The Impact of Landscaping on HVAC Performance in California, MD

It’s natural for everyone to want the areas surrounding their home to be beautiful and to undertake landscaping work to achieve that goal. However, how you choose to go about your landscaping can influence how well your HVAC system functions and how comfortable you’ll be this summer in your California, MD home. Here are a few important ways in which landscaping can affect HVAC systems.

What to Plant

With grass, bushes, trees, shrubs and other plant life all over your yard, any stray breeze might pick up any piece of plant debris and send it flying into the outdoor component of your HVAC system. These may include twigs, leaves, pollen and other things. Any of these objects can potentially damage your HVAC system if they accumulate around your outdoor unit too rapidly and in excessive quantities.

Therefore, you need to do whatever you can to minimize the opportunities for these things to fly into your unit. Try not to plant large trees near it, for example, since you’ll then probably have an almost constant problem trying to pick out falling twigs and leaves. Planting grass too close to your unit is probably also a bad idea because your lawnmower may shoot bits of grass straight at your unit when mowing.

Certain types of flowers, with their propensity to spread pollen, probably shouldn’t grow too close to the unit either. If you must place something near the unit, let it be some kind of evergreen plant, like boxwood, spruce or cedar. Though these may still shed twigs and needles, they at least do not shed leaves.

Space

Besides various plant-deposited debris, you’ll also have to worry about dirt, dust, pebbles and similar sorts of debris hitting your HVAC unit. Whether something comes straight from a plant or not, if it is small enough to get into your unit, it can cause problems.

Anything that clogs your unit may choke off airflow or decrease the effectiveness of your system’s compressor. This can gradually reduce your whole system’s efficiency, raise your energy bills, increase your repair costs and potentially force you to replace your system earlier than you might otherwise need to.

The key to avoiding these headaches is to clear a reasonable amount of room around your HVAC unit and allow nothing to crowd it. At a minimum, there should be one foot of lateral space around your unit, though three or more would be ideal. Also, aim to give the unit about 8-10 feet of free vertical room.

If you do this, not only will you decrease the likelihood of debris haphazardly passing into your unit, but you will also make it easier for HVAC technicians to reach it. With reasonable access to your unit, occasional repairs and annual preventive maintenance will be simpler to perform.

Gravel Gardens

Gravel gardens provide a simple way to shield your AC unit from the harmful effects of nearby plants and shrubs while maintaining a desirable aesthetic. If you place your unit atop a raised platform and surround that platform with a pool of gravel that’s at least a foot or so wide, you’ll do a great deal to protect it.

Since grass, weeds and other damaging plants typically can’t grow in gravel, you won’t have to worry about any such things posing an immediate threat to your unit. If you like, you may also add some mulch to the bed or place some small, drought-resistant plants nearby to beautify the immediate surroundings.

There doesn’t need to be any conflict between your landscaping needs and your home comfort needs. For help making sure your system is ready for the summer, call Hancock Refrigeration Heating & Air Conditioning today and ask for our AC repair services in California, MD.

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