How Often Should You Service Your Air Conditioner?

Regular servicing of air conditioners in Australia has become a must do job as the demand for cooling and the cost of electricity keep going up & up. Studies are also showing that air conditioners that are not properly maintained lose their grip, guzzle more power & are more likely to pack up. Industry types and manufacturers continue to say that regular maintenance is the best way to keep your system running well & avoid wasting money on avoidable repairs, especially in homes and offices where the aircon is used a lot.

Recommended Service Intervals in Australia

Over here in Australia, leading aircon makers like Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric & Fujitsu generally reckon that 12 months is about the right time to give your residential system a good going over, job done by a pro of course. But if you’ve got a big commercial set up that runs flat out for long stretches, then 3 to 6 months might be more like it. It depends on how hard you’re pushing the system really. AIRAH, that’s the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Aircon & Heating, tells us that if you’re in a coastal area, you can expect corrosion to be 25% worse than inland because of the salt and humidity in the air. And you can’t forget about filters, they’ll typically need replacing every 2 to 3 months to keep airflow up to speed & to stop all sorts of nasty stuff getting in & causing problems. In some places like Melbourne with all those ducted air conditioning Melbourne systems, servicing becomes even more important because the ducts themselves can get all clogged up. That can mean an 8 to 12% drop in airflow if you don’t keep on top of it. And in urban areas in Australia, the dust in the air can cause duct contamination of up to 2 to 5 grams per square metre a year.

The Energy Costs of Ignoring Maintenance

Studies from the gov backed efficiency programs have shown that dirty filters, a dirty coil or not enough refrigerant can all increase your power bill by 5 to 20% a year. And if you’ve got one of those inverter systems, which are super popular here in Australia, then bad airflow will make the thing run more slowly & take longer to get the temperature right. It can be up to 3 degrees C slower in the peak of summer. And that’s not all, you’ve also got problems like standby power losses & inefficient cycling to worry about if you don’t sort out the maintenance. That can add another 50 to 120kWh to your power bill per year, which is between 15 to 40 bucks extra per unit of electricity, depending on the tariff you’re on. Over time, all of this neglect can lower the seasonal energy efficiency ratio, SEER. That means your aircon will produce 18% less than one that’s been properly looked after.

The Hidden Cost of Not Servicing

Household cooling bills in Australia can vary wildly, between 300 and 1200 dollars a year depending on where you live, but one thing’s for sure: the hotter it gets, the more you spend. In places like Queensland, energy usage just goes through the roof. And if you don’t keep your aircon in good nick, it’ll cost you even more. In fact, energy regulators reckon that a poorly looked after system can blow out your running costs by as much as 30%. That’s an extra sixty to three hundred and sixty bucks a year. But the damage doesn’t stop there. If you let your servicing slide, the repair bills get bigger and bigger. Your compressor might need to be replaced, that’s a whopping fifteen hundred to three and a half thousand dollars right there, and that’s not even counting the cost of keeping it serviced in the first place. Which is usually a few hundred bucks each visit. Insurance claims also show that if you don’t service your aircon, you’re much more likely to need an emergency repair, and that’s just a recipe for disaster.

Australia’s Climate and How It Affects Our Cooling Needs

We’ve got a big climate range in Australia, and that affects how much we need to service our aircon. The Bureau of Meteorology says that over the last twenty years, the amount of time cities has needed to use aircon has gone up by ten to twenty percent. And in the north, it’s a whole different ball game. Folks in Darwin and Cairns are using their aircon for over 1200 hours a year, while those in Melbourne are lucky to get 400 to 700 hours. And then there’s the heat, and I mean the really hot heat. Up north, humidity is through the roof, and that puts even more pressure on your aircon. You can forget about efficiency if you don’t get it serviced, and that’s just the start of it.