You Can Extend the Useful Lifespan of Your Furnace | Tips from Your Trusted Fort Worth, TX Heating and Air Conditioning Repair Service Provider
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One of the most important things that Fort Worth, TX residents should remember about their furnace is that their choices can have a very meaningful impact on its useful lifespan. As such, interested individuals should do their best to take care of their furnace, not least so that they can push expensive and time-consuming heating and air conditioning repair further and further into the future.
How Can You Extend the Useful Lifespan of Your Furnace?
Here are some of the ways that Fort Worth, TX residents can extend the useful lifespan of their furnace:
Get a Programmable Thermostat
Furnaces don’t have an internal clock that counts down a specific period of time before rendering them unusable. Instead, they experience wear and tear though their use that can build and build. Over time, this built-up wear and tear can start to impair the furnace’s performance at its intended task, causing it to become worse and worse until culminating in a total breakdown. Should that happen, Fort Worth, TX residents will have no choice but to pay for either heating and air conditioning repair or replacement, neither one of which can be considered a particularly attractive option under normal circumstances.
Regardless, the important part is that furnaces build up wear and tear through their use, which in turn, means that reducing their use is one of the simplest and most straightforward methods for extending their useful lifespan. However, this is a potential issue because an unused furnace is a furnace that isn’t performing its intended function. Never mind the consequences for the building occupants’ comfort level. Fortunately, there is a potential solution for interested individuals who want to delay their heating and air conditioning repair as much as possible without undermining the entire point of having a furnace in the first place.
In short, a programmable thermostat can be very helpful in this regard. Basically, programmable thermostats can put the temperature at different settings at different times of the day based on the settings that have been programmed into them. Thanks to this, they can turn off the furnace when there is no one around to enjoy the heat given off as well as turn on the furnace to ensure that the environment will always be comfortable for those who set foot within. Theoretically, a human is more than capable of providing the same results as a programmable thermostat, but it should be mentioned that the latter has a couple of critical advantages. One, a programmable thermostat can continue performing their intended task even when no one is on the site. Two, a programmable thermostat eliminates the potential for any error, which is considerable because of the sheer number of changes that have to be made on a daily basis for the best results and nothing but the best results.
As such, a programmable thermostat can be an excellent choice for those who want to delay the need for heating and air conditioning repair by as much as possible. After all, it minimizes the use of the furnace that results in built-up wear and tear. Better still, it provides this benefit without sacrificing the comfort brought about by the use of the furnace, which is no less important as a priority. Granted, programmable thermostats do have some potential issues such as a complicated installation as well as a more complicated use, but for the most part, these can be handled by the same specialists who provide heating and air conditioning repair and replacement.
Replace the Air Filter On a Regular Basis
On a related note, another suggestion would be replacing the air filter on a regular basis. In short, air filters play a very important role in furnaces by preventing dirt, debris, and other contaminants from getting into places where they shouldn’t be. However, this means that air filters can get clogged with those same contaminants very fast, meaning that people who want to delay their heating and air conditioning repair as much as possible need to keep a watchful eye on them.
After all, an air filter that has become clogged with contaminants is an air filter with much increased air resistance. This is a serious issue because more air resistance means that the furnace will have a harder time providing the same results, thus forcing it to work harder as well as work for longer periods of time. Naturally, this increases the rate at which the furnace builds up wear and tear, which in turn, speeds up the rate at which it approaches the time when it will need heating and air conditioning repair. Thanks to this, this means that a clean air filter makes for a more effective and more efficient furnace, which has some very attractive side benefits. For example, more efficient furnaces use up less energy, thus reducing the size of the energy bill while cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions in the process. Likewise, while air filters are quite good at their jobs, a clogged air filter increases the chances of dirt, dust, and other contaminants making it into the air, which can be particularly problematic for people with respiratory problems but is bad for everyone.
As for the rate at which Fort Worth, TX residents should be replacing their air filters to delay their need for heating and air conditioning repair as much as possible, that is a figure that can see significant variation. One common figure is every 90 days, which is a much faster rate than what interested individuals might have expected. However, if they are unsure about this, they shouldn’t hesitate to contact either the people who made their furnace or the people who provide them with their heating and air conditioning repair for further clarification on the topic.
Eliminate Air Leaks
Moving on, eliminating air leaks is another smart and sensible strategy for delaying the need for heating and air conditioning repair as much as possible. Here, the idea is that better insulation reduces the need for heating and air conditioning repair by reducing the need for the furnace. After all, better insulation helps buildings remain cooler in summer and warmer in winter, thus lessening the strain placed upon heating and cooling systems.
Unfortunately, the insulation of a building isn’t determined by a single thing so much as a very wide range of potential factors. For instance, some Fort Worth, TX residents might be tempted to take a look at the insulative capabilities of their walls. However, this tends to be a very expensive and time-consuming process, meaning that it doesn’t really make sense for someone who is concerned about the cost of heating and air conditioning repair and replacement. Instead, it tends to be a better idea to look at the weak points in a building’s insulation, meaning its doors, its windows, and other places where air can either enter or exit.
One option would be examining these weak points for openings that shouldn’t exist. This is possible because installations aren’t always carried out in a perfect way. Furthermore, even when installations have been carried out in a perfect way, it is possible for buildings to see changes, thus causing something that was once perfect to become no longer so. In any case, checking for openings is as simple as lighting up a candle before holding it before the relevant areas. If the flame remains steady, the situation is fine. In contrast, if the flame is flickering as though it is being moved about by wind, that suggests that there is an opening before it. Fortunately, interested individuals won’t need to do anything as complicated as calling in heating and air conditioning repair. Instead, there is a good chance that they will be able to handle it on their own with caulking as well as weather stripping.
Another option would be looking into ways to improve the insulation of doors as well as windows. Some of these solutions can come with a significant up-front cost. For instance, some doors and windows are made out of more insulative materials, meaning that the potential benefits from getting something better in this regard might be worth it in the long run. In contrast, other solutions are much simpler. Even something like installing a better-designed pair of window shades can do a great deal for a window’s insulative value because it is effectively installing a second barrier to keep the heat out during summer and keep the heat in during winter.
Get Regular Maintenance
Regular maintenance is one of the best solutions for people who want to delay the need for heating and air conditioning repair as much as possible. In part, this is because maintenance can either eliminate or mitigate some of the factors that speed up the rate at which furnaces build up wear and tear, thus pushing back the date when the build-up of wear and tear will prove to be too much. However, it should also be noted that regular maintenance gives a skilled and experienced individual to take a look at the furnace to make sure that there aren’t any issues that can turn into serious problems in the near future. By catching these issues ahead of time, they give interested individuals the chance to correct them at a much cheaper price than if they were to wait until their furnace has experienced a full breakdown, which will necessitate the full costs of heating and air conditioning repair or worse.
Of course, there is still the issue of choosing a schedule for maintenance. Generally speaking, interested individuals should be doing this on a regular basis whether they think their furnace has any problems or not. This is because there are a lot of issues that can remain undetected without a thorough inspection, which isn’t helped by the fact that furnaces tend to be out of sight and thus out of mind until something goes so wrong that interested individuals need to call in heating and air conditioning repair. However, if they aren’t sure about what kind of schedule they should be setting, they can consult the furnace manufacturer as well as other relevant sources of expertise and experience to see what they have to say on the issue.
Besides this, interested individuals should also call for maintenance whenever they notice something seriously wrong with their furnace. For example, if they see a sudden surge on their energy bill, that could be a sign that something in their building has suffered a problem that is causing it to consume more energy than before. This may or may not be their furnace, but there is definitely something wrong that they need to check out. Likewise, if Fort Worth, TX residents notice either strange sounds or strange smells coming from their furnace, they should call in someone sooner rather than later because that should be considered very suspicious. On top of this, when they notice that their furnace isn’t capable of providing them with the desired temperature in an even manner, that could be a sign that they are about to need heating and air conditioning repair sooner than what they might like.
Regardless, when interested individuals notice something wrong with their furnace, it is better for them to intervene as soon as possible rather than wait for the scheduled maintenance. This is because these issues won’t go away on their own. Instead, it is very likely that they will get worse and worse because existing faults tend to speed up the rate at which furnaces accumulate wear and tear.
Contact Us
These precautions can definitely help. However, there is ultimately a limit to what they can and cannot do. As a result, while interested individuals should do their best to extend the useful lifespan of their furnace, they should also be prepared to call One Hour Air Conditioning and Heating for repair and replacement when that proves to be necessary. Having said that, they should never do so in a hurried manner. Instead, they should feel free to ask us questions until they feel fully-informed and thus fully-confident that they can make the best choices for their particular interests.