Well, here we are on Labor Day already! The long, hot days of summer are just about gone, and chances are you haven’t quite fired up your furnace since late spring. It’s still warm enough to require air conditioning from time to time, but that doesn’t mean it’s too soon to perform a pre-season furnace clean and check.
It’s a good idea to get your furnace tuned up before you ever use it for the first time each year. This is the absolutely best way to minimize problems that can crop up later in the midst of our frigid central Ohio winters. Those problems can include paying a small fortune to the local gas or electric utility, having a furnace fail or not able to keep up with the cold, or even spring a dangerous carbon monoxide leak.
It doesn’t matter if you’re in Newark, Columbus, Westerville, Dublin, Grove City, Reynoldsburg, Zanesville or all points in between, we usually have a couple of months of pretty severe winter weather in the area. And you don’t want to get caught unprepared when those cold temperatures hit.
Just be thankful we’re not in Fargo, North Dakota, or Minnesota! Temperatures here don’t get quite as low as those spots in the great white north, but when your furnace fails in the middle of a 20-degree day, your body (and your family) really can’t tell the difference.
When those temperatures do hit, we want to be sure that the heating equipment in your home is ready. That’s the purpose of a pre-season check-up, to be sure you are ready. Believe me, the time to deal with a furnace issue is NOT after it’s failed. Because if YOURS is failing, you can be sure a number of other who failed to maintain their systems will be calling us as well.
Pre-Season Furnace Cleaning and Check Keeps Your Family Safe
Safety is one of the top reasons to have a professional HVAC contractor perform a pre-season furnace and check. A furnace must be correctly maintained to run efficiently; but maintenance is also a major safety issue. A furnace that’s not properly maintained can cause health problems, including breathing issues (for people with allergies or asthma). But an unsafe furnace can leak carbon monoxide into your home and cause serious health issues or death.
One of the most common trouble areas in a gas fired furnace is the heat exchanger. Heat exchangers are an airtight barrier between the combustion side of the furnace and the house side, where the warm air moves into the ductwork to heat the house. They serve an important function of transferring the heat while insulating the occupants of the home from the dangerous gasses produced by the combustion of fossil fuels.
In homes with older furnaces, an issue that surfaces is a cracked heat exchanger that can release dangerous carbon monoxide gas into the home. The crack allows those combustion gasses to pass into the living space of the home.
Carbon monoxide poisoning can cause anything from dizziness and nausea to loss of consciousness and eventually death. You won’t know the gas is there unless your home has a CO detector. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can cause severe injury or death and shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Our certified HVAC service technicians inspect your heat exchanger as part of the pre-season furnace check. The heat exchanger is located inside the furnace where the average homeowner can’t see it, or get at it without disassembly of the unit; he or she may also not have the proper equipment to check for leaks. This is why having the routine annual inspection is so important.
As your furnace burns fuel, it leaves carbon deposits inside. In addition, the furnace can collect dust, dirt and contaminants that can leave a fine layer of dust on every flat surface of your home. If you find the need to dust frequently, it may be because your furnace is dirty.
Other types of contaminants that can build up in your heating and cooling system include dust mites, bacteria, pollen, and even mold sports. In the winter, we tend to keep our windows tightly closed, so these contaminants get trapped in the home and build up over time. If you have a family member with allergies or asthma, they can contribute to an allergic reaction.
Energy Efficiency is Improved by a Furnace Tune-Up
Why do we do routine maintenance on mechanical devices, like an oil change for your car? Because it allows the machinery to run more efficiently, of course! When it runs more efficiently, it uses less energy and reduces utility bills.
A typical gas-fired furnace has a multitude of working parts: blower motors, belts, filters, burners, gas valves, heat exchangers – and each of these parts can affect how well the machine runs. When the furnace isn’t running very well, it burns through more fuel (and more of your cash).
A worn out or broken part can handicap the system and require it to use more energy. Something as simple as a dirty air filter can cause the heating equipment to work hard to push air through the system. And an overworked system is going to fail sooner.
A thorough pre-season furnace clean and check can eliminate this before it happens. Our certified HVAC service technicians ensure each component in your system is working in peak condition. He or she may recommend replacing a worn out part, or a part that may fail under the load of the heating system during the upcoming winter season. Remember, a minor adjustment or replacement now can help the system run more efficiently and use less energy.
A Pre-Season Heating Equipment Check-Out Can Save You Money
Did we mention a more efficient heating system can save you money on your energy bill in the winter? The nominal cost of a pre-season heater tune-up can pay for itself many times over, particularly preventing a breakdown during the time when you need it the most. And what’s the value of having a furnace working, keeping your family warm and comfortable, on the coldest nights of the year?
Why would we be talking about furnaces on Labor Day? It’s traditionally the last day of the summer season in central Ohio, with kids already back in school, vacations over, and everyone getting back to business. And even though we will may still have a few more weeks of 80- and 90-degree days, most people aren’t worried about their air conditioners, meaning HVAC contractors are just not that busy. Dor-Mar Heating and Air Conditioning is no exception.
In central Ohio, we know the temperatures can change overnight, and we might even see freezing temperatures in the area some October nights. We try to take advantage of the relatively mild temperatures during September to service our large customer base before the cooling season actually begins. The simple laws of supply and demand suggest that the best time to have a service performed is when it’s in high supply and low demand – a perfect description of the fall season in the HVAC industry!
Dor-Mar to the Rescue!
Schedule an appointment for HVAC system troubleshooting or maintenance with us today by using our online contact form, or call one of our seven neighborhood offices listed below. We pride ourselves on our customer-focused service, and our reviews show it.
NEWARK 740.345.6639 • COLUMBUS 614.238.6689 • DUBLIN 614.545.8939 • REYNOLDSBURG 614.365.1579 • WESTERVILLE 614.381.1540 • GROVE CITY 614.595.3098 • ZANESVILLE 740.454.2420
Dor-Mar…Your Climate Hero!
*Please note: neither the Centers for Disease Control(CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), nor the manufacturer of our UV-C Devices have officially announced whether UV-C kills the current strain of Corona Virus (COVID-19). We urge you to err on the side of caution until we have a definitive answer, and take other measures to prevent the acquisition or spread of this virus.
