Air Conditioner Maintenance

So its been really nice for the past week, and we've had the furnace OFF for the last week as well. Yay Energy/Gas Savings!

Its been perfect weather, that I haven't had to turn on the A/C either. However, it made me remember to get it ready.

I thought I'd outline the steps to get your Central A/C Unit ready for another summer of Cooling.
Doing these simple steps every spring can greatly prolong the life of your A/C unit... Saving you money!

Most people almost NEVER clean their Air Conditioner. The outside unit is basically just a big radiator, that dispels heat. If its dirty, it doesn't do its job well. It results in your A/C unit working harder, Longer, and your bills being higher!  Its super easy to clean.

I did a "big" clean this spring, as I doubt it was ever cleaned before I bought the house.

• Make sure your Thermostat is set to "off" (instead of Heat or Cool)
• Ensure the A/C fuse/breaker is Off on your breaker panel
• Just for safe measure, Most A/C units are required to have a shutoff located outside, near the unit. Pull this.

Now that you're sure the A/C unit won't go on.

Now, Assemble your tools:

•  A Garden Hose,
• A wrench or ratchet with socket set (mine was 8mm) 
• A shop vac, if needed. (or your good ol' hands)

Remove the 4-8 bolts/screws holding down the top grill. Your fan is probably attached to this.
Flip this grille/fan assembly over to access the very simple innards of your A/C Unit.

*NOTE* be careful that the metal doesn't cut the wires at all. That would be bad.

Now, use your shop vac/hands to remove all the leaves, crud, shingle bits from the inside of the unit. Be gentle with the shop vac - you don't want to damage/bend/break any of those delicate radiator fins!)

Once relatively clean, its time to break out the hose. Use the "jet" setting and blast at the radiator fins dead on, from the INSIDE of the unit. Once you've got it all covered, you can do the same from the outside as well. I don't know if a pressure washer is appropriate here - a regular old hose did fine.

Once done... you're done!

Put the grill/fan assembly back on, don't over tighten the screw/bolts, as they may strip.

plug/switch the circuit breakers back in. You're A/C unit is now Cleaner (and cooler) than ever.

Before...

and after!

Its hard to see from photos - But when you're looking directly through these fins, you can actually see through them. Before they were all gummed up with stuff.

Now would also be a great time to replace your furnace filter.

You don't have to go all out like this, you will be helping a lot just by hosing off the radiator from the outside!

Time to Chill out!

A Flood of questions - Are you covered by your insurance?

There has been some crazy flooding up north lately, and it got me thinking about Insurance. Would my house be covered by insurance if there was a flood?

Thankfully, I don't have to worry too much about a massive flood - I live only a few KM from the top of a cliff. No rivers are going to wipe out my home!

However, what about runoff, or heavy rain, or if my pool breaks and floods my house?

The sad and complicated answer to this question is:  It Depends.

Call your insurance provider, and find out. Some times the term "acts of god" are thrown around.
This amuses me, as in my opinion, Insurance companies are nothing more than an algorithm that calculates the amount of money they make, vs the amount of money they pay out, and for what causes. "God" was written out of the Insurance industries equation a long time ago, as insurance companies are more than willing to leave you out of house and home if you're not covered!

For example:

It costs more to insure a house with a wood fireplace.
Why? Over the years, they have figured out that houses with fireplaces are 0.01% more likely to suffer fire damage. So if they insure 100,000 houses with fireplaces, odds are, one will burn down, as a result of having a fireplace. If each house cost 300,000 dollars, they'd need to charge you an extra 3 dollars a year to cover their costs.  Naturally, some years, more houses may burn down (colder winters? more fires? etc) that's all entered into this "magical" calculation, so they charge more than that 3 dollars a year, to build up a "float" in case of a sudden increase in these fires.

They do this to almost every aspect of your house.  "Oh, you have a fuse panel instead of a breaker panel?" +.08% chance of an electrical fire (I'm making up numbers here) Another few bucks.

All these variables add up, and the insurance company figures out how much to charge you, and to make a healthy amount of profit.

But when it comes to an "act of god" aka Flood/hurricane/earthquake/volcano/forest fires, etc your regular home insurance policy does not cover this.

Each variable they look at affects your pricing, However an "act of god" has the potential to wipe out an insurance company financial reserves (and a few neighborhoods) very easily.

Look at Hurricane Katrina - over 300,000 homes were destroyed. Average cost of a home being hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus your belongings... We're looking at Billions of dollars. There's no way a company could pay out all those people. All those people were left "low and wet" ("High and dry" seemed to be inappropriate...)

Water is kind of a Tricky thing.

You're probably covered if:

• A pipe bursts
• Your roof leaks*
• A Pool breaks and floods your house (provided the insurance company was aware you have (or had) a pool)

You probably are NOT covered if: 

• Your basement leaks
• A storm results in flash flooding
• A river/lake floods
• Standing water drains into your home, resulting in damage
• Sewer Backs up.
• Property Drainage Issues

And it gets even a bit more complicated...


Some Scenarios:
Roof Leak:
If your roof leaks, and damages your drywall, furniture, floors, etc, Your insurance policy will probably cover the Damage to your home.  However, they will NOT pay to get your roof fixed.
If you fail to get it fixed, it will be negligent on your part, and they would deny any further claims.
But: if a Tree falls, and wrecks your roof, and results in the leak, They'll pay to remove the tree, repair the roof, and fix the water damage as well.

Pipe Burst:
If your Pipes burst when you are home, you are covered, However, if you were on vacation and turned off the heat and they froze, they'll deny the claim. Its pretty interesting (read: horrifying) as to what you THINK you are covered for, and what you actually are covered for.




All this being said: If you can name it, there's a specific insurance policy to cover it.

• Volcano insurance: Check
• Earthquake Insurance: Semi-Sketchy Check
• Flood insurance: Super Check
• Forest fire Insurance: Check

People have even had their Tongues insured! (I'm not kidding here - There's a professional Ice-cream taster in the states that has his tongue insured, as well as a baby-food test taster in the UK)

Bottom line: Call your insurance company. Or read your policy closely.