In the Coastal Bend region, the performance of your home cooling system is measured by more than just the temperature within your home. There are four separate factors that affect your comfort, and they must be addressed independently for the best results.
Temperature
Of the four, temperature is the most important. In order to keep you comfortable, your home cooling system must reliably keep your home at your preferred temperature. To do this, it has to counter the many sources of heat gain in your home, including unshaded windows, air leaks, heat-generating appliances and electronics, hot water from the plumbing system and even body heat. A system that’s sized correctly using a Manual J load calculation should be able to keep your home comfortable without costing a fortune in energy bills.
Humidity Level
Humidity also has a huge effect on your comfort. When the humidity is high, it makes you feel much warmer than the actual air temperature, because the air is heavier and its moisture content interferes with the evaporation of sweat. Additionally, high humidity can have negative health effects, by worsening symptoms of allergies or asthma, promoting mold growth and encouraging insect infestations. By keeping humidity under control, you can stay comfortable at a higher temperature, saving money.
Indoor Air Quality
If it’s hard to breathe in your home, you’ll feel much less comfortable. Indoor air pollutants like dust, pollen, pet dander, mold spores, insect droppings and chemical vapors can irritate your eyes, nose and throat, making it harder to breathe. They can also cause health problems, especially if you suffer from asthma, allergies, bronchitis or COPD. Changing the air filter in your HVAC system can help reduce indoor air pollution.
Ease of Control
The final factor affecting your comfort is how easily you can control your home cooling system. Advanced programmable thermostats can give you finer control over your home’s environment, affecting temperature, humidity and indoor air quality.
To learn how you can improve your home cooling performance, talk to our HVAC professionals at CCAC, Inc.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Corpus Christi, Texas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about home cooling and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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