It may seem like it’s way too early to even think about our heaters. After all, this past week was in the mid-high 80s! Yet, there is no denying that once October hits, it’s pretty clear that cooler temps are here to stay. When that happens, you want to ensure you have a fully effective and highly efficient heating system to keep your household warm, comfortable, healthy, and safe.
We usually recommend that folks schedule this important heating service in the Fall, before they need their systems the most. The key here is consistency–we would like to see you scheduling your furnace or heat pump maintenance every year or every 6 months, respectively. Yes, it’s best to schedule your heater maintenance when temps are still on the warmer side, but it’s better to have it done routinely than not at all! Wondering why? Read on!
1) Improve Heater Safety
Safety should be your number one priority when you have a gas-powered heating system. Using a gas-powered furnace isn’t automatically a dangerous thing, especially since today’s furnaces have a number of safeguards. However, there will always be a potential for hazard with a gas heater.
Without routine maintenance inspections, you could have a cracked heat exchanger or some other problem causing a gas leak, and not know about it until it’s made your household ill or caused a fire.
2) Prevent Big Repair Needs
Maintenance can actually help prevent up to 85% of the potential repair needs your heater may ever need in its lifetime. Sure, you’ll still need a repair here or there thanks to natural wear and tear.
But taking care of smaller repair needs directly following your maintenance appointments will help you avoid bigger emergencies, such as a total system breakdown.
3) Boost Heating Efficiency
Furnace systems all have an AFUE rating. AFUE stands for Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency, and the higher AFUE percentage your heater has, the more of its natural gas supply the furnace converts into heat, and the less is lost through exhaust.
However, efficiency declines due to wear and tear. Add that to skipping maintenance and you could really crank up those utility bills! For every year a furnace misses maintenance, it’s estimated that it loses about 5% of its efficiency. This decline isn’t just exclusive to gas-powered systems either–electric furnaces and heat pumps suffer too if you skip maintenance.
4) Prolong Equipment Life
Wouldn’t it be nice if heaters could last forever? Of course, this isn’t the case, but you can help yours last longer. During maintenance, our technicians thoroughly inspect, adjust, and clean your heating system. This all helps it to perform more effectively and efficiently, and helps you avoid sudden breakdowns as we mentioned above.
Without this important service, your furnace or heat pump system will succumb to wear and tear much faster. While the average heater should last around 15 years, a heater that never receives maintenance will be lucky to make it to 9 or 10 years.
Call the friendly staff at Boehmer Heating & Cooling for exceptional customer service and reliable heater service in Pittsburgh, PA!