Whether you look forward to the stark beauty of a snowy landscape or you’re already counting down the days until spring, preparing your heating system for winter is key. It doesn’t matter whether you love winter or hate it; you need your furnace to keep your home warm and comfortable.
Learn more about the key steps you should take to make sure your furnace is ready to perform in top condition.
Perform Furnace Maintenance
Furnace maintenance involves taking several steps to keep your system running in top condition all winter long.
Replace the Furnace Filter
You should change your furnace’s air filter at least every three months and before the heating season starts. A clogged furnace doesn’t allow maximum heated air flow through the system.
Check the Vents
After replacing the air filter, one of the key steps for preparing your furnace or heat pump for winter is ensuring maximum air movement into and out of the HVAC system. Walk around your home and look at the vents. Move any items that are blocking either the supply or return air vents.
Clear the Space Around the Furnace
If you stacked boxes and other items around the furnace all summer, now is the time to move them to a new location. Storing items near the furnace while it’s running increases the risk of fire.
Clean the Interior of the Unit
The interior of the furnace and heat exchanger accumulate dust, dirt, and grime throughout the year. Removing these particles allows the moving parts inside the furnace to operate freely, ensuring maximum performance efficiency when preparing your heating system for winter.
The blower motor and other parts contain bearings that may need lubrication, too.
Test the Performance
Turn on the furnace or heat pump and make sure it delivers warm air as expected. If you hear odd noises or if the heater doesn’t seem to be responding to your settings on the thermostat, you should call our HVAC system repair team.
Reach Out for a Tune-up
Many of the maintenance steps required to prepare a furnace for winter are more complicated than homeowners can easily handle on their own. Our expert heating unit technicians can visit your home annually to do the necessary maintenance on the furnace.
Our certified furnace professionals can run diagnostic tests on your heater, looking for parts that are close to failing. We can do repairs on these parts, ensuring your furnace is ready to run in an energy-efficient and reliable manner all winter.
Our diagnostic tests can spot areas where wear is occurring, allowing us to fix them before they cause a complete breakdown.
Check the Safety Systems
Just before winter is a good time to check your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. If they need fresh batteries, you should change them as part of preparing your heating system for winter.
If you use a chimney, have a professional inspect and clean it to reduce the risk of a fire.
Our heating technicians can check the integrity of the natural gas lines and electrical connections. We ensure everything is ready to operate safely for you all winter.
Take Advantage of the Thermostat’s Features
As a final option for preparing your heating system for winter, you should familiarize yourself with your thermostat. You might not understand all the features that your thermostat offers that can help you keep your home more comfortable and cut down on heating costs.
The changeover from cooling to heating season is a good time to learn more about the thermostat. Some of the features of your programmable thermostat that you may want to consider using include:
- Program the furnace to shut down overnight
- Measure heating performance in real-time
- Control the thermostat from an app
- Set up different heating zones in the home
If you have a newer thermostat and a smart home system installed, you can connect the thermostat to the system. This makes it easier to control from an app.
You should also check the thermostat’s settings related to the furnace. Make sure the furnace’s temperature is exactly where you want it.
Call Grasshopper Heating & Cooling for a Furnace Tune-up Today
If you want to ensure your furnace is ready to deliver hot, not cold, air for the upcoming winter season, the expert heating and cooling system technicians at Grasshopper Heating & Cooling are ready to help. By letting us tune up your heating equipment, you receive benefits like lower heating bills, a longer lifespan for your furnace, and better home comfort.
To learn more about preparing your heating system for winter and the tasks we will perform for you, call (518) 545-3271.
