

4 HVAC Troubleshooting Tips Every Homeowner Should Know
There’s nothing better than spending time with family during the winter — and nothing worse than having an HVAC system that refuses to work on
The heat and humidity in Silver Spring can make summertime unbearably oppressive to anyone, which is why it’s important to keep your AC running in tip-top shape. When you rely on JC & JC HVAC Mechanical Contractors, you can keep your cool knowing you will receive fast and dependable AC installations, maintenance, and repairs. So, if you live in or near Silver Spring, don’t wait to contact JC & JC HVAC Mechanical Contractors to schedule your appointment today!
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Fast and reliable service.
We check your airflow.
We check for gas leaks.
We are trained to work on all types of heating: oil and gas furnaces, boilers of any make or model, geothermal pumps, and more.
Locally owned, serving the Silver Springs area since 2009.
Without a doubt, it’s nice to have air
conditioning here in southern Maryland. With our hot and humid summers, air
conditioning can turn a day from barely bearable to downright enjoyable. Is
having air conditioning absolutely necessary? In most cases, probably not. Most
of us could survive without air conditioning, but it wouldn’t be fun with so
many buildings being airtight. If you’re like most people, you don’t want to go
without it for long.
Air conditioning services should be left to the professionals, whether you need air conditioner repair or installation. It’s not just your own comfort you’re looking out for, but that of your employees or family members (including your pets). So when you’re in need of air conditioning services of any kind in the Silver Spring area (including Germantown, Laurel, Bethesda, Potomac, Rockville, and Beltsville), here’s some stuff you need to know.
Think about it. What kind of buildings are having AC installed? Most residential customers don’t often think about any air conditioning other than their own. Here are a few types of places that call upon our HVAC company on a regular basis.
We proudly offer our air conditioning services to a wide service area around Silver Spring, MD, including Montgomery County, Howard County, and Washington, D.C.
Retail – Whether it’s a small shop around the corner or a big box store, every space wants to be as inviting to customers as possible. When it’s sweltering outside, people want to be comfortable when they shop. And the nicer the store, the colder it usually is!
Venues – Movie theaters have long used air conditioning as a way of luring people in on a hot day. Long before home air conditioning was commonplace, many Maryland residents would head to the theater to get out of the heat. Today, nearly every entertainment venue is air conditioned to make their audience as comfortable as possible.
Offices – Office buildings in the Silver Spring area use quite a bit of air conditioning to keep employees comfortable on hot days. The trick, though, is to keep them comfortable. If it’s too hot, they’re distracted by the heat. If it’s too cold, they’re not only distracted but they’re also using their energy to keep warm instead of more important things…like thinking! Having a reliable heating and cooling systems turns out to be vital to employee productivity.
Public Buildings – There are some buildings that everyone is paying to cool, and those include city building and public schools. While not every school is air conditioned, keeping kids comfortable ensures that they’re not distracted by the excessive heat that we can get here in the Silver Spring area.
When most people think of a heating and cooling company in the Silver Spring area, they think about HVAC repairs. After all, installations may be necessary once every 20 years while repairs may spring up seasonally. Installations and replacements are a big part of our job and we take it very seriously. Air conditioning installation and replacement is a very important service. Considering HVAC replacement can affect the efficiency for the entire life of the cooling unit. Let’s take a look at the most common AC installation calls we get. We are happy to provide both residential and commercial air conditioning services to homeowners and business owners in Silver Spring, MD, and beyond, including those throughout Montgomery County, Howard County, and Washington, D.C.
New construction is certainly the most common time that we’ll be dealing with new installation. New construction installation includes everything from single-family dwellings to apartment buildings, office space to retail—commercial and residential properties alike. JC & JC Mechanical Contractors will be there to ensure that everything is properly installed and up to code. Proper ductwork design, which we’ll talk more about later, is also vitally important to ensure that the units work as efficiently as possible.
Remodeling is another time that it’s vital to find the right HVAC units to put in your building. Sometimes retail buildings are being gutted in order to accommodate a new business, while other times it’s an old home that’s never had AC before and replacing the entire HVAC system will bring it into the present.
Many people don’t realize just how important it can be to consult a professional early on in the process when building or remodeling. Doing so can make sure you get the right unit for the size of the building, as well as ensuring that everything is up to code from beginning to end.
While we certainly respect people who take the initiative and do some legwork online to find out which AC units might be right for their home or business, it’s always important to enlist the help of a professional AC installer to make sure that everything will come together properly. There are many variables that can go into making the decision about which AC unit is right for your building. For instance, an old home that is being remodeled might be replacing ancient insulation with new, making the energy efficiency of the building requires a much different air conditioning unit that it needed before. Going with a small unit in this case could save money at the outset but also save money down the road, because HVAC units can waste money if they’re too large or too small. Now that we’ve discussed new air conditioner installations, let’s talk about another common time that customers need us: AC repair.
As rugged as AC units are, they will all eventually need repair. Summers and winters can be harsh in Washington, D.C.. Even if you made an air conditioning unit out of the most rugged metals and highest-quality components on the planet, some part of it would fail eventually due to wear and entropy. Here’s why:
The bulk of HVAC equipment is inside. The furnace, blowers, and ductwork are all part of the interior of the building. In fact, as long as the furnace is working, it keeps itself and the rest of the house at a comfortable temperature. The elements don’t really play much of a part in heating your home, beyond making it work harder on colder days.
AC units, on the other hand, are outside. They have to be able to hold up to the freezing temperatures of winter and the blazing heat of the sun in summer. They must endure snow, rain, and hail. The metal parts tend to hold up pretty well, and even if they sustain hail damage they’re still going to work. But the wire connections and hoses will eventually succumb to the elements, meaning that a repair is inevitable.
Give any mechanical system enough time and it will break down. Parts grind against each other, shaving off molecules of metal every time the unit starts up. Do that thousands of times and eventually something is going to give out.
Of course, it’s not just the moving parts that are in trouble. Sometimes it’s the parts that are put under electric stress (i.e. sudden heat) that can cause something to give out over time. Turn something on and off enough times and it will eventually fail. (That’s why AC units tend to fail so much on the hottest days, because they’re being taxed so much.)
Every complex system requires some level of preventive maintenance. Just as it’s crucial to change the oil, brakes, and shocks in a car, it’s also imperative that you have your air conditioner checked annually to ensure that it has everything it needs to keep your home or business cool.
While most people know about the importance of keeping the heating portion of an HVAC unit up-to-spec — people are rightfully wary about the dangers of natural gas — they often let their air conditioning units go for too long without a checkup. Here are a few very good reasons why you shouldn’t put off getting that AC maintenance taken care of.
If your home gets to 70 degrees when you set it at 70 degrees, you might think that everything is working perfectly. But just because a unit can get it to the temperature you want doesn’t mean that it isn’t working harder than it needs to get there.
Preventive maintenance on an air conditioning unit ensures that it’s working at peak efficiency. Efficiency means that it’s making the most of the energy that’s going into it. Instead of wasting that energy fighting dirty coils, that energy is directly used to cool your home.
Your HVAC system is just that: a system. All of the parts are working together in order to change your temperature to your liking. So when something tiny goes wrong, it can make others stop working. This might occur all at once, or it could cause other parts to work harder and give out prematurely within weeks, days, or even hours.
Preventing small things from going wrong, such as replacing less expensive parts during preventive maintenance, can ensure that the larger and more expensive parts aren’t as likely to fail.
Okay, raise your hand if you want to pay for a new air conditioning system. Yeah, we didn’t think so. No one wants to pay the thousands of dollars it takes to pay for new AC installation. And while you don’t have to replace many furnaces and air conditioners over the course of your life, extending the life of your current one could mean that you’re paying for only three during your life instead of four. And when you go to sell the house, wouldn’t it be nice to have your HVAC in good working order instead of on its last leg?
When you call an HVAC service for preventive maintenance, you get to decide when we show up. We’ll schedule a time to stop by for your AC maintenance, and you can plan to be off work that morning to let us in and answer any questions you might have. If we notice that a piece of equipment is at the end of its usability and are sure it won’t last the season, we can replace it then and there.
But what if you skip the air conditioner preventive maintenance and the piece ends up breaking, you’re suddenly put in a bad spot. You’ll have to take unexpected time off work and wait in a hot house until we arrive. And the hotter the house gets, the more energy it’s going to take to get it back down to a comfortable temperature. And, as we mentioned above, smaller repairs can prevent the need for larger repairs.
Now let’s take a look at it from a business’ point of view. While you might not have to take off from work to wait for a heating and cooling company to stop by, you do have to deal with the ramifications of a hot building. If you have an office environment, employees are going to be incredibly hot, especially if you have a building in which the windows don’t open. Those employees are going to be uncomfortable, and that leads to short tempers and a lot of distraction. If you own a retail shop, customers who walk in to get out of the heat are going to spend a lot less time in your store if they find the AC isn’t working.
Compared to gas furnaces, air conditioners are relatively safe. But short circuits in any part of an HVAC system can cause a fire, and basic preventive maintenance can catch those crossed wires before they pose any danger to your home and family. The best option to address all of these problems is to get yearly maintenance performed on both your heating and cooling system.
For more information about our residential and commercial air conditioning services in Silver Spring and the surrounding communities throughout Montgomery County, Howard County, and Washington, D.C., don’t hesitate to reach out to our team today!
10 years of experience providing a wide range of HVAC services
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Experience servicing and repairing all types of heating and cooling systems
Offers financing for up to 18 months
Experienced HVAC contractors can help you choose the best systems for heating or AC installation
Committed to providing excellent customer service
Offers free estimates
There’s nothing better than spending time with family during the winter — and nothing worse than having an HVAC system that refuses to work on
The energy needed for heating and cooling a home makes up a large percentage of electricity bills, so finding ways to improve HVAC system efficiency
Is your AC freezing up? Isn’t that what it’s supposed to do? While this may not sound like a big deal, it can be startling
There’s nothing better than spending time with family during the winter — and nothing worse than having an HVAC system that refuses to work on
The energy needed for heating and cooling a home makes up a large percentage of electricity bills, so finding ways to improve HVAC system efficiency
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