Residences and businesses alike rely on their furnaces to keep them warm and comfortable during the winter. But what if we told you that your comfort equipment has the potential to cause harm if not properly cared for? There’s no need to worry though… Routine safety inspections and maintenance performed by our expert technicians, along with a few things you can do on your own, will keep your furnace running safely and efficiently. Let’s take a look at a few potential risks with your furnace and how to avoid them.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
How Does It Happen?
Carbon monoxide can be released from a cracked heat exchanger. Carbon Monoxide is a poisonous gas that is undetectable to the senses and can make you very ill before you even realize it. The symptoms can be easily mistaken for the flu as they are nearly identical.
How Can You Prevent It?
Our annual furnace inspection includes checking for gas leaks, checking all safety controls, checking furnace and chimney draft and performing a carbon monoxide test. You can also install a carbon monoxide detector in your home to help provide peace of mind. These can be purchased at your local hardware store for as little as $20.
Furnace Fire
How Does It Happen?
Thankfully, furnace fires do not happen as often as they used to because newer furnaces have safety shut off features to turn the furnace off if it overheats. It’s important to never override a safety shut off just to get heat to the home or office without fixing the problem that made it shut off in the first place.
Dirty or clogged filters can cause damage to the limit switch, which senses the temperature inside the furnace itself. If the temperature is too high, the switch will shut the furnace off. If the filter has been clogged for a long time, the switch may not be able to function. When the switch doesn’t function, your furnace could overheat, leading to a furnace fire.
How Can You Prevent It?
Although our technicians will replace your filter as part of the annual furnace inspection and maintenance, we recommend checking and/or replacing your filters roughly every 3 months to ensure safe and efficient operation.
Furnace Outage
How Does It Happen?
A number of things can go wrong causing your furnace to stop working completely, such as a faulty pilot light, a malfunctioning thermostat or a tripped circuit breaker. When your furnace isn’t working properly during the winter, your home can drop to extremely cold temperatures, posing a risk to both your family and your house itself (frozen pipes can burst and cause extensive and costly damage).
How Can You Prevent It?
An annual furnace inspection will allow our technicians to find potential problems and/or safety concerns with your furnace and resolve any small issues before they become larger ones.
In addition, we offer whole house generators to prevent power outages from affecting the safety and comfort of your home. Talk to us today about the benefits of a whole house generator!
Get Peace of Mind That Your Furnace is Running Safely
An annual inspection helps reduce the likelihood of carbon monoxide poisoning, furnace fires, and furnace outages. At Jennings Heating and Cooling, your safety and comfort is of the utmost importance. Our highly trained service technicians know what to look for during a safety inspection to ensure your furnace is running properly, and can give you peace of mind knowing that your home or office is safe.
Take a look at our Rewards Club that offers routine maintenance and special savings, or contact us today to request an appointment!
