Wall Heating & Air Conditioning Blog: Archive for the ‘Heating’ Category

Most Common Furnace Repairs in Winter

Monday, January 9th, 2023
technician-repairing-a-furnace

If you’re a new homeowner, or are in the position of caring for a furnace for the first time, it may seem mysterious and confusing. What should you expect? What can go wrong? The truth of the matter is that furnaces are generally quite reliable and you don’t need to worry too much about them. The best way to avoid furnace problems is to make sure you get preventative maintenance every year. This way, little issues won’t add up, dusty mess will be cleaned before it causes trouble, and moving parts will be lubricated to reduce wear and tear.

However, there will be times when a furnace encounters a real need for repair. We’ll go over a few of the things we see most often, so that if these problems do happen to your furnace, they won’t catch you by surprise.

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What Exactly Is Done During Heating Maintenance?

Monday, December 26th, 2022
technician-maintaining-a-heater

We often emphasize just how critical it is to have your heating system maintained annually. It improves the efficiency of your heater, decreases wear and tear on the system, reduces the likelihood that you’ll require repairs, helps your heater live for many more years than it would if it were neglected, and ensures that your heater can continue to operate safely without posing risks such as carbon monoxide poisoning. 

What we don’t discuss as often is the actual maintenance process. Because we believe that well-informed customers are better able to make good decisions about their heating systems, we’d like to provide some more detailed information. Here are the main steps that your heating technician will perform during regular annual maintenance, with the caveat that gas and electric heaters do require some different steps.

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How Long Will My Furnace Last?

Monday, December 12th, 2022
old-furnace-in-need-of-replacement

Since you know how hard your furnace works to keep you cozy all winter, it’s no surprise that it won’t last forever. But you certainly don’t want furnace failure and the need for replacement to come as a sudden surprise. It can help to have a general idea of how long a furnace’s life can be. And while you definitely want to prolong that life and postpone replacing the furnace, you also don’t want to keep using a furnace that is a safety hazard, or one that has become so inefficient that it is costing you a lot more than it used to in energy usage.

How long can you expect your furnace to live, and how can you get the most out of it while avoiding excessive utility bills or safety risks? Here are some pointers.

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Maximize Your Heating Efficiency This Winter

Monday, November 28th, 2022
coin-being-dropped-into-a-piggy-bank

The cost of heating your home is considerable. Whether your heating system is new or old, gas or electric, the impact on your utility bills can be significant. Even with an extremely efficient new heater, you might be wishing you didn’t have to pay as much for heat. 

In order to keep your energy costs as low as they can be, we’d like to share some tips for getting the most heat for the least expense.

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Why Does My Heater Smell Like Something’s Burning?

Monday, November 14th, 2022
dusty-heating-element

You’re peacefully enjoying autumn in Georgia: the heat and humidity have gone down, and you’re relaxing while watching a football game or gathering with family for a fall celebration. It’s chilly enough to turn the heat on for the first time. Suddenly you realize that it smells like something is burning! Do you need to call for emergency heating repairs?

We have good news for you. A burning smell when you first turn your heat on for the season is pretty common, and you can take a few simple steps to clear things up. You only need the help of a heating professional if these easy remedies don’t solve the problem. 

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Does My Furnace Need Repair?

Monday, October 17th, 2022
technician-repairing-heater

Most of the time, we only think about our heating systems when they’re not working. As long as you are cozy during cold weather, it’s easy to ignore your furnace. But wouldn’t it be better to avoid having your heater break down entirely?

There are two things you can do to avoid having your heater stop working in the winter. First, take to heart a couple of tips on how to decrease the likelihood of a furnace problem. Then, pay attention to some particular clues of problems starting to brew. This way, you can get them repaired before they become severe enough that you end up with a freezing-cold house.

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7 Reasons to Schedule Your Heater Maintenance Now

Monday, October 3rd, 2022
technician-maintaining-heater

With the heat of summer just passing, and the beautiful, mild autumn beckoning you to spend time out of doors, you might not want to think about winter yet. But no matter how hard you try to ignore it, winter always gets here eventually, and you don’t want it to arrive before you’re prepared for it.

Scheduling a fall inspection for your heater should be at the top of your autumn to-do list. Here are seven reasons why it’s not only important, it’s also best to do earlier in the season. 

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“Help! My Furnace Burners Aren’t Lighting”

Monday, February 7th, 2022

furnace-jetsIsn’t it great to know that whenever you need warmth and comfort in your home during the winter, all you need to do is adjust the thermostat and your furnace just switches on and starts sending heated air through the ductwork into the various rooms of your home?

Except, what about when this doesn’t happen as it should? Nobody can guarantee that a furnace will work without malfunctions throughout its entire service life—after all there is natural wear and tear to consider. Of course, routine professional maintenance will definitely reduce the risk of sudden repair needs. In fact, maintenance can help prevent up to 85% of the repairs your furnace may ever need!

But maintenance or not, a furnace can surprise you every now and then—and burners that won’t turn on is certainly an unpleasant surprise. So what’s going on when this occurs? Read on to find out!

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Does a Dirty Air Filter Really Hurt My Furnace?

Monday, January 24th, 2022

dirty-air-filterIf you’re utilizing a furnace for your home comfort in the winter, then you know just how nice it can be when the system kicks on and provides you with all the heat you and your family need. But if something goes amiss with your heater, it can be panic-inducing. Sure, we don’t have to worry about temperatures that get too arctic in our climate, but compared to our summers, our winters get pretty darn cold!

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to avoid too big of a furnace problem. We don’t expect you to understand fully how a heater works, and we don’t even recommend making repairs on your own, but there is one little thing you can and should be doing to keep furnace performance at its best–and that’s changing out the air filter every 1-3 months.

Homeowners often minimize, or just don’t know, how important it is to change their furnace air filters on a regular basis, thinking they really only need to be swapped out each year during furnace maintenance. But failure to change out this filter can have some pretty negative consequences.

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What Happens During Professional Heating Maintenance?

Monday, January 10th, 2022

animated-checklistLiving in Georgia, we’re known a lot more for our hot and humid summers than we are for our chilly winters, but that doesn’t mean the colder months don’t pack quite the punch! That said, it stands to reason that you really want your heater to work as effectively and efficiently as possible while keeping your family comfortable. This means that you’ll want to schedule routine professional heating maintenance each year. We typically recommend this service in the fall, before the cooler temps arise, but this is definitely a case of “better late than never,” even if you’re reading it right smack in the middle of winter.

There are some very basic heating maintenance tasks you can do on your own, and that you should do on your own. This includes replacing the furnace or heat pump air filter every 1-3 months, in addition to ensuring that the space around your heater’s outdoor unit is clean and clear of debris and clutter.

This is just the beginning, though. A much more thorough maintenance session is required if you expect your heating system to continue to operate as powerfully and efficiently as it is meant to. Read on to learn more!

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