If it’s sweltering outside, the last thing you have in mind is cranking up the furnace. But cooler temperatures are not far away. It’s time to schedule a heating season combustion adjustment, professional cleaning and safety check.
An annual heating system “tune-up” is one of the best home maintenance investments you can make. Homeowners who neglect it tend to pay the following penalties:
- Fuel bills rise as much as 10-15% as a result of inefficient equipment operation. It’s like having a fireplace that burns money. Our service technicians will perform a variety of tests to measure the combustion efficiency of your system both before and after tuning it up.
- Accelerated equipment wear. Annual maintenance extends equipment life as much as 5-10 years for your furnace.
- Our long experience tells us that about 75% of all HVAC system repairs we do could have been avoided with regular maintenance. Repairs cost a lot more than maintenance, and breakdowns never happen at a convenient time.
- Most important, annual heating inspections can save your life and those of your loved ones. Small cracks in a heat exchanger or problems with the flue system could allow deadly carbon monoxide gas to seep into your home. Dozens of people in the U.S. lose their lives each year to these tragedies. Our trained service technicians know how to spot danger signs in the system.
Modern HVAC systems are very sophisticated. Our well-equipped service technicians have an array of electronic measuring devices and tools to properly service these units. You can trust their professionalism and experience to do the job right.
While heating inspections can be done at any time, early fall is the most popular time for most home owners to schedule these visits. Many of our clients have their fall heating inspection done as part of an annual service agreement. They receive priority in scheduling and discount pricing for any repairs not covered by the agreement. A service agreement also is a good way to ensure you don’t forget about scheduling heating system maintenance. We’ll remind you. If you are not on our list, give us a call to ask how you can be included.
Beyond a certain point even the best maintenance cannot save an antiquated system. Efficiency improvements over the last few decades have been so dramatic that if your furnace is more than 20 years old, it’s quite possible that it would make economic sense to replace your present system even if it is still operating okay. Ask our service technician to perform an energy audit of your home to see how many years of energy savings it would take to pay back the initial cost of a new installation.
Also ask about low-cost energy efficiency improvements that can be obtained from devices such as automatic flue dampers and programmable setback thermostats or internet compatible thermostats.