Planning For Better Furnace Performance And Efficiency During Winter
Keeping your furnace well maintained and at peak performance is crucial to reducing your heating costs this winter. The furnace system that keeps your home warm can consume a huge amount of energy, even close to about 70 percent of your home's energy consumption during colder months, so it is important to tune it up so as to ease up its energy consumption as much as possible. Here are a few tips that can help you plan for better furnace efficiency this winter.
Schedule a seasonal tune-up
To avoid the dire situation of having your furnace break down when you most need it, it is important to prepare it for the winter by scheduling annual maintenance before the cold sets in. Important components should be checked for malfunctions and inefficiencies since they directly influence the performance of the heating unit.
A combustion efficiency test performed by a certified HVAC technician can reveal problems with how your gas or propane fired furnace burns fuel so that improvements can be made to ensure maximum efficiency. Controls should also be reset for optimum air temperature while soot and dirt should be removed from the chimney and main duct while any faulty ducts should be sealed to reduce air pollution and loss of heat as hot air circulates through the house.
Nudge your thermostat settings
Planning your thermostat settings for the winter is essential to maintaining favorable indoor temperatures as well as reducing energy consumption. If possible, invest in a programmable thermostat that you can pre-set around your schedule. For instance, identify times during the winter months when the house is empty and set the thermostat for lower heating during those periods.
A heating technician can help you set the controls on your thermostat to optimize heating when needed and turn it down when heating requirements are low like during bed time. You can then manually override the thermostat settings according to your needs.
Change the air filters periodically
The air filters in your furnace affect the quality of breathing air in your home as well as the distribution of hot air around the home. Dirty filters will let in soot and smoke into the home which can cause a health hazard, while the energy efficiency of the heating unit will also be affected. To avoid this, schedule monthly air filter changes during winter.
Regular furnace maintenance can prevent breakdowns caused by extreme weather, ensuring that your home remains warm and cozy throughout winter and your utility-bill woes are eliminated. If you are not satisfied with the performance of your current heating system, talk to a heating contractor about scheduling a furnace replacement and replacing your old system with a modern, more efficient furnace.
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