When winter hits, your HVAC system will become the most important component of your home. This means you must ensure that it's working properly so you can get the heating comfort you need. You also need the system to be running properly so you don't part with a lot of money on utility bills. Read on to find out more about your winter HVAC checklist.
Basic HVAC Testing
Before winter comes, you need to run tests to see if everything is functioning properly. You will need to check things like your pilot light. After that, you must also turn up your thermostat to about 75 degrees then wait for your home to get heated up. As you are waiting, walk around your home to make sure that warm air is coming out of every vent. If there's no airflow, then there's something wrong with your system. On the other hand, if the warm air is coming out then that's one less thing you have to fix. Any malfunction that you notice must be addressed as soon as possible so there are no interruptions to your heating comfort when it's cold.
Clean the Air Ducts and Filters
Before the winter months arrive, you must clean your ducts and filters. You don't want to turn on your furnace when it becomes cold and have it burn off a lot of accumulated dust. To avoid smoky smells in the winter that might interrupt your heating comfort, you must ensure that your ducts and filters are clean. Experts recommend that your filters must be cleaned or changed every 30 days. This will help prevent debris from building up. If this happens, the debris will cycle back through your ducts and contaminate your indoor air. Apart from that, a clogged system won't run efficiently, which will affect your bills. This winter, homes that use heating oil will spend about 43% more than last winter, or about $1,734. This number will be higher if you are working with a system that's not functioning efficiently.
Check to Verify There Are no Blocked Vents
This is one of the easiest tasks on your checklist. All you need to do is walk around your home and check that nothing is blocking the vents. There could be furniture, toys, or even clothes blocking the vents. If any of your vents are blocked, this can make your system work extra hard to maintain comfortable temperatures. Apart from that, it's also a fire hazard to have something in front of a hot vent for too long.
These are some of the tasks you must perform to ensure that your HVAC is working as it should during the winter. The best thing to do is to hire an HVAC maintenance company to do the job for you. That way you can be sure that all things are working as they should.
