Things to Try Before Calling a HVAC Professional

Your home’s HVAC system can seem like an extremely complex piece of equipment. And while we always suggest that you have a trained skilled HVAC professional maintain and service your system as needed. There are still things a homeowner can try themselves, before calling in the pros.

There are some common culprits when it comes to most HVAC problems and malfunctions, so if something goes awry in the operation of your equipment, there are some basic measures you can try to get things back on track.

If any of these work, you have saved the cost of the repair and get the satisfaction of a job well done:

• Turn all switches – indoors and outdoors – off, then back on again. Do the same thing with the pertinent circuit breakers. Sometimes the system just needs a hard reset to jolt it back to life.
• Check your thermostat. Is the temperature set where it is supposed to be? If it is too high or too low, the HVAC system will stay on too long or shut itself off too quickly. Also check the batteries in the Thermostat, sometimes a couple new batteries and your back up and running!
• Make sure your system is in the right mode for the season. It may sound obvious, but for whatever reason, sometimes things wind up in heating mode during cooling season.
• Check your filters. Clean and/or replace them as necessary. (You do this once a month anyway, right?)
• Inspect the vents around your home to see if any are blocked, clogged or excessively dirty. Vents that don’t properly circulate the air can cause all kinds of problems within an HVAC system.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the things that can go wrong with an HVAC system, but it is at least the usual suspects for the most simple and common problems that many of our customers encounter. After trying these out, if you are still experiencing difficulties, then it is probably time to call Sterling and let us see what is causing the problem.