The cold weather hasn’t fully loosened its grip on us yet—but this week is the first official week of spring, and that means it’s planning time. And not just for doing your taxes. This is when we recommend you start preparing your HVAC system for spring weather and the hot weather of summer coming right after it.
Here are a few steps to take so your HVAC system is ready to spring into spring:
Spring is almost here. At least “officially,” since there’s no guarantee a cold snap won’t strike Indiana during April. But spring is still a time when people begin making plans for the middle of the year and the change in weather as we emerge from under the thumb of winter. The term “spring cleaning” now simply means all the planning that goes into the season. Part of that planning may be upgrading the HVAC system in your house.
Past mid-February isn’t the end of winter, even with March around the corner. March is a notoriously unpredictable month—so much so people can’t even keep straight whether the saying is “March enters like a lamb and leaves like a lion” or “March enters like a lion and leaves like a lamb.”
So even with some occasionally warmer days popping up in the future, you shouldn’t let slide the care of your home’s furnace. If you think you need furnace repair in Plymouth, IN or elsewhere in our service area, don’t hesitate to call. You never know how much longer you need to your furnace working.
Here’s some of the warnings to look for that will tell you to call for our help to repair your furnace.
EMERGENCY! It’s a cold winter day or night in Indiana, and you have your furnace running. Or maybe a heat pump or boiler. Then suddenly—nothing. The heater stops working and a chill settles over your home. You might feel panic creeping up your spine, and who could blame you? This is one of those winter nightmares homeowners hope never happens to them.
There’s no reason to panic. There’s reason to be concerned, but if you take the right steps, you and your family should make it through all right and have the heating restored in no time.
When people are shopping for heating systems to install in a new house, one of the points of comparison they make between different models is their estimated service life. In this column, the boiler has a large advantage over the gas furnace, electric furnace, or heat pump. A boiler usually outlasts any of these other heaters.
But a boiler can’t run forever. Once you’ve gotten a good number of years of warmth from your home’s boiler and it’s more than repaid its initial investment, you should consider having it replaced. There are a number of ways to tell that you have a boiler that’s ready for a retirement; we recommend you call on HVAC professionals to help you with the choice if you’re uncertain if your boiler can go for a few more years or not.
More than 64 million homes in the U.S. use natural gas to supply them with heat during cold weather, and most of these homes use a furnace for the job. It’s not surprise that gas furnaces remain the #1 option for winter comfort: they can deliver high levels of heat and deliver them fast—all without putting a huge drain on a household’s budget. But when serious furnace problems arise, knowing how to handle urgent furnace heating breakdowns can help keep your home safer until professionals arrive.
Using natural gas, however, brings with it a few cautions. Although gas furnaces are constructed to be as safe as possible, there are potential hazards they can run into. The most concerning one is the cracked heat exchanger. When this happens, can the problem be repaired? Or is it time for a new furnace installation altogether?
Heating repair may not be enough when a furnace has a cracked heat exchanger. Homeowners should consider replacement when:
In most cases, replacing the furnace is the safer long-term option. A licensed HVAC technician can inspect the heat exchanger, explain the safety risk, and recommend the right heating repair or replacement option.
Furnaces are the top type of heating system in the country. The majority of furnaces use natural gas to create heat, although they draw on electricity to power the blower fan and the ignition system. (Which means that, sorry, your gas furnace won’t work during a power outage.)
Since not all homes are connected to a gas main, the second most common type of furnace is the electric furnace. Because electricity costs more than natural gas, electric furnaces are more expensive to run. This is somewhat offset by their lower initial installation costs, longer lifespans, and fewer repair needs.
Last winter we posted some steps to take to make sure your home’s natural gas furnace runs as safely as possible over the cold months. We’d like to run through a quick reminder of these steps before we talk a bit more about furnaces, safety, and you:
Whenever we bring up tips for gas furnace safety, we want to reassure homeowners that a furnace is not an automatically dangerous appliance. Modern furnaces are manufactured to high safety standards, and they include many precautions to prevent problems such as carbon monoxide leaks and combustion hazards. For example, the furnace limit switch will shut the system off if the temperature inside rises too high. If you purchase a furnace with the ENERGY STAR label, you’ll know you have a heating system that meets rigorous safety qualifications. (ENERGY STAR is about more than energy efficiency!)
Winter can be festive and beautiful. It can also be aggravating, uncomfortable, and filled with flus and colds. There are ways you can prepare to keep sickness away from your household during the coming flu season, such as arranging to have flu shots. But you may not have considered indoor air quality installations as one of the best weapons against the spread of germs and viruses in your house. The proper installation of air purifiers (as well as air filters) will improve health in your house and alleviate issues for asthma and allergy sufferers. Contact us for an air purifier in Syracuse, IN, and we’ll help you find the right IAQ options for your house.
The fireplace is the oldest type of heating system that’s still in use. Fireplaces developed in the Middle Ages inside drafty castles because they allowed for the better direction of heat than the large central fires that buildings once used. The fireplace also created radiant heat of the bricks and stones around them, adding further warmth to a space.
Today, we keep our homes warm with forced-air and radiant heating systems like furnaces, heat pumps, and boilers. The fireplace is no longer our main source of warmth—but it certainly is a fantastic addition to the coziness and beauty of a house. If you are interested in a fireplace installation in Plymouth, IN or elsewhere in Northeastern Indiana, the place to come is our Fireplace Shoppe. We have plenty of great options to make your home more beautiful this winter and many winters to come.
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