Just moved in. What should I check on the HVAC first?

Moving boxes will wait. These five checks take about ten minutes combined, and they prevent the two most common move-in surprises: the system that fails during your first heat wave, and the frantic hardware store trip for a filter size you do not know.

1. Find the filter and save its size in your phone. It is usually behind a return grille in a hallway or ceiling, sometimes at the furnace itself. The size is printed on the frame. Put it in your notes app now, because you will be buying these for years and the aisle has forty options.

2. Replace it if you cannot see light through it. The previous owner’s last months in the house were spent packing, not changing filters. Bakersfield dust makes this the number one cause of avoidable service calls, and a clogged filter stresses both the AC and the furnace.

3. Find the HVAC breaker in the panel. Not because you need it today, but because the day you do need it will be 107 degrees and you will want to know which one it is without reading every label by phone flashlight.

4. Run both heat and cooling for ten minutes each, now. Whichever season it is, test the other one before it arrives. A furnace problem discovered in October gets fixed on a calm schedule. The same problem discovered on the first 38 degree morning joins a queue.

5. Clear two feet around the outdoor unit. Leaves, weeds, and stacked moving debris choke the condenser’s airflow, and airflow is capacity in this climate.

If anything in those ten minutes looks off, or you just want a baseline, the $89 diagnostic gives you a written read on the system’s age, condition, and remaining life. And if you only do one thing from this list, do the filter. It is always the filter.