It goes without saying that people need a furnace to heat their homes to stay warm when temperatures begin to dip and stays very low throughout the winter. Since a furnace plays the critical role of keeping you and your family comfortable indoors, it is important to ensure that it is properly maintained.
Because a furnace is not a piece of equipment that you clean every day or every week, many people tend to overlook the fact that it requires cleaning at least once a year. The fact that a furnace is not used throughout the year contributes significantly to this notion. During summer, a furnace remains dormant and only begins to generate warm air during fall.
Over the period when it remains inactive, the furnace can develop mechanical problems that can cause it to become ineffective the next time it is required. As such, there are several reasons why you should clean your furnace at least once a year – here are 7 of them:
01. Prolongs the Life Span of your Furnace
Just like a car lasts longer when oil changes are done regularly, the life of furnace is extended when it receives a thorough cleanup and fixing at least once a year. When you clean your furnace, you remove any debris that might affect its performance. This enables it to keep working longer.
02. Prevents Carbon Monoxide Leaks
To generate heat, furnaces burn fuel. The burning process should be precise for the system to work efficiently. As time goes by, your furnace may develop cracks on the flue pipes or the heat exchanger. Furnaces that have cracks can cause carbon monoxide to leak and get into the house. Such leaks endanger the lives of those who are in the house. To keep this from happening, you need to ensure that your furnace is cleaned every year.
When conducting the maintenance, a technician can inspect the site that is critical to the functioning of the furnace, such as the gas burner, valve calibration, and heat exchanger. This ensures that they are working properly. In the event the system has cracks, the technician is able to fix them immediately before any leakages can happen and expose health risks to you and your family.
03. Prevents Emergency Situations
Cleaning your furnace annually can help you avoid emergency situations. Over the summer, your furnace is virtually not in use. As fall and winter seasons set in, you need it to get back into use. If you don’t have it cleaned and serviced during the summer, you may find yourself in a situation where you need it repaired urgently. Besides cleaning and replacing the filter to keep the furnace working efficiently, annual furnace cleaning Ithaca NY ensures that potential issues are identified, and fixed before they become major issues that require repair.
04. Keeps the Air Flowing Well
For the furnace to run properly, it should have sufficient air flowing through it. If there are restrictions to the flow of air, the furnace experiences strain that could result in a need for repairs and even reduce the lifespan of the furnace. This is why checking the furnace system for airflow is critical. This is done as part of the annual furnace cleaning. Besides cracks and possible gas leakage, furnace technicians inspect the heating system in your furnace to determine whether air is flowing well.
05. Makes the Furnace More Energy Efficient
Everyone wants a furnace that works efficiently at a lower cost, but the energy used to heat your home can constitute up to 50% of an energy bill. Cleaning the furnace at least once a year is one way of keeping that bill low. During the cleaning process, the furnace heat exchanger and burner are inspected, and filters are cleaned to ensure they operate well. This ensures that the furnace runs efficiently, which reduces the amount of energy that the furnace consumes. It is estimated that maintaining a furnace regularly can reduce energy bills by up to 30%.
06. Keeps your Warranty Active
During the time when your manufacturer’s warranty for your furnace is still valid, you need to ensure that the furnace is cleaned up annually. In most instances, manufacturers state expressly that if the furnace is not maintained on a regular basis, the warranty becomes void. Having your furnace cleaned and inspected at least once a year enables you to comply with this requirement, ensuring that your warranty stays active.
07. Guarantees you of a warm winter
Checking your furnace’s condition ahead of winter can save you a lot of problems. Enduring winter’s freezing temperatures through the night because of a dysfunctional furnace is not something you want to do. To prevent this, have your furnace inspected each year ahead of fall and winter seasons.
Doing so enables you to resolve any problems, and if there is something seriously wrong with the furnace, you’ll be able to replace it ahead of time. A properly maintained furnace works efficiently throughout the winter season, guaranteeing you and your family stay warm and safe.
Bottom Line
Cleaning your furnace may seem like something that is of no importance. But, if you think of what could go wrong, you realize that it is an exercise that does not just save you money, it could save lives too. Having your furnace inspected and cleaned at least once a year offers numerous benefits to you and your family. When you take good care of your furnace, it will return the favour by keeping your home warm when everything goes cold.
Furnace inspection and cleaning enable you to catch any faults before they get out of hand. If there are cracks or gas leaks, the technician gets to fix them for they advance to pose health risks in the home and become major repairs.
Furnace inspections keep your furnace’s performance optimal, keep your energy bills low and most importantly, helps keep your furnace working longer. The best way to have your furnace cleaned is to engage an accredited technician. This way, you are guaranteed that any issues will be fixed and that the safety of your family will not be compromised.