When you were a kid and you didn’t want to confront a problem, what was your favorite excuse or other avoidance tactic?

While you reflect back, take a moment to reflect on these modern day excuses, as featured on ScaryMommy.com , from “I don’t want to, you can’t make me” youth:

“I forgot. Sorry. I’ll get it done before bedtime. No, I know I said that last night. I really mean it this time, SWEAR!”

“I JUST did that yesterday. Do I have to do that again today? Who takes the trash out two days in a row? What is this, Buckingham Palace?”

“I did it already! No, really. I did it. I know it doesn’t look like I cleaned my room, but I totally did. I just messed it up again really quickly.”

“If you’re here all day, why do I have to do it? No, wait, Mom, please, I’m sorry, I’ll do it. I’ll do it right now. I’m doing it, I’m DOING IT RIGHT NOW.”

Fast forward to the present, and what do you find? That by putting things off long enough – however creative and convincing your excuses to yourself might be – you’re the one who ultimately be hurt the most by your inaction, and usually in the wallet.

Want a real life example? Okay, you got it: air conditioning performance problems. After all, you don’t have to be a trained technician to know when your system isn’t performing up to par. And yet you’d be amazed at how many people just sort of “live with it”, maybe hoping the problem will “go away” – we can only speculate as to the cause. What we can tell you for certain, however, that the longer you put off a reporting AC system problem conditions, the more likely it is that the problem will grow worse and more costly to repair.

So what’s a careful home owner to do? Pick up the phone fast when you observe any of these common AC performance issues:

Hot and cold spots throughout your house. Your system was designed to deliver equal amounts of cool air everywhere ductwork is in place. Once that changes, something’s gone awry.

Skyrocketing energy bills. This could be cause by a million and one different things – anything from a dirty or clogged filter, frozen coil, leak in your refrigerant line, etc.

Noisy outside condensing unit. That probably means that there’s something wrong with the fan or that a part has come loose and the fan keeps bumping into it.

No cool air in just one zone of your house. Most likely, that’s a thermostat problem.

Black dirt forming around one or more of your registers. That’s an indication of a dirt and dust build-up inside your ducts, and that it’s time to have your ducts professionally cleaned.

Here at Optimum Air, we understand that big AC repair bills are about as welcome as a hemorrhoid. So do the right thing and we can help keep them to a bare minimum. Actually, there are two right things, or pieces of advice, worth following:

Have preventative maintenance performed on AC system at least once a year, without fail. That way, most repairs can be eliminated entirely.
Or, if you do witness a performance issue, call us right away to keep the problem and the cost of fixing it to a bare minimum.

Optimum Air: always on hand to help keep you and your family cool and comfortable. Affordably, too.