Watch Out for These 5 HVAC Issues if You Live in a Historic Home
Many historic homes have an eye-catching beauty that irresistibly draws in people. But if you own such a home in Canyon Lake, TX, you also know that taking care of it can present some unique difficulties. Here are five HVAC issues that you’ll have to be ready to handle.
1. Poor Airflow and Ventilation
It’s virtually impossible to heat or cool any home properly without smooth airflow and an effective ventilation system. While ductwork tends to outlive the air conditioning and heating systems that use it, it unfortunately still often ends up looking worse for wear in decades-old homes. Inevitably, ducts will get dirty and sustain damage from abrasion and other sources, which create holes and greatly disrupts airflow.
If you want to properly install an HVAC system in a historic home, dealing with the ductwork will be a fundamental challenge. You’ll have to clean the ducts, seal up the holes, re-insulate, or replace them entirely. This is just about mandatory if you wish to bring airflow back up to acceptable levels.
2. Low Indoor Air Quality
If you’ve recently bought or moved into a historic home that no one has inhabited for decades, you’ll probably find an enormous amount of dust gathered there. Humidity and poor airflow will contribute to making the indoor air quality (IAQ) problem even worse. The fact that the house probably contains dated HVAC equipment — if it has any at all — piles on yet another thing that will diminish IAQ.
Improving IAQ in such a home will not be an easy task. You’ll need to clean every surface carefully, install air purifiers, and ask a team of professionals to overhaul the HVAC system. Even after this, you’ll need to remember to change the system’s filters at least once every three months if you want to retain efficiency.
3. An Obsolete Thermostat
If a historic home has any kind of temperature control system in place at all, it will probably still use a manual thermostat. Sticking with a manual thermostat will cost you enormously in terms of convenience, versatility, and efficiency. It will also force you to pay far more for utilities than necessary.
4. Ancient HVAC Equipment
If the home you’ve moved into is decades old, chances are that the HVAC equipment is also there. Central HVAC systems can typically function reliably for about 15 to 20 years. Certain types of components of an HVAC system — like an electric furnace, for example — might be able to function well for as long as 30 years. However, this figure is good to use as a rule of thumb.
When HVAC systems remain in service beyond this point, their efficiency and effectiveness sharply decline. They also come to need repairs much more frequently, and they may even saddle you with vastly higher heating and cooling bills. To bring your historic home up to modern standards, you’ll have to update the HVAC system.
5. No Zoning
Zoning is the practice of dividing your home into multiple climate zones and setting different heating or cooling policies for each one. This is a useful thing to do in situations where different levels of insulation in different parts of your house require different doses of heat or cold to produce a uniform temperature. It’s also useful if those living with you like different temperatures than others in the home do.
Only more modern HVAC systems and thermostats tend to have the ability to combine to enable zoning. Older HVAC systems in historic homes can’t do this.
Luckily, all the above-mentioned challenges are manageable. To equip a classic home with modern HVAC equipment, you need the help of trained, skilled, and dedicated professionals. Call Climate Control Heating & Air to ask for any of our diverse heating and cooling services, and we’ll keep you comfortable while you live in style.
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