Your home’s HVAC system is essential to your family’s comfort and is a significant investment. Understanding the system’s lifespan can help improve your home’s comfort and save money running the unit and how frequently you need a replacement. This guide explores how long an HVAC system lasts, the factors that affect it, and signs that it’s time for a replacement.

Different Component Lifespans

The first thing to know is that not all components have the same anticipated lifespan. While there are many components that you can install in an HVAC system, those that are considered standard with residential systems may include heat pumps, air conditioners, and gas furnaces. The year the unit was produced will affect its lifespan, with newer systems lasting longer. For instance, modern furnaces, air conditioners, and heat pumps all have an expected lifespan of 15 to 20 years.

However, older air conditioners or heat pumps do not have the same expected lifespan, at least the expected effective lifespan. While even older models may continue running for 15 to 20 years, they begin substantially losing efficiency, increasing operational costs, and reducing home comfort. These older models have an expected effective lifespan of 10 to 15 years.

Maximizing Your System’s Service Life

Fortunately, many factors affect your HVAC system’s life. The following are critical factors that can quickly cut your system’s lifespan.

Routine Maintenance

One of the most significant factors affecting your system’s lifespan is how well it’s maintained. The first maintenance aspect is keeping your system’s air filter clean. In most systems, keeping a clean air filter means replacing it periodically. For smaller 1- and 2-inch filters, you’ll likely need a replacement even 30 to 90 days. Larger filters may last several months, with the largest lasting as long as a year in some cases. Check it monthly to make it part of your home care routine and prevent forgetting about it.

Next to the filter, professional cooling and heating maintenance is the next most important part of maintaining your system. Most systems need two maintenance visits a year, the one in the fall focusing on the heating and the one in the spring on the air conditioning. During this visit, a technician will deep clean the system, including the circulating fan, heat exchanger, and evaporator coil, depending on the season. They’ll tighten the electrical connections and mounting hardware to prevent excessive vibration and resistance. Finally, they’ll perform extensive testing to identify components not working within optimal parameters.

Dealing with Problems Quickly

When any sort of HVAC problem rears its head, there’s always tension. Do you need to deal with it immediately, can it wait for a little while, and will your system keep your home comfortable?

You need to remember that as a mechanical system, your HVAC system is finely tuned to the point where every component depends on the other. When one component isn’t working correctly, every other part of the system suffers, experiencing excessive strain and wear. Ignoring a small problem can progress into more significant problems, driving up the repair costs. Beyond the repair costs, the bigger issue is that more significant problems can cut years off your system’s service life. We’ll explore this further when we discuss how to determine when it’s time to replace your HVAC system.

Improving Household Airflow

Keeping your home comfortable is all about the temperature of the air, which means your system has to move air to be effective. Proper AC and heating maintenance, such as regularly changing your system’s filter, is crucial for improving circulation, but it’s not the only factor.

Instead, you have to ensure the system can draw air effectively and then push it back into your home. This is why keeping your vents open and clear is critical, even in spaces you may not use frequently. Supply vents create positive air pressure, while return vents create negative air pressure. This pressure difference causes conditioned air to circulate throughout your home, reducing the overall strain the system experiences.

To maximize your home’s airflow, keep all supply vents open and ensure that each is at least 6 inches clear above and around it. Depending on its size, a return vent may need additional clearance. Your maintenance technician can tell you how much clearance it needs based on its size.

Advanced Thermostat Settings

Finally, ensure you use the advanced thermostat settings to help reduce wear on your system. The Department of Energy (DOE) recommends adjusting your thermostat to 7 to 10 degrees when you’re not home. This will be a temperature increase over the summer and a decrease over the winter. The DOE suggests you can save up to 10% of your annual heating and cooling costs by adopting this strategy, and the programs available on your thermostat help you do this automatically. By reducing the overall strain on your system, you also reduce wear and increase your system’s lifespan.

Different thermostats offer different levels of program granularity, some offering a single program that runs every day of the week and going up to individual programs for all seven days. Smart thermostats make it easy to set because they can learn your patterns by your settings and create a program for you.

Signs Your System Is Nearing the End of Its Service Life

Aside from the age of an HVAC system, some signs let you know when it’s time for a replacement. These primarily break down into two categories: performance issues and costs.

Performance Issues

Your system’s performance may indicate it may be time for a replacement. Performance issues are also tied to some repairs, so performance is usually combined with the costs, which we’ll discuss next. From a performance perspective, you may experience one or more of the following:

  • Less effective heating or cooling
  • Reduced airflow from the supply vents
  • More household humidity
  • Unusual odors
  • Strange sounds
  • Climbing energy bills
  • Short cycling

Costs

Aside from the energy cost as your system runs, keeping it running is also of key concern. There are two ways to consider the expense of repairing your system. The first is looking at any individual repair. If it exceeds 50% of the cost of a new system, it may be time for a furnace replacement or new AC system.

The second requires a small amount of math. Add all of the repairs over the last two years and then multiply that sum by the system’s age. When the product exceeds the cost of a new system, it’s time to plan for when you will replace it.

All Klear HVAC, Plumbing, and Electrical Expert Contractor

For the last 15 years, property owners around Springfield have turned to All Klear for their home heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical needs. Our expert team provides heating and air conditioning maintenance, repair, installation, residential plumbing and electrical services, and indoor air quality solutions. Call to schedule your HVAC maintenance, installation, or repair visit with one of our award-winning technicians today.

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