The dog days of summer are here. Although this saying is based on Greek and Roman constellations—when the star pattern Sirius the Dog is on the horizon—most of us think of it as a time when dogs are panting on porches next to people trying to fan themselves off. Of course, if you have a working air conditioning system in your home, you won’t need to be fanning yourself on the porch, and your dog will probably not need to pant so much.
But August’s dog days can sometimes put air conditioners out of commission. Most ACs run steadily from June onward, so all the accumulated work stress can lead to an air conditioner that’s at a much higher risk of malfunctioning in August. Below are some air conditioning problems to watch for during this late summer period of high heat and humidity. You can call us for the professional air conditioning service in Haughton, LA, that will get your AC back on track.
Has this been happening to you? You set your thermostat to turn on your gas furnace (or you have a program that turns it on at a specific time), and it turns on but shuts down only a few minutes later—long before your house has a chance to get warm. As you can guess, this isn’t normal. Your furnace is supposed to remain on long enough to reach the temperature setting on the thermostat and then gradually cycle off. Something is amiss, and you may need to call 
When winter weather arrives, what type of heating system in your home keeps you warm? Furnaces are the most common, and the majority run from natural gas. Not all houses have this option, however, either because they don’t have a connection to a natural gas line or because of concerns over the safety of gas-burning systems. In these cases, an electric furnace is a good alternative. An electric furnace costs more to run (electricity is a more expensive energy than gas), but it also costs less to install. An electric furnace can often outlast a gas model.
Humidity is often worse than the heat here in Louisiana. The high moisture levels in the air are like having an extra layer of clothing on: the moisture makes it harder for your body to release heat, and that extra heat trapped in your body makes the temperatures around you feel hotter than they are—sometimes as much as 8 to 10°F! The moisture can cause other troubles as well, from simple things like making it harder to dry off towels, to more serious issues like the growth of harmful molds in a home that lead to triggering allergies.
In a post we wrote at the beginning of the year, we talked about 
How humid can it get here in Louisiana during the spring and summer? If you’ve already lived her for at least a single year, you know the answer is incredibly humid. The average daily high for humidity through most of the year is 90%, and it’s rare to dip below 50%. Humidity tends to reach its peak in October, but we don’t receive anything like a break from it during the summer. This is why having a dehumidifier installed in a home is so helpful.
