What type of heating system do you use to warm up your house during a tough Chicagoland winter? If your home is like the majority, the answer is a natural gas furnace. Gas furnaces are the most common type of residential heating system across the country, especially in locations with cold winters. Gas furnaces not only produce a large amount of heat, they do so at less expense than electric furnaces because natural gas costs less than electricity per unit.
However, any natural gas appliance has the potential to develop safety hazards. We don’t want to alarm you, as a well-maintained gas furnace will rarely encounter dangers, and current furnace models are built with safety in mind and have special features to prevent the escape of carbon monoxide or a rise in combustion hazards.
There is one gas furnace problem we want to draw your attention to, because it’s the most common reason for a furnace allowing toxic gasses into a home: the cracked heat exchanger.
Gas power for homes is widespread, but gas mains can’t reach every residential property. In some cases, homeowners prefer to rely entirely on electricity in their homes because of safety concerns from natural gas. Whatever the situation, a home relying solely on electrical power can still have a furnace to provide comfort during the frigid winters in Chicago.
We aren’t fully out of the woods yet here in Chicago as far as cool weather goes. We can anticipate days in the 50s and night sometimes in the 30s for a few more weeks. But it’s about that time of year when air conditioners will run more often, and soon the
The two most common types of heating systems found in homes are
If you use a furnace