What should I look for in a home comfort system?

It is best to evaluate what makes your home comfortable to determine what heating and air conditioning system is best for your home. Heating and cooling are the foundation for your system but you have a lot of flexibility to maintain comfortable temperature, air cleanliness and humidity levels.

For many people temperature is a big factor. Because the temperature outside changes, the temperature inside your home can fluctuate as well. Another factor in home comfort is cleanliness. Many allergy sufferers are sensitive to dusty or odorous homes. The air in today’s tightly sealed, well-insulated homes can become stale. With dust, pollen, pet dander, mold, skin flakes, chemical fumes, cigarette smoke, radon gas or other things in your air, it can lead inhabitants and visitors to be uncomfortable. You may benefit from air duct cleaning. Humidity can be useful in cooler weather when the air is dry but uncomfortable in hotter weather when the outside air is humid. You may or may not desire a whole house humidifier.

System control is what makes your home comfortable because you can adjust the heating or air conditioning to your liking. This offers complete control, allowing you to set a “comfort schedule,” which combines temperature and humidity control. It also can divide a home into zones that can be controlled separately.

Matching Your heating and air conditioning system for Optimum Efficiency. There’s one other factor that affects the efficiency of your air conditioning or heat pump system: the indoor coil. (Your heat pump or air conditioner is a “split system,” which means that there is an outdoor unit or condenser and an indoor unit or evaporator coil.) If your condensing unit is not matched with the proper indoor coil, it may not give you the stated SEER and/or HSPF ratings and could even develop performance problems. When you’re replacing an existing home heating and air conditioning system, make sure you replace both units so your new condensing unit will give you optimal performance, efficiency and comfort.