Reply #2: "part of their standard annual service"

[Hassin Bin Sober]

Smart outfit. That's why they left an access panel, I suppose. Well now I have one too.

It's funny. You talk to different people and you get different answers.

My partner's dad is the person who kinda walked me through the process when we were considering cleaning the neighbor's (she bought a new system). He's a retired commercial pilot but he dabbled in HVAC with one of his pilot buddies. He says they cleaned them all the time by either cutting the access hole... or sometimes they would remove the unit all together and hose the coils off.

I talked to my ACE hardware guy and he looked at me like I had a screw loose. He says you should NEVER have to clean the coil if the furnace is properly filtered. But that doesn't make sense considering 5, 10, or 15 years is a long time for residual junk to get past the filter.

You don't realize how clogged something is till you clean it out. Last year, I was at my wits end. We couldn't keep the condo below 80 degrees on hot days. We resorted to using a small window unit in the bedroom to sleep. Now we are living it up at 76,77 in the day and 73 at night - and the system actually shuts off.

Other things we have done is blown in cellulose in the attic/crawl-space thanks to rebates from the gas company. Reflective coating applied to our west facing front windows. And a temporary cover for the skylight- it's landscape fabric bungeed to the skylight until I find a suitable commercial product..

This is a good year for conservation.