Frequently Asked Questions

It is technically incorrect to say an air conditioner cools the air in your house. What an A/C unit is doing is removing heat from the air inside your home and transferring it outside. Heat is removed from the indoor air by passing it over a refrigerant coil, which carries the heat to an outdoor unit where it is released. This cycle is repeated several times until the air inside your home drops to the temperature set on your thermostat.

The short answer is yes, it’s very possible. Evaporative coolers, also known as swamp coolers, don’t use any electricity to cool the air. Instead, fans pull the hot outside air across pads saturated with water which cools the air. Fans then blow the cooled air throughout the home. Swamp coolers are especially effective in our desert air.

General Air Conditioning & Plumbing wants to emphasize the short answer is not always the complete answer. On very hot days, a swamp cooler may not keep your home as comfortably cool as you would like. Many homes will use a swamp cooler for as many days as possible to save money but have some form of supplemental air conditioning available when it’s needed.

Heat pumps have been around for years and provide a very efficient way to cool your home during the summer and heat it in the winter in the right climates. When cooling, heat pumps work similarly to a normal air conditioner by extracting heat from the home and releasing it outside. In cold weather, it essentially reverses this process and pulls warmth from the outside air (even when it feels very cold) and transfers it indoors. Because heat pumps utilize heat from the air outside your home instead of burning fossil fuels, they can produce two to three times the amount of energy that it uses.

Yes and no. The same technology is used to heat and cool the air, but a traditional heat pump uses one centrally located air handler, and the conditioned air is moved throughout the house using ducts. In a mini-split system, there can be multiple air handlers connected to one outside compressor. The conditioned air is delivered directly to a room or area in the house without using any ducts. You don’t have to worry about leaking or poorly insulated ductwork.

Home Performance Contracting (HPC) evaluates just that — the performance of your home. Our HPC experts will walk you through your home’s energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and building specifications as well as your heating and cooling system performance.

There are several ways to tell you you may need to have a home performance evaluation done on your home. First, take a look at your energy bills from the last few months (or years if your home is older). A gradual or even high increase in rates could mean an evaluation should be performed. Second, walk through your home during different times of day and weather patterns. If you can tell what the weather will be like outside before you step out, then you could benefit from a home performance evaluation. Finally, make a list of projects around your home you’ve been putting off starting (or even finishing). Some of those projects could be new windows, fixing a leaking faucet, or even getting a new washer or dryer. All of these can be addressed during your evaluation to see where you can benefit most.

Yes, it can.

Any unused maintenance visits will roll over.

100% satisfaction is our primary goal. Call the Service-Plus priority line for immediate assistance.

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