HVAC for Homeowners

The furnace quits on the coldest night of the year. The AC runs all afternoon and the house still feels warm. A technician holds up a clipboard with a number on it and a deadline attached. Most homeowners have never been taught how this equipment works, so every one of those moments feels like a gamble. HVAC for Homeowners is the owner-side guide to your whole heating and cooling system: how it works in plain words, what to do each season, what common faults usually mean, and what a fair repair quote looks like. It is text only, with parts described in words and simple tables. It is not a cooling-only troubleshooting guide, a general home-maintenance checklist, a quote guide for every trade, or a technician's manual: it stays with the furnace, the air conditioner, the heat pump and the mini-split, and it keeps DIY to the low-risk jobs a homeowner can safely do. Inside, you'll learn: How the furnace, air conditioner, ducts, thermostat and refrigerant loop fit together, and how to read the nameplate and check your system's age The safe DIY list (filters, thermostat batteries, condensate drain, clear space around the outdoor unit) and the jobs that belong to licensed pros A ten-minute checklist to run before you call for no heat or no cooling A four-season maintenance calendar, and whether a yearly tune-up or a maintenance plan is worth it What common heating and cooling faults, smells, noises and leaks usually mean How to weigh repair against replacement and ask for a useful second opinion How to read a repair quote line by line, compare three replacement bids and check the installation You will not become a technician, and the book makes no promise about what any quote or repair will cost where you live. What you will have is the vocabulary, the checks and the questions to deal with your heating and cooling calmly and as an informed customer.

Imad Muratspahic is an independent author of practical how-to guides, technical handbooks, history and fiction. The books aim to be clear, honest and useful from the first page.