This is the time of the year when you’ll probably appreciate having a heat pump to take care of both your warm and cool weather comfort needs. As the weather swings back and forth during spring, you can simply switch your heat pump between its two different modes—heating and cooling—with only a single adjustment on the thermostat. No reason to think about having to shut down a heater for the year, and your thermostat programming doesn’t have to change much.
But what if the heat pump won’t turn over into cooling mode? This is one of the more common troubles a heat pump can run into, and it’s also one our technicians are familiar with fixing so the heat pump can go back to work.
We’ll take a brief look at what might be going on with a heat pump stuck in one mode.
Winters here in North Central Florida are mostly pleasant, but we do have stretches of days when the temperature drops to the point where heating systems have to come on. Most people have heaters that use ductwork to move heat to the various rooms, such as furnaces (electric or gas) and heat pumps. Unfortunately, no matter how well your home’s heater works, you’ll run into trouble if the ductwork is leaky. 
Summer never truly ends in Florida. We move through rainier, cooler periods, but the work of an air conditioning system in a Florida home is never fully done for the year.
No air conditioning system is “the last AC you’ll ever need to buy.” No matter how well you maintain your home’s cooling system, it will need to be replaced at some time. It’s a matter of knowing when: If it be not now, ‘tis to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.
When your home’s air conditioning system is running during the hot and humid Florida summers, you’ll occasionally hear a sound of water dripping inside it. This is a normal part of the AC’s operation: it’s the sound of water falling from the evaporator coil and going down a condensate drain.
Is your AC turning on and off again? It’s definitely not normal.
You may have heard of ductless mini splits. Ductless heating and cooling is popular in Europe and Japan, and is now making inroads here in the US. If you’re thinking of installing a new cooling system before the major summer heat arrives, going ductless might be a good option. But ductless mini split heat pumps (that’s another term for them) are not ideal for every home.
Temperatures are rising in Florida, but the rain is also falling, so we aren’t quite into the full heat of summer yet. Your utility bills won’t show the price spike you expect when your air conditioning system starts running on a regular basis.
One of the most important services that we offer our customers is routine maintenance service for their cooling and heating systems. We strongly recommend homeowners arrange for a maintenance tune-up and inspection in spring for their air conditioning systems. The work we do on your AC, such as tightening electrical connections, lubricating moving parts, and checking for a drop in refrigerant pressure, will give the system the best chance of making it through another sweltering Florida summer without suffering a breakdown. That will give you peace of mind, one of the best rewards.
Humidity in homes is a problem that can occur almost any place in the country. Even in a desert climate. The reason is that homes generate water moisture inside them, from cooking and showering.