Ductless Maintenance Efficiency Reports (Podcast)

In this podcast, Greg Kula from Jones Services talks about how often you should schedule annual maintenance for your ductless heating and cooling system. Then, he explains the efficiency reports that the technicians generate with your appointment.

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher and I’m here today with Greg Kula of Jones Services, a service company in Goshen, New York, with a focus on ductless heating and cooling systems. Today we’re talking about efficiency reports. Welcome, Greg.

Greg Kula: Hey, thanks for having me.

Maintenance Requirements for Ductless HVAC Equipment

John: Sure. Greg, do ductless systems need to be maintained on a regular basis?

Greg: Yeah. They actually should be maintained one to two times a year. So, what we do with the maintenance, we want to make sure it’s working efficiently and running properly like day one when we did the install. So, depending if they’re used all winter long, all summer long, or both determines if we want once a year maintenance or twice a year maintenance.

John: Right, so if you’re running it for air conditioning in the summer, and then also heating in the winter, you’re going to want to come out before those seasons start and do a regular maintenance and cleaning.

Greg: Exactly.

How Routine Maintenance Improves Efficiency

John: Yep, okay. So, once you’ve done that cleaning, then, you said that you lose efficiency if your systems are dirty. How do you know, then, that you’ve actually gained any efficiency or that anything’s changed after the maintenance visit?

Greg: So one, just visual. Looking at the system, what we started at to what it is now, what it looked like before to what it looks like when it’s cleaned. The other big thing we’re doing too is we have a report that we run on all systems, air conditioning systems or heat pump systems that we work on. This report gives us a true reading, a 0% to 100% score of where we are for efficiency.

The nice thing is, it’s not just looking at refrigerants or the quick easy numbers for efficiency. It’s looking at the system as a whole. Is there ductwork attached, is the ductwork working properly? Is it working efficiently and effectively? It looks at so many different numbers that go into this, so you get a true reading of the entire system.

Efficiency Reports

John: Is there anything else that’s included in those efficiency reports?

Greg: We also have a second report that we run on customers that are worried about indoor air quality, so what they’re breathing as a system runs, or even when the system’s off, how the air in the home feels. A lot of our customers want the air to be nice and clean, like if they go outside on a nice spring day.

So, we have another report that we run that tests the air in the home, so we could actually see, is it clean enough, is it filtered enough, is there enough humidity in the house? Is there enough fresh air coming in? A lot of homes we’re dealing with are newer construction homes where you don’t have enough fresh air coming in from outside, so there’s so much stale air. The stale air actually makes the human body start feeling more tired throughout the day.

John: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and so, what is it that you do? Do the systems actually bring in air from the outside so that you have that clean air? Or how do you end up getting more of that fresh air from the outside of the house inside the house?

Greg: So, the fresh air is nice, because there is a system that you’re pulling in fresh air at the same time as exhausting stale air outside. So, you have this cross-breeze, basically. Think of it, if you open a window, you’re kind of getting fresh air coming in, a little bit of stale air is going out.

But with the window open, you’re losing a lot of that heat or that cold air you made to the outside. So, that money you spent to condition your home is now going outside, which is what this device actually reduces. Now, more of that money you spent in the home is going to stay in the home, rather than go outside, but you get the benefits of a window being open.

Efficiency Reports With Jones Services Annual Maintenance

John: Is it any additional cost to get the efficiency report when somebody comes out and does the maintenance on my system?

Greg: No, we actually incorporate it right into our annual maintenance. So, if any of our technicians are in the home doing an air conditioning maintenance or a heat pump maintenance, it’s part of what we do. There’s no additional cost to the homeowner.

John: All right. Well, that’s really great information. Greg, thanks again for speaking with me today.

Greg: Yeah. Thank you.

John: And for more information, you can visit the website at jonesservices.com or call 845-294-1010.