Air Condition Repair - DIY Or Hire A Professional?
When it’s high summer and the sweltering sun is beating down on your household the last thing you want to contemplate is a failure in your air conditioning system. When this happens it’s best to pack the wife and kids into the suburban and head for the frosty local mall while your air condition repair agent gets down to work.
Although an air conditioning failure is something that most of us dread, it’s simply a fact of life that at some point your aircon unit is going to give up the ghost. In most instances the failure is going to be either mechanical or because the air condition refrigerant has evaporated. The refrigerants used in the older generation of air conditioners were usually chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), however in 1987 most developed nations signed The Montreal Protocol, an international environmental agreement that saw the phasing out of CFC’s by 1996. CFC’s were widely blamed for the depletion of the ozone layer. HCFC’s which are not as damaging to the ozone layer are now used in refrigeration units and as a propellant in such products as antiperspirant cans. These chemicals do however cause some damage to the ozone layer due to the fact that they contain ozone depleting chlorine and a schedule for their phasing out has been established.
The refrigerant of choice today is HCFC-22, however since this gas has been shown to not only have ozone depleting properties but also to be a potent greenhouse gas (contributing to global warming) many air conditioning manufacturers now offer ozone friendly refrigerants. Many homeowners are unsure of how long their HCFC-22 cooled air conditioning units can continue to be topped up, the short answer is that by 1 January 2010 the United States will be required (in terms of an international agreement) to reduce its baseline consumption of HCFC’s by 75%. How long after this HCFC’s will no longer be a viable commercial proposition no one knows, but if you’re in the market for a new air conditioner it’s safe to say that you should be looking at one which uses ozone friendly refrigerant.
As with all electronic goods, home air condition repair is not recommended. Most air conditioning systems are quite complex, like split system air conditioning and ductless central air conditioning systems, and their repair should rather be left to professionals. Rather, prior to the purchase of your air conditioning unit make sure that air conditioner parts are readily available in your area and that qualified service personnel can be at your location within 24 hours of an air conditioning failure. It’s always a good idea to enquire about qualified air conditioning service personnel when purchasing your unit. The dealer you are buying from will either have a recommendation for you or will be able to put you in touch with the manufacturing head office which will have a list of qualified and accredited service personnel in your area.
Whatever your air conditioning solution may be, proper care and maintenance will guarantee that you get many years of service from your air conditioner. Having access to a qualified air condition repair serviceman will also ensure that you are never without air conditioning for too long.
