HVAC Repair Tips for Homeowners

Dealing with my finances alone is difficult after having my parent’s safety net underneath me for most of my life.

Now that they’re gone and my dad isn’t around to help me with my taxes, it’s my responsibility to learn these things on my own.

In hindsight, I feel ashamed that I relied on them so much to begin with. They were always ready and willing to help me after all, but they probably would have done me a lot of favors by helping me learn some of the harder lessons on my own. I think about my own future children a lot and wonder if I’ll ever be capable of doing better than what my parents did for me, all the while making sure that I go out of my way to prepare them for a life spent alone if the worst ever manages to occur. Thankfully, my life is getting better slowly as I am more dedicated to making budgets and sticking to them. It does no one any good to make a list of expenses if that list is ignored throughout the month. This year I have a little boost from a larger than average tax return, most of which is going towards an air purifier that I’m buying for my central HVAC system. I have an air purifier that sits on my desk in my home office, but I would like a larger one that filters all of the air inside my house. That’s when my HVAC technician suggested that I consider buying a media air purification system. This results in cleaner indoor air, especially if it’s paired with a UV-C light of some kind in the air handler of the central HVAC system.

New HVAC

I learned that my home state is notorious for fraudsters and scam artists.

The amount of fraud reported each year far outpaces that of other states in the country.

My heart is broken when I hear how this state is targeted because of the significant population we have here of retirees and senior citizens—who are seen as easy targets by con artists and criminals. There are awareness campaigns and community classes to teach seniors how to avoid scams, but it’s hard when these people have brains that are rapidly deteriorating. The older I get, the more compassion and empathy I get for those who are struggling with their cognitive faculties, regardless of the reason. However, sometimes there are bold scammers who will target just about anyone they come across in hopes that they will hook someone eventually. There are unlicensed HVAC scammers who will go around offering free inspections so that they can claim there is something wrong with your heating and cooling system. As you might imagine, they convince you that you are in need of repairs that you don’t need at all, and obviously they insist on doing the repairs themselves before you’ve had a chance to get other quotes, let alone think about the decisions for a few minutes. To my luck, I told the man that I would call him back and then I sent him on his way. After looking online for a bit, I discovered that he was a wanted scammer and I forwarded his information to the police. I never heard anything from the cops about the HVAC scammer, but I hope they found him and put him behind bars.

home services

I’m really trying to “make things last” to the most extreme degree sometimes, even if that means reusing napkins that I dry my hands with to clean my kitchen counters after the napkins have tried.

• I would never do this with a napkin used to wipe dirty hands, but it still makes me feel terrible having to save something in a corner that I simply used to make my clean hands dry again.

When you’re on a fixed or limited income, you have to come up with unique ways to save money, and sometimes you have to get creative. Even if it means taking leftovers from a meal and using them to make a new meal altogether. I hate to admit it, but this is how a lot of restaurants that I worked for in college did to save money. Sometimes they’d stretch ingredients far past the recommended dates, always leaving me puzzled how all of their patrons did not come down with food poisoning each night. But there are far less dramatic ways to save a few dollars here and there. For instance, some people might mistakenly assume that HEPA filters are like HVAC filters and need to be replaced every three months at least. Some people will even replace their HVAC filters once a month. However, HEPA filters are nearly twice the thickness of a random MERV 8 HVAC filter, so they can be left in your air purifier for as long as six months. If you’re a smoker, you might need to replace your HEPA filter more often than six months, but I don’t have this issue. On top of that, the pre-filter is made out of activated charcoal and it prevents dust buildup in the HEPA filter, making the latter last longer.

 

fireplace

Unlike some of my friends, I put off moving out of my parents’ house for a number of years.

• They were willing to keep supporting me and I was taking my time trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

Even with a college degree under my belt, I barely felt any closer to an actual career than I did before starting college at 18 years old. I spoke with a number of different friends over the years that expressed similar sentiments. We all tend to feel like imposters too once we finally secure employment, because something about it doesn’t feel completely legitimate after so many years of stagnation and failure. But things are slowly starting to look brighter in my world. I am finally in a house of my own, fending for myself without any financial assistance from my parents. It’s nice feeling self-sufficient in this regard, but it isn’t easy either. There’s no one around to remind me to get my chores done if I forget to do them myself. My HVAC care is important, so I make sure that I have my necessary filter replacement dates recorded in my phone. That way I get a friendly and helpful notification whenever it’s time to finally replace the filter in the central heating and cooling system again. If you have trouble remembering to do the important things in life, don’t feel bad making reminders and notifications for yourself on your phone! This is particularly important for HVAC related details. I’ll even put in reminders so I know to buy more HVAC filters when I run out of the ones in the house.

 

HVAC maintenance