The first major cold days of winter bring changes not only for the world and your personal comfort, but for your air conditioning system. If you're still resisting the siren's call of the heating switch, stay strong and consider a few maintenance planning points before the coldest days arrive. If you're already well into using your heat after a major cold spell or winter storm, there are still a few things that could improve your heating situation. Take a look at these maintenance planning concepts to figure out what you can do today for a more efficient, comfortable season.

Air System Cleaning For Air Quality And Health

Turning on any air system after weeks or months of no use will have the same result: dust and debris filling the air. The effect is different for every building depending on how fast dust can build up--and the types of debris in the dust--but the general idea is to clean everything out before turning the air system on.

Air conditioning systems--usually meaning a cooling system, although many people understand air conditioning as cooling and heating--have a simple set of risks. Most people over average health may smell, taste, or feel extra dust in the air. People with breathing problems or allergies will be at greater risk due to breathing difficulties or allergens in the dust.

It's better to just clean out the air ducts for everyone before turning on the air conditioning, but it's more important to handle the heating systems before the coldest days arrive. In addition to normal debris, you'll also have to deal with burning debris if your systems aren't clean.

This is once again only a minor annoyance for healthy people, although a distinct smell of burning material can last for days or weeks--or even months if there's enough debris being constantly fed into the heating element. People with breathing issues and allergies may suffer even more.

In addition to cleaning out the air ducts and wiping down heating elements, you may want to invest in air purifiers. A simple, inexpensive filter tower will be fine unless a doctor recommends something stronger.

Smart Home Options For Efficient Heating And Cooling

If you don't need to heating or air conditioning at all, this is a great time to plan some improvements. In addition to cleaning, look through a few smart home automation options for your heating and air conditioning.

For the inevitable "what's so smart about it?" questions, smart simply means that the system has a few automatic functions instead of simply being an on/off switch that you control manually every time you want to make a change. You can program in different settings, and program in automated decisions called macros.

These settings can be anything from turning on and off at certain times instead of just certain temperatures, and having a wider range of temperature difference. If you're tired of heating the system turn on and off while struggling to maintain one perfect degree, stretching the range to something like "turn on heat below 70, turn on air conditioning over 80" is doable with smart home controls.

Contact a heat repair and heating installation company such as Always Ready Repair to discuss other maintenance and improvement options.