Every homeowner in Centerpoint, AL wants both a beautiful yard and a high-functioning HVAC system. Since certain landscaping practices may unintentionally harm your HVAC system, achieving these goals is not always a simple matter. Here are a few ways in which landscaping may affect your home’s HVAC system.
Crowding and Access
Your HVAC system consists of both indoor and outdoor units. The outdoor unit is the one whose performance your landscaping habits, for better or worse, have the power to influence.
The most important thing that you must do if you want your AC to work well and have a long service life is to make sure there is space all the way around the outside unit. Firstly, this matters because the wind can scoop up and push around all kinds of debris around your yard, including dust, pebbles, twigs and more. As you clean and shape your yard, you will scatter these things around even more and increase the probability that they could wind up inside your unit.
The more distance between your unit and the trees, grass, shrubs, bushes and other plants in your yard, the greater the distance that such debris would need to travel to make it into your unit. Any objects that fly into the unit could cause an issue. Whether the wind blows them in haphazardly or they fly in as a direct result of work like mowing the lawn, the result will be the same.
The second reason for keeping a reasonable distance between your HVAC unit and everything else in your yard is that technicians will need to be able to access it occasionally. Even if you take excellent care of your unit, it will sometimes need repairs and will certainly require maintenance at least once per year. The more shrubs and bushes there are crowding the unit, the more difficult it will be to carry out this work.
As a rule, we recommend leaving about 3 feet of lateral space in all directions around the unit, though, at a bare minimum, there should be at least 1 foot of such space.
Plants, Plants, Plants
We’ve already discussed the dangers of putting plants close to your HVAC unit, but the question of what kinds of plants to place in the area is important as well. Tall trees, for example, even if they are large enough and far enough away to offer an adequate amount of vertical and lateral space, may still drop acorns, leaves, twigs and other things onto your unit.
Since evergreen plants do not shed leaves, they may be somewhat safer to leave near your unit. In a pinch, certain kinds of large potted plants may even make an effective windbreaker.
Gravel Gardens
An easy way to safeguard your unit from the harmful consequences that plants can bring is to surround it with a gravel garden. Weeds, bushes and trees cannot grow in the midst of gravel, so this can allow you to largely bypass the danger that goes with them. Simply place the unit atop a raised concrete platform, surround that platform with a few feet of gravel and let the plants that you’ve chosen as windbreaks add a final touch to the area.
Creating Shade
We’ve talked in detail about the threat that flying or falling debris poses to your HVAC unit, but sunlight also has an impact.If you’re able to provide some shade over your unit, it can help it during hot summer temperatures. This unit should have been installed on the north or east side of your house, if possible, as these locations receive the least amount of sun during the day.
The series of dos and don’ts that we’ve just discussed should give you at least a general idea of how to carry out landscaping at your home without damaging your AC. To make sure your HVAC system always functions at its best, call our team at One Source Heating, Cooling & Electrical in Centerpoint, AL and sign up for our AC repair services today.
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