Ideally, you should schedule maintenance once every year for your air conditioner, or twice a year for your heat pump system. This would be the perfect way to answer this question if the world was a perfect place. But it’s not, and we know that. Not every homeowner can schedule maintenance every year, and for those on a tight budget, it’s more about learning why your AC requires maintenance. After all, maintenance saves money, but how?
Well, we’d like to talk a bit about what maintenance does and what can go wrong if you decide to skip AC maintenance in Shreveport, LA. No, your air conditioner isn’t likely to break down the moment you skip maintenance for a whole year or two, but things can get a bit more complicated when you do lapse your maintenance agreement. Let’s talk about what happens when you skip maintenance once, twice, or even 10 years in a row.
Skipping Maintenance for One Year
Don’t worry, skipping maintenance for one year isn’t terrible. The main problems that you’re bound to see is a slight decrease in energy efficiency (up to about 5%) and perhaps a voided warranty if your warranty required yearly maintenance. Otherwise, your system should still be operating well enough to provide you with comfort at an affordable monthly rate.
However, skipping maintenance for one year can lead homeowners to fall into a false sense of security, thinking they just don’t need it anymore. The truth is that the more you skip maintenance, the more likely you are to run into problems as components wear down from higher stress levels and inefficiency.
Skipping Maintenance for A Few Years
This is where things get complicated. When an air conditioning system hasn’t been maintained for more than one year, you can see a pretty substantial decrease in energy efficiency, which means a higher monthly cost to run the system overall. For each year of maintenance missed, you can estimate about a 5% decrease in efficiency, to the point where after 5 years of missed maintenance, you’re paying almost 25% more for your AC to run than you would otherwise.
Not to mention the fact that repairs might pop up more regularly since the system isn’t being professionally maintained. You might even see a few surprise breakdowns and repair needs, since there’s nobody to warn you that they’re going to occur.
Never Signing Up for Maintenance
Remember that 10-15 year lifespan we’ve talked about with your air conditioner? You can usually kiss this estimate goodbye if your air conditioner has never been maintained properly. Not only will catastrophic repairs not be covered under warranty (since most warranties require yearly maintenance or they risk being void), but your system will be worn down and will need early replacement.
If your air conditioner is reaching a double-digit age and it’s never been maintained, we highly suggest you get in touch with one of our professionals to talk about replacement. Then, you can start off on the right foot with maintenance and enjoy lower energy costs and repair needs.
It’s time to get in touch with Hall’s Heating, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration for maintenance. Call the doctor of home comfort today.
