As the fall and winter months approach, the sun sets earlier, leaves begin to fall, and a certain chill starts to whip through the air that serves as a forewarning for the dip in the temperature that is not too far away. And as you begin to pull out your favorite sweaters, hats, and scarves, you probably will want to have a professional inspect your furnace too—or wait, is it your HVAC unit?
For the average homeowner, you may throw around certain terms that, when it comes right down to it, you’re not exactly sure what they mean. For instance, when it comes to the heating system currently in place in your home, is it a furnace or is it an HVAC unit? And what exactly is an HVAC unit? Luckily, as an expert in heating installation in Oxnard, California, Cory Dishman of Kaiser Air Conditioning & Sheet Metal can easily explain it all.
For starters, Dishman says, it’s best to note that in your home, you do not have an HVAC “unit,” which would imply one singular device. Rather, you have an HVAC system comprised of numerous components in order to provide proper heating, cooling, and ventilation to your home. A furnace, on the other hand, is a fuel-burning appliance that supplies heat only. It is possible, however, for a furnace to be the heat source for your HVAC system.
If you currently have only a furnace in your home and are hoping to upgrade to a complete HVAC system, then Dishman says that it may be possible. If your furnace was built after 1985, then typically you can add an evaporator coil to it so that you can add AC to the system. However, he continues, in order to make the addition, your furnace must be the ideal size to be able to push out the amount of air necessary to efficiently cool your home. The best way to determine the necessary size of an HVAC system for your home and to see how you furnace measures up is to contact an experienced HVAC company in your area.
If for some reason adding an AC component to your furnace cannot be done, then Dishman says that he and his team are always ready to offer other effective solutions. For instance, he says, it may be beneficial for you to install a ductless split system to cool the home; though under no circumstances does he ever recommend using window AC units as a permanent solution.
For homeowners who want to take the leap and put in a complete HVAC system, Dishman says it isn’t as difficult a process as one might assume. On average, he says, you can have a system installed within one to three days. In addition to the actual heating and cooling units, Dishman explains that the duct work in your home is a key component as well, though its importance is often overshadowed. Once the necessary changes, if any, are made to ensure that the duct work is adequate, then you should have a system in place in no time. And, he says, if you don’t have duct work in your home, that doesn’t mean that you have to be left out in the cold. His team can still do the work with minimal construction by utilizing the space underneath your floors or attic.
Don’t wait until you are in the middle of the most brutal days of winter to wish that you had made the switch to a more efficient and powerful heating system when you can call an experienced HVAC company such as Kaiser Air Conditioning & Sheet Metal in Oxnard and have a new unit by week’s end.