You need central heating in Lockport, IL—there’s no way around it. Portable heaters are a hassle, and they won’t protect your pipes or, of course, keep the whole house warm as you deserve. However, you may not need to be using your central heating as much as you are right now.
That doesn’t mean you should shut it off altogether. It just means taking the right steps to reduce usage, whether that’s moderating temperatures or watching the way it’s maintained. Here’s how you may currently be overworking your furnace.
You manually adjust temperatures frequently
When it gets too cold, you turn the thermostat up, and when it’s hotter than you’d like, you lower temperatures or shut the furnace off. This may seem logical and like an efficient way to run the furnace only when you need it, but this simply isn’t the case.
Your furnace is designed to run in efficient, balanced cycles in order to keep temperatures just where they need to be. When you manually turn the thermostat on and off, you wear down the components quickly. Rather than turn the furnace up high and then lowering temperatures dramatically, it makes more sense to find a reasonable temperature and keep it there, letting the furnace run in its usual cycles.
You don’t change the air filter
Neglecting to change the air filter might not seem like a big deal to you, especially if you don’t have active allergies. But it’s not just there to clean the air. A dirty filter can actually harm a furnace (or air conditioner) because it blocks the flow of air through the system.
The blower fan has to work harder to try to suck in air through a dirty and clogged filter. Parts wear down, but what’s worse is that your furnace can overheat and shut off completely.
You don’t use a programmable or smart thermostat
Older thermostats tend to work just fine even with some brand new equipment. Many people don’t upgrade their thermostats when they replace a heating system, but we think this is a mistake. The wrong thermostat can easily overwork your furnace—even if it’s working just fine.
You’ve probably left the heat on high by accident before leaving the home many a time. But a smart thermostat helps you prevent this. If you need to make an adjustment after you’ve left the home, all you have to do is open up an app on your smartphone.
You shut the vents
When you shut a vent in an unoccupied room in the home, you might think you are saving energy. After all, no one is using the room, and it only makes sense to keep from paying for that extra heat. However, closing the vent actually creates more work for your heater.
A furnace is designed and sized specifically to heat the amount of space in your home. Closing off space can lead to overheating or short cycling as the furnace may have to start and stop more often than it is meant to.
You can count on Johansen & Anderson Inc. for all your heating needs.