Air conditioners - Useful Information

Some points to note about air conditioner units.

It is very important that you choose the correct unit for your application. The unit must be sized correctly for the area, as well as be positioned to get good air flow. If either of these are wrong you will find the unit will not cool as required. Cutting costs here could cost you a lot more in the long run. When planning the installation of an air conditioner unit, careful consideration should be given to the placement of the outdoor unit. The outdoor unit should be kept as close to indoor unit as possible. If this is not possible check that the unit can cope with the length of the pipe run. It is also important to make sure that the outdoor unit is in well ventilated position, as well as a place that is reachable by the service technician. Remember that the less time a technician needs to book for the job will directly result in a smaller repair bill. If for example a technician needs to set up scaffolding just to open the cover of your unit, this could cost you R350 before he has even looked inside the unit. AC units are sized and designed for a specific area. The area which it is sized for should be closed off and not expected to work properly if it is now trying to cool an area much bigger than it is designed for. If the door cannot be kept closed consider installing an air curtain. Once again the initial cost of this will be small compared to replacing the compressor of the AC unit. AC units need to be serviced regularly. Make sure these services are kept up to date. Planned preventitive maintenance is a better and more economical method of maintaining your AC unit. This will also prevent "emergency" breakdowns in the midst of summer when all the technicians are backlogged with work. 21 degrees celcuis is an optimum temperature to keep your AC unit set at. By setting the unit to its lowest setting will in fact not make the room colder, but will cause the indoor cooling coil to freeze up, in turn not allowing sufficient airflow. A unit that does not have airflow can cause damage to the compresor, which could relate to a big expense.  AC faults.... before calling out a technician which will have a call out charge attached, check the following:
Check the main power to the unit, is it switched on?

Check the remote control is set correctly, is it set on the cool mode and is the temperature on 21 degrees?

Is the remote control responding, are the batteries ok?

When the room which the AC unit is cooling reaches the required temperature the compressor will switch off and the fan will blow out room temperature air, so do not worry if the unit is not blowing out cold or hot air all the time this is normal.