While summer is just a couple of months away, being an Arizona resident it always seems to arrive much quicker than anticipated. In the meantime, your furnace have gotten quite a workout trying to keep homes warm as temperatures dip to record-setting levels. As thoughts turn to warmer weather, homeowners everywhere need to start thinking about the steps they will need to take when it comes time to shut down their furnaces for the summer.

Changing Filters

The filters of a furnace are perhaps the most important part when it comes to their efficiency. When furnaces are operating at peak capacity during cold weather, filters need to be changed each month. A real concern for any homeowner’s furnace should be carbon monoxide. Most of the carbon monoxide produced by gas furnaces exits through the venting, but to make sure dangerous levels of the gas do not go unnoticed a carbon monoxide detector should be installed near the furnace. This is vitally important if the furnace is older, because these models tend to produce life-threatening levels of the gas. Older furnaces are often dirty and inefficient compared to today’s newer models, so being on the lookout for the colorless and odorless killer can literally be the difference between life and death.

Safety Features

As furnaces age, they may develop problems that are undetectable to the human eye. One of the most common problems is cracks in the combustion chamber. If regular end of season maintenance is ignored by homeowners, it’s very possible dangerous levels of carbon monoxide will leak into one’s home. Most new furnaces have safety features such as shut-off valves, but older furnaces were built with few if any of these features. Other parts of a furnace that should be checked before shutting it down for the season include the pilot light, motor, bearings, heater exchange and the burner assembly. This is especially important for older furnaces, whose parts may not have been checked or replaced in recent years.

Furnace Repair vs. Furnace Replacement

Eventually the question of repairing versus replacing a furnace will arise. Because most furnaces last no more than 25 years, any older than that are almost always wasting fuel and should be replaced. Furnaces more than 20 years old operate at only about 60 percent efficiency, while newer models operate at more than 98 percent efficiency.

By paying close attention to the efficiency of one’s furnace, energy costs can be lowered substantially. End of season maintenance plays an important role in this, and having your system checked by a certified heating professional is often the smartest decision one can make. For an end of season maintenance audit of your heating system, contact the professionals at Cooper Climate Control Heating & Air Conditioning today.

– See more at: https://cooperclimatecontrol.com/2014/01/are-69-95-furnace-tune-ups-really-necessary-is-it-worth-it/