How much time do you spend thinking about your heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system? If you are like most homeowners, the answer is probably something like, “not much.” Given how important they are to maintaining the comfort level in our homes, they deserve more care and feeding than most of us give them. When we properly maintain our systems, they can last anywere between 12 and 15 years. There are things we can do to prevent needing expensive heating ad cooling repair.

Tips to avoid expensive heating and cooling repair services:

Check your system often.Take a look at your HVAC unit and walk around and inspect all of your vents on a regular basis. This should be done regularly so you can catch any problems with your system early when they are cheaper and easier to fix. Small problems have a way of growing into large problems if you do not pay them enough attention. You can also look and see if any issues are better taken care of by the hearing and cooling repair service people.

Change your filters as often as needed.Most HVAC filters should be changed at least once every 90 days. Chaging the filters when they are dirty is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to avoid needing an expensive heating and cooling job done. This also helps keep your system operating at more efficient levels, which also saves you money on your energy bills. During hot and cold months when your system is used more, you should look to see if you need to change the filters more often. Also, if you or anyone in your home suffers from asthma or allergies, changing out the dirty filters for new and clean ones can make a big differene in how they feel. If somone in your home has those issues, it might be worth to just check the filters every month.

Get your system a tune up every now and again.Like your car, your HVAC system will run better if you tune it up every now and again. Even the best heating and cooling systems can use this. You can have someone from your heating and cooling repair service perform a tune up of the system at least twice a year. This should be done when daylight savings time begins in the spring and again when it ends in the fall. A decent tune up will run you between $70 and $100 but is well worth the cost.

Have your system checked by a professional every now and then. You can find a lot of things that are wrong with your system when you check ot often but nothing can really replace having your unit inspected by heating and cooling contractors. They can come in and see if there are any problems. They can also handle many heating and cooling repair issues that you cannot fix yourself.

There are also some things you can do to keep your heating and cooling system running better. Installing fans in your attic can help with air flow all over your home and will make your heating and cooling system work better. In fact, in homes with attaic fans, the utility costs run about 10 to 20% less than in homes without them.

Another tip from heating and cooling repair experts is to install a programmable thermostat. By putting one of these in your home you can make sure you are only running your heating and cooling units when you need to like when people in your household are at home. You can change the settings depending on what your needs are. This can make a dramatic difference in your utility bills. If you do not have a programmable thermostat and cannot install one (if you rent a house of apartment) you can still save money by raising the temperature of your home in the summer and lowering it in the winter. A change of just two degrees can really save you a lot of money.

While you may not think about your heating and cooling system all that much, it is critically important to making your home comfortable. There are huge parts of the United States that are only habitable because of air conditioning.