Winters can be harsh in some cold regions, so having a furnace at home is ideal. It can significantly keep your indoor temperature warm and ensure you don’t feel uncomfortable inside your house. But before you fire up your furnace, you should consider a few things first. For one, you need to understand how your heating equipment works and ensure it’s in excellent condition before the cold season starts.
Things To Consider Before Winter
You may think you need to operate your furnace non-stop to ensure your house is warm throughout winter. However, doing so may only cause it to malfunction or stop altogether. Hence, you should know how to maintain and operate your heating system so that it can keep your place cozy during the cold season.
For one, you need to inspect your furnace before the seasons change to ensure it doesn’t have any broken or old parts. If you haven’t done an equipment inspection for a while, you may need to replace some parts if it’s too old or prevent your heating system from working efficiently. If you need a furnace technician to inspect your machine, you can visit websites like https://www.dmselectservices.com/capon-bridge/. You should let experts work on your furnace if you’re not familiar with it to ensure that the repair will be done well.
Additionally, you should check whether the following parts are in good condition:
- Vents and drain system
- Furnace blower
- Electric wires
How To Prepare For The Cold Season
Once your furnace is working, it may be a great idea to test it first. You need to check whether it’s capable of heating your entire home. Furthermore, you need to inspect any problems like blocked vents or dirty filters. These aspects can affect how well your furnace will work, so it’s crucial to fix them as well.
Furthermore, you need to check your indoor temperature with the furnace fired up. In some cases, your heating system may only seem to work but not produce enough heat to maintain a suitable indoor temperature. If this happens, you may feel cold inside your home. Hence, it’s best to test your equipment to see whether it’ll work properly once winter starts.
Should My Furnace Run Constantly?
It’s advisable not to run your furnace non-stop as this can overwork your equipment. Some furnaces have cycles that run between three to eight times per hour. If your area isn’t extremely cold, the cycle frequency of your heating system is sufficient to keep your house warm. Once the desired indoor temperature is achieved, some furnace systems will signal itself to stop blowing hot air into a room. Hence, you shouldn’t be alarmed or worried if your heating system seems to stop working periodically.
Alternately, if you live in a cold region, you may have no choice but to turn on your furnace more frequently. If your heating system isn’t enough to keep you cozy, using a secondary heat source like a propane fireplace may be a great idea. Also, you can dress warmly inside your home, so that you won’t feel too cold.
Does My Furnace Model Matter?
The level of comfort you’ll experience during the colder season may be affected by the type of furnace you have installed. For instance, if you own a single-stage furnace, you may encounter uneven heating in your home since this type of equipment can’t be adjusted.
It works by pushing warm air into a room at the highest setting until the desired temperature is achieved. It will then start its cycle again whenever your indoor condition gets too cold. Since you can’t adjust its settings, you may experience temporary warmth between cycles. Furthermore, this type of furnace can be noisy and use too much energy.
On the other hand, two-stage furnaces have two settings that let you choose whether you want it to work at full or reduced capacity. If you live in a moderately cold climate, the lower setting is enough to keep you warm. However, full burner power may be needed for extremely cold areas. Overall, this type of furnace provides you with more options as you can change its settings depending on your needs. Additionally, it’s more energy-efficient and silent.
Final Thoughts
Harsh winters can be challenging to endure without a proper heat source in your home. So, before the cold season starts, it may be a great idea to check up on your furnace and ensure it’s in great shape. Furthermore, you should know how to operate and maintain it, so that you won’t encounter any problem once the seasons change.
