When we were growing up, our home had an electric furnace, and my father actively took care of it by changing the filter and duct sealing.
The HVAC duct, in my view, was the least complicated part.
We, however, left the air conditioning tune-up to the cooling specialist. It was our bonding time when he was not busy with work. I finally moved out and was living on my own. I continued with our routine, and I had been doing it long enough with my father that even now that we are not living in the same house, I could do it independently. However, I minimized the amount of DIY fixes I did on my ductless heat pump and called the cooling expert in case something was wrong to maintain indoor air quality. My parents had long upgraded to a dual fuel system with a zone control system. On the other hand, I had contacted a new contractor to install new air conditioning equipment. Now I have a mini-split air conditioner. One Saturday afternoon, I embarked on my usual HVAC care. The first thing was to switch off the unit. I then cleaned and changed the air filters because they were due. I cleaned the unit’s coil and condenser to prevent my system from having any issues before it was time to have the new contractor do the biannual service. Since our installation no longer included ductwork, my father and I discussed how our different temperature control systems work every once in a while. Other than resetting the thermostat, there was little we could do. It was always a good conversation starter between the two of us.