July 22, 2015

Your home’s HVAC system plays the crucial role of keeping you comfortable inside your home.

If you are looking to invest in a new HVAC system, you should not just consider its ability to cool or heat, but also how it affects your overall comfort. There are three key factors to consider in an HVAC system that will help you stay comfortable.

1. Temperature Regulation

You need your HVAC system to keep you cool when it is warm outside and warm when it’s cold outside. However, the important point here is to consider how cool or warm you want to keep it. Often, the first instinct of every homeowner is to purchase a system that is the cheapest, even though it may have the lowest efficiency. Such systems tend to have long swings of colder and hotter temperatures. This occurs when the system has achieved the desired temperature and shuts down.

You might not notice it, but even when you set the thermostat at 72 degrees, the temperature can go up or down by even 10 degrees through the operating cycle depending on your HVAC system. Choose a system with a higher SEER rating so that the temperature does not vary as much. In systems with a SEER rating 16 and higher, the air flow and temperature is managed more precisely and there is normally a variation of no more than a degree. This means you stay more comfortable and also save on energy costs.

2. Temperature Variability

When you purchase a low efficiency system, the greatest challenge it faces is cooling or heating all parts of your home evenly. The air conditioned air has to travel to all rooms in the home and the ones that are far away receive less of it. To make sure that even the farthest rooms receive adequate cool and warm air, run your HVAC system for a longer duration at lower energy levels. This ensures that the air keeps moving even into the farthest rooms of your home. The other way to solve this problem of temperature variability is to invest in a high efficiency system that has variable speed capacity.

3. Humidity Control

In the hottest summer months, the air condition has to run more than it is necessary because of high humidity. Your air conditioner will help reduce the humidity level, but it happens only when the air conditioner is running. To counter this problem, invest in a high efficiency system and run it for longer periods on lower energy levels so that it can remove not just humidity, but also pollen, dust, and other pollutants from the air.