If you have an older heating system and you are unsure of the proper maintenance procedures you should be following, let's first take a look at the various types of heating systems and their different maintenance requirements. First, lets start by identifying the actual name of the type of heat you have. A furnace is a heating device that consists of duct work and blows air. A boiler is a hydronic heating appliance that uses steam or water to heat your home through baseboard or radiators. If you have a furnace, then there is also a good chance you have air conditioning. If this is the case you need to change your furnace filter every heating season, and cooling season. This filter is located next to the furnace, or inside a return air grill usually centrally located in the home. The best kind of filter is the cheap kind that is usually priced at around 1-2 dollars and comes by the case at your local hardware store. These filters allow for maximum air flow and will not get clogged as fast as the 10 dollar filters that are woven so tight they get clogged very quickly. The furnace filter that's 1 inch wide is only to protect the furnace or a/c system from dirt and contamination. In order to get real health benefits from an air filter it needs to capture particles that are smaller than these filters are capable of capturing. An example of a filter that is capable of this kind of health benefit is a 4 inch thick filter or an electronic air cleaner. The 4 inch variety is capable of higher levels of filtration without the bad pressure drop due to it's pleated design and large surface area. These are rated by how well they perform by what is known as the MERV rating. Electronic air cleaners use particle attraction through electron attraction and ionization and are the best choice for fine particulate capture. These filters can capture particles as small as a virus and are actually used to treat air in critical settings such as hospitals and computer chip manufacturing plants.
Now that we covered basic filter replacement on warm air furnaces, what other furnace maintenance procedures are there that a home owner might need to perform to stay safe and warm this winter. Well, the second issue were going to discuss here is the issue of batteries (yes batteries). Your thermostat will not work in 99% of homes without batteries that have been replaced some time in the last year. If you have a screen that displays an led with time and temperature, then you will invariably have no heat some day if you fail to change the batteries in your thermostat. Most people take for granted the fact that the thermostat doesn't get power from the furnace, and infarct runs on its own self fed power supply (not in commercial thermostats), and simply imagine the lack of heat can't be from something as simple as the batteries in their thermostat, yet every year we respond to at least 10-15 such calls.
Another simple thing that is very much a part of the yearly routine for heating professionals at tune up calls, but seems to elude home owners is the importance of carbon monoxide detectors. I remember last year we came into a wealthy mans home in Andover and discovered such a spike in carbon monoxide from the furnace that we immediately evacuated the house. Later on we were told of the youngest daughters weekly boughs with bloody noses and headaches. We immediately replaced the bad equipment and the little girls symptoms cleared up. This is a tradgity that is so avoidable, yet proves fatal in some community almost every year. I can not stress it enough, if you care about your family, get carbon monoxide detectors installed immediately if you don't have them already. Change the batteries often, and always treat the alarm as if it were a real emergency and evacuate your home. Carbon monoxide is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Not all CO poisoning comes from old equipment either. A blockage in the chimney from a tree branch or a critter looking for warmth can cause even a newer system to make this silent killer creep into your home unless you are protected.
In our next article, we are going to cover the fundamentals of hydronic heat maintenance from a homeowners stand point. We encourage all our customers to have a trained professional inspect their heating system every year and not to skip the yearly maintenance only a licensed technician can provide. However these steps mentioned here, can help to eliminate the most serious problems associated with heating systems, and all home owners should have a basic knowledge of the equipment responsible for keeping their family comfortable in the cold winter months. Please call us if you feel as though you need to address any issues covered in this article, and we will gladly help you find a solution to the issue. We cover the greater Boston area, south shore, metro area and north shore with heating service and installation services 24 hours a day. We pride ourselves on our value and integrity, and hope this information has helped make you a more informed home owner. If you need service or yearly maintenance, please call us at 617-304-2308
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