Reasons Why Your Home HVAC May be Malfunctioning

A residential HVAC unit is responsible for the circulation of air throughout the house and maintenance of a stable, comfortable temperature.

Any malfunction in this system becomes a cause for worry, especially because the heating and cooling of your house gets affected and may not be fixed instantly. It may also cost you dearly to fix or replace the faulty parts.

Before you panic and unnecessarily spend money on a repair job and/or replacing of the system or any parts, make sure you troubleshoot the problem and understand what exactly has gone wrong.

Sometimes the cause for malfunction is just a small setting error somewhere or dirt filled parts that are not allowing your system to function properly.

These are issues you can quickly resolve on your own and you won’t have to spend on having an HVAC technician come home and tell you the same thing.

Here are some of the key reasons why your home HVAC system may be malfunctioning.

1. The air filter is clogged

The first thing that you must check when your air conditioning system malfunctions is the air filter. These are places susceptible to a lot of dirt collection.

Clogged filters do not allow air flow, thus preventing air from reaching your vents too. This can be easily fixed by shutting the unit down and replacing the air filter. Your system will be functioning well again in just a few hours.

Same goes for heaters. Dirty filters will cause your system to overwork, increasing your energy costs. They also shorten the lifespan of your unit. Changing the air filter once a month is part of necessary maintenance and will ensure optimum heating and cooling from your HVAC system.

2. The thermostat is broken

A malfunction in your home HVAC system may occur due to a broken or faulty thermostat. This can easily be noticed if your thermostat is showing a blank display screen or the values being shown are not right.

Also, though it may sound silly, you must check the settings of your thermostat to make sure that no manual changes are causing the malfunction.

After this, you can try replacing the batteries of the thermostat. Once you unscrew the front plate, you can check whether the battery housing is clean and not filled with dust and debris of any sort.

Check for loose or broken wires and electrical connections too. If that is the case, call a local technician to fix the damage.

3. The furnace pilot light is out

If your furnace is an older gas model, it would need a small flame called a pilot light to produce heat. This flame can easily go off due to a gust of wind. So just relighting it will get the furnace working again.

To do this, locate the gas valve and turn it off. Wait for a few minutes and then relight the pilot using a fireplace lighter. Press the valve down for 30 seconds.

The gas should ignite, relighting the flame. But if it doesn’t light up or stay lit, call a technician.