You will need your furnace to be in good working condition before winter arrives. If you neglected to have it repaired or serviced in the summer, there is no need to worry because there is still time to call in a professional. Since your furnace may have suffered a lot of wear and tear during the past winter and accumulated a lot of dust and dirt in the summer (when it was left idle), it may require cleaning, repair and maintenance work.
Here are 4 fall furnace maintenance tips to get you started.
- Check for signs of damage: Start your furnace and keep it running for some time. Listen to the sound it makes for anything unusual. Feel the hot air coming out of to see if it is producing heat efficiently. Check the fuel or energy consumption rate and if you find any problems, make note of them.
- Have your furnace cleaned: The furnace has likely been left unused and practically unattended for the whole summer. It may have accumulated a lot of dust, dirt and other particles that can lower its efficiency and even damage components. Call your furnace service provider, who will clean the furnace and remove all the dust, dirt, and debris from it so it is running at maximum efficiency.
- Check the thermostat: The thermostat senses the ambient temperature in your home and controls the amount of heat that will be produced. Therefore, it is very important for it to function flawlessly. Have a service professional check the thermostat to see whether it is giving the correct room temperature or not. If it is not giving an accurate temperature or failing to activate the response systems, you may have to have a new thermostat installed.
- Hire the right furnace expert: After you have determined that your furnace needs repair and maintenance, hire a good and reliable contractor. Before hiring the contractor, ask your friends and neighbours for advice and do some research on the internet. Find a trained and certified expert with many years of experience. Check with the local office of the Better Business Bureau to find out if the contractor is good one and ask the contractor to give you an estimate of costs and the details of repair and replacement needed.
The goal is to have your furnace ready for winter so that you won’t have to make frantic calls to an HVAC contractor on the first day it begins to snow. You should have your furnace ready for winter well before the end of the fall because you can never tell when the first cold front will happen. If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, then you can call Laird & Son whose furnace maintenance experts have all the solutions to your problems.