Three Ways To Prepare Your Furnace For Winter
Your furnace is the most important appliance in your home during the winter months, as it is the only one that works to make sure that the interior of your home is comfortable to live in for the entire season. As such, an improperly functioning furnace can have a huge effect on the interior of your home. Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that your furnace is in peak operating condition for when the temperature dips below freezing.
Change the Filters
Your furnace's air filter, as the name would suggest, works to filter out dust and other airborne contaminants from your furnace's air supply. A filter that hasn't been cleaned in a while and is clogged with debris will reduce the amount of air that your furnace is able to circulate, causing it to work harder to provide the same amount of heat to your home. A completely blocked air filter will prevent your furnace from working at all. Replacing a filter is easy: most can be simply removed from the housing in your furnace by hand, though some may require a screwdriver, and a replacement filter can be slid into place. If you don't have replacements at home, take the dirty filter into a hardware store to find a replacement of the required size.
Uncover Vents
Another way to ensure that your furnace has proper airflow for the start of the winter is to make sure that your vents are completely uncluttered and free of debris. Make sure that vents and registers are not covered by carpets or choked full of dust. In a similar vein, even if your air vents are clear of a blockage or debris but the air flow is still weak or non-existent, you may want to have your ductwork professionally cleaned to remove blockages of dust and other debris which can build up over time.
Set the Thermostat
Finally, the most important thing that you can do to keep your energy bills throughout the winter is to set your thermostat to lower the temperature in your home during the night and while you are at work, and to kick in about a half hour before you get home or wake up in the morning. This reduces the overall amount of use that your furnace will see throughout the winter season without affecting your comfort levels. Alternatively, if you don't have a programmable thermostat installed in your home already, you may want to consider contacting a HVAC professional, such as from Boyers R S Heating & Air Conditioning Inc ,
about installing one.