Seasonal changes create a great opportunity to perform scheduled maintenance around your home and make adjustments for the changing weather. Here are some suggestions for spring activities.
Managing rain water, snowmelt, and humidity:
Early spring is a good time to ensure that you have everything in place to control rain water and snowmelt around your home and property. Inspect gutters and downspouts to ensure that they are in good condition, clear of debris, free-flowing, and directing water away from your home’s foundation. You should not assume that leaf guards, downspout baskets, or similar protective measures will free you from the need to periodically inspect and clean your gutters and down spouts. Depending on their design and assuming they are properly installed, leaf guards can be very helpful in reducing the amount or material which enters your gutters but they don’t eliminate it. I don’t recommend the use of baskets on downspout inlets as they tend to accumulate debris which would otherwise be washed out of the gutters with heavy rain events. The end result is that relatively small amounts of material can completely blind the downspout inlet and render your gutter useless.
If you have any culverts or storm drains on or near your property, periodically clear any debris from the inlets and make sure that water can flow freely into or through them. It’s a good idea to check these before the arrival of forecast severe weather as well. A heavy thunderstorm can deliver several inches of rain or more/hour. If your culverts and storm drains are blocked with sticks, leaves, or trash, there is no chance that they will accommodate so much runoff. If you have culverts or other drains on your property which are frequently overwhelmed, there’s a good chance that they are either undersized or were poorly designed and installed. Do some homework to see if you can resolve the problem on your own or consult a local drainage specialist or landscape architect. If it’s a city storm drain, contact the Mayor’s action line or your city/county councilman to address the problem.
With spring comes humidity and basements are particularly prone to develop high humidity. Operating a dehumidifier through the spring and summer months can not only reduce mold and mildew but also keep your basement comfortable and extend the life of equipment and appliances such as your furnace, water heater, clothes washer, and dryer. As an added bonus, it also reduces the burden on your air conditioner. Buy a good quality dehumidifier which allows for the condensate to be drained directly to a floor drain. If a floor drain in not available, you might consider using an air conditioning condensate pump which can be purchased at most big box hardware retailers and will eliminate the need for frequent manual emptying of the condensate. Keep the coil pack and filter clean on the dehumidifier to maximize its efficiency and it should give you years of reliable service.
Rest your Air Conditioner and Furnace (save some green and be more green):
In the Midwest, spring and fall provide opportunities to keep our homes comfortable without the energy intensive use of the furnace or air conditioner. The house I was raised in did not have air conditioning. We did, however, have a whole house fan which was remarkably effective at cooling the house throughout the spring and fall. Whole house fans pull air into the house through open windows and exhaust air into the attic where it escapes through the gable vents. By opening windows in the evening and turning on the whole-house-fan, you can draw the cool night air into the home throughout the night. Simply turn off the fan and close the windows in the morning before the outside air begins to warm and you trap the cool air in the house. Repeat this process each evening. While it does not provide thermostatic temperature control or humidity control, it uses a fraction of the energy that an air conditioner uses and, unlike the air conditioner, it allows you to enjoy fresh outdoor air and night sounds. With higher temperatures and humidity you will likely want to transition to air conditioning. Before you do there are some simple steps you can take to ensure that your system runs as efficiently as possible. Check your condenser (the outside portion of a central air system) to make sure that the coils are clean and that no vegetation is encroaching on the unit which might interfere with air flow. The fin-type heat exchanger can be cleaned with a hand broom or old paint brush. While the unit is not running, use a vertical motion to clear the surface of the coil pack without forcing any debris into the exchanger. I also use a leaf blower at a steep angle on the outside of the coils as well as blowing it into the discharge vent on the top to create a reverse flow and dislodge any debris in the coils. The line from your condenser to your evaporator in the air handler portion of your furnace should be well insulated to minimize energy loss. If it lacks insulation or the insulation is in poor condition, you can buy foam pipe insulation at any hardware store. Periodically have your air conditioner serviced by a professional. They should check those items previously discussed as well as checking the refrigerant levels and cleaning the evaporator coils. Dandelions, Cottonwood trees and similar plants produce airborne material that fouls condenser coils. Throughout the season, check your condenser coils and keep them clean. Follow these steps and it should ensure long life and efficient operation of your air conditioner.
If you live in a multi-story home with forced air heating and air conditioning, there may be opportunities to make adjustments to baffles in your ducts to make the living spaces more comfortable. Since hot air is lighter than cold air, it can be helpful to direct additional airflow to the upper level floors during air conditioning season to keep the upper floors cooler. By restricting or closing vents on lower levels you can force additional air flow to the warmer areas of your home. You can enhance the effect by moving baffle levers in the ducts to further direct less flow to lower levels and improve flow to upper levels.
If you follow these tips, you’ll likely reduce your maintenance and operating costs and keep your home more comfortable.
