With winter right around the corner, it is the most important time of the year to ensure your furnace is running properly. The last thing anyone wants to deal with during the freezing winter months is to have a faulty furnace. Even if your furnace is working properly, it may not be the most efficient. In recent years, advances in heating and energy technologies have made newer furnace models more highly efficient than their older counterparts. Here are a few ways to ensure your furnace is running as efficiently as possible:
Use a Smart Thermostat
Regulating temperature inside your home can be tricky. Different rooms in your home often require different temperatures in order to stay consistently warm throughout the house. A smart or programmable thermostat gives you the ability to regulate the temperature of every room in your home. By regulating the temperature of different rooms throughout your home, you can ensure your furnace only works as hard as it has to in different parts of your house.
Clean Your Air Vents
Debris build-up in your air vents could cause serious long term problems. A dirty or debris-filled air vent could cause a slowdown in efficiency, could cause you to breathe in pollution-filled air, or even cause a fire. By having a professional HVAC technician come to clean and clear your air vents, you could be saving not only time and money, you could be saving the lives of your loved ones. If you are noticing your furnace running inefficiently, it could be caused by dirty air vents.
Replace Air Filters
When your furnace’s air filters become clogged with dust and debris, it could cause many problems for your furnace and heating and cooling system. Regularly replacing your air filters is an important part of HVAC maintenance. If your furnace filters are dirty during a heating cycle it will restrict airflow, which means your furnace has a harder time pulling from your indoor air supply. Severely clogged air filters can significantly reduce the effectiveness of your HVAC system and cause it to work overtime to produce the same output. Contact a heating and cooling professional to have your air filters replaced and ensure your furnace is running at peak efficiency.
Schedule Routine Maintenance
The best way to find out if your furnace is running at peak efficiency is to have routine maintenance performed on your heating and cooling system. Receiving maintenance on your HVAC system ensures the system is taken care of and always ready to use. If you receive maintenance from an experienced and licensed professional, you can be sure they cover most of the basics of maintenance. A professional HVAC technician will inspect, diagnose, and replace the issues in your system that are causing your furnace to run inefficiently. Many HVAC problems are not visible to the untrained eye. Having a professional and experienced technician ensures your system always runs smoothly.
Differences in Furnace Inefficiency
If you are experiencing any of the above problems, yet your HVAC professional does not find any issues with your furnace or heating and cooling system, you may have an under-efficient furnace. Many older models of furnaces were created with a lower threshold for efficiency. A standard-efficiency furnace provides 80% annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE). In these furnaces, 20% of the energy produced is expelled as exhaust. Higher-efficiency furnaces provide over 90% AFUE.
However, just because a furnace operates at a higher efficiency, it may not be the right furnace for you. 80% furnaces use open combustion to generate energy from natural gas while 90%+ furnaces use sealed combustion. Lower efficiency furnaces are better compatible with many styles of homes that already contain vented spaces. If you tried to install a high-efficiency furnace in a home without vented spaces, your HVAC professional will have to create a pathway for combustion air to enter the unit. Because of this, high-efficiency units could be drastically more expensive.
How To Know Which Option Is Right For You
A professional and knowledgeable HVAC technician can inspect and review your furnace and heating and cooling system to ensure it is running at peak efficiency. They will ensure you have the proper model for your home and that everything is running the way it should.
If you contact the experienced, friendly, and professionals at Home Comfort Experts, they will perform their signature 20-point maintenance and safety inspection. This in-depth inspection goes further than any competitor to ensure every single part of your system is thoroughly inspected and serviced. Ask about joining the Comfort Club, Home Comfort Expert’s exclusive membership that guarantees appointments and provides valuable free services and discounts on repairs.
Contact the heating and cooling professionals at Home Comfort Experts today to learn about the ways we can help you. We serve Northern Indiana and Southwestern Michigan from our 12 locations. Give us a call at (574) 255-4600 to learn about our full complement of heating, cooling and plumbing services.