleaning all components of the system cuts down on the wear and tear that can happen from grit getting in the inner workings or layers of blanketing dust reducing airflow. Lubricating all moving parts helps the system use as little energy as possible to get things moving, whereas friction from lack of lubrication requires it to use more energy.
Problems with the system can be detected during ductless heating maintenance in Flower Mound, TX. Any issue—an off-kilter fan, for example—can reduce efficiency, and your technician can address that during maintenance. And some issues, like a refrigerant leak, can have huge impacts on efficiency. It’s critical to catch those problems early, and with maintenance, we will.
When to Schedule Ductless Maintenance
Because this system provides both heating and cooling, it works all year round. This means that it accumulates twice as much wear and tear, and encounters twice the risk of having problems, as a system that only works during the summer, or only during the winter. Your ductless system requires maintenance twice a year. It’s usually done in spring and fall, but can be done at any time.
When was the last time you had maintenance performed on your ductless system? Are you ready to schedule that now? We hope so!
Contact PRK Services, Inc. today for all your heating and cooling needs.
