Air Conditioning Problems to Watch Out For as Summer Heats up in North Texas
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By Brenda Masse
Special Contributor
Is it hot enough for you? Nope, not yet. Those 100-plus degree highs are still a ways off (hopefully), but even though we’re chillin’ in the 90s’, your air conditioning is still center stage if you’re spending any time at home. And if it’s important to you, it’s important to us!
So here are some more AC-related home inspection issues for your reading pleasure:
Outdoor Compressor Label 101
Here, inspector Luis gives you a pretty basic inspection of an outdoor AC unit. He starts off by reading the label, which is a thing you can do at home and learn a little about your own AC unit.
First is the brand — this one is a Trane unit. Next is the tonnage, which is the unit of measure used in air conditioning to describe the cooling capacity of a system. This is a 5-ton, and you can tell that from the number 60 on the label. The number will be divisible by 12, and that’s how you determine the tonnage. Next is the manufacturing date. Every brand does this a little differently, and you can find yours here or here, but basically, they encode the date in the serial number.
Next, he mentions the SEER rating — this one’s a 10, which means it’s old. SEER is the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating: these days we’re looking for 15-20 SEER. He also points out that the refrigerant being used is the old R-22 refrigerant, which is being phased out, and is harder to find and more expensive. See how much you learned just from the label?
That Pesky Condensate Line
It’s that thing that takes the condensation away from your AC and into the plumbing line. It sometimes gets clogged, and so the moisture goes into the secondary condensate line, which drains to the outside of your house, as you can see in the picture below.
You can read all about that system in more detail here, but this particular secondary condensate line is draining right up against the foundation, so now we have two problems.
It’s like home inspection bingo!
Does That Thing Run on Diesel?
Just because the seller said the AC unit has been recently serviced doesn’t mean it has been recently serviced.
AC in The Garage?
We talked in another article about what not to do when you want to air condition your garage, but this Inspector found a homeowner who did it right!
