Vacation Checklist Should Start With Home Protection

Let’s check in with an imaginary Michigan family, Pete and Carol and their lovely children Murray and Tanya. After a year of planning they are leaving home right now for a two-week vacation.

Pete spent days organizing his tackle box and tying new fishing flies to catch a big lunker.

Carol went shopping and bought a new tennis racket. She has vowed this will be the year she masters her backhand.

Murray carefully packed up his digital camera and telephoto lens. He’s looking forward to taking some wildlife photos while hiking.

Tanya loves to read and has stocked up on new books and plans to read while at the pool and working on her tan.

But there are more questions. Who took care of the air conditioning before they left? Who checked all the faucets and toilets for any sign of leaks? Who shut off the water to the washing machine? Who made sure all unnecessary appliances were unplugged?

Mast Heating & Cooling, your HVAC provider in Grand Rapids, Holland, Kentwood and surrounding areas, wants to make sure when you leave on vacation, you’re not forgetting about the home you are leaving behind. You need to make sure it will be in good shape when you return.

Here are some of the most important things to put on your pre-vacation to-do list:

Air conditioning tune-up:

You do not want your AC unit to stop working while you’re gone. Imagine what the buildup of heat and humidity would do to your houseplants or the pet goldfish. Get the tune-up before you leave home. The simplest way to deal with maintenance and tune-ups is to join Mast Heating & Cooling’s Maintenance Plan.

If your AC unit is 10 years old or older, it likely uses R-22 refrigerant. The refrigerant is being phased out because of environmental damage and the cost is skyrocketing. It could make your tune-up more expensive and you may want to talk with Mast Heating & Cooling about replacing your old air conditioner.

Surge protection:

Thousands of dollars. That’s how much damage one lightning strike can do to delicate electronics, including your HVAC systems. Since summer vacation season is also prime storm season in the Great Lakes Region, don’t start your travels before talking with our Mast Heating & Cooling comfort consultants about surge protectors to guard your house. They not only provide lightning protection, but also guard against summer brownouts, blackouts, and other voltage surges.

Buy a programmable thermostat, or use the one you have:

A programmable thermostat makes going on vacation easy-peasy. Program it to maintain a constant, energy saving, temperature while you’re gone. A good range is from 78 to 82 degrees.

Then, since your thermostat is connected to your WiFi, you can use your smartphone to turn the AC back down when you’re on your way home. The house will be nice and cool when you arrive.

Mast Heating & Cooling features thermostats from Trane and Honeywell. Trane’s programmable thermostats work in conjunction with the Nexia home automation software. Just download the Nexia App to your mobile device and you are in control of your home, no matter where you are.

Honeywell, a leader in systems control technology, offers several models. There are thermostats with touch screens and some are even voice controlled.

Mast Heating & Cooling really hopes things turn out well for imaginary family. Hopefully they will return home to find nothing happened. Call us today to avoid that kind of gamble.