| Is Annual
Preventive Maintenance Of Your Heating System Really Necessary?
It is safe to say that most heating systems are not
operating at peak efficiency. That is not too
surprising when you realize that in our area, a heating
system runs about 1850 hours per year.
To put this "run time' in perspective, a car driven
for 1850 hours at 55 miles per hour would travel over
101,750 miles. Not many cars put 101,750
miles on the odometer in a single year.
Even so, no one would consider such a journey without
arranging for oil changes, lubrication, and routine
maintenance to assure the efficiency, safety, and reliability
of the vehicle.
Simply put, your heating system serves you many more
hours each year than your car and like your car needs
routine maintenance to operate efficiently, safely,
and reliably throughout its design life.
Long before your heating system breaks down, it silently
and unavoidably loses efficiency requiring more energy
and more money to keep you comfortable. Some of the
possible reasons contributing to inefficiency are:
- Inadequate air flow through the duct system.
- Dirty air filter.
- Improper burner adjustment.
- Restricted vent.
- Improper combustion air.
- Old, inefficient equipment.
- Improperly sized equipment.
- Improper refrigerant charge (heat pumps).
- Refrigerant restriction (heat pumps).
- Inadequate air flow through condenser coil (heat
pumps).
- Mismatched split system equipment.
- The list goes on and on.
In addition to inefficiency, a 15 year old furnace is
like a set of tires with 45,000 miles of wear. Tires become
worn from constant grinding and flexing over all kinds
of pavement and its relatively easy to know when tires
become dangerous and need replacing because they wear
from the outside in. Furnaces too, wear from expansion
and contraction as the burners continually go off and
on to provide the heat required. The resulting damage
to a furnace's heat exchanger can be compared
to bending a piece of metal back and forth until it
breaks. But unlike your car tires you have no way to
know how dangerous your furnace is becoming because
it wears from the inside out.
A crack or hole in the heat exchanger of your furnace
could allow deadly carbon monoxide gas to enter your
living environment. Furnaces should be tested every
year for signs of wear or damage and carbon monoxide
leaks. Operating an older, untested furnace is as dangerous
and life-threatening as taking your family out for a
drive on a set of bald tires.
Climatemakers offers the area's most comprehensive
Preventative Maintenance service available, complete
with SPECIAL SEASONAL DISCOUNTS. For specific details
of services provided OR to enter your order for Preventative
Maintenance CLICK HERE.
P.S. Do
your friends and family a favor. E-Mail them the link
below so they too can get these Buying Secrets and other
answers to their HVAC questions....They will thank you
for it!
www.climatemakers.com
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