Serving The Chicagoland Area Since 1998
We’ve now come to the time of year when furnaces fire up and stay running for long stretches at a time. But as you get ready to enjoy a cozy home, you may detect an acrid odor coming from the vents. Does this mean there’s something seriously wrong with the furnace, possibly something that’s a safety hazard? Do you need to call our technicians to come fix it?
We’ll take a look at what these burning odors may mean, and what to do about them.
During the fall, we make a major effort to stress with our customers and potential customers the importance of arranging for heating maintenance before winter cold arrives. And as you can probably guess from the calendar, winter is not that far away. If you haven’t yet arranged for your annual heating maintenance, right now is the time to jump on it. It’s easy: you only have to call us and ask about our Residential Maintenance Agreements.
Here’s something we need to stress: all types of heating systems require these pre-winter inspections.
The term radiant heat refers to any kind of heat that comes off a heated surface. You feel radiant heat coming from the metal of the sides of buildings during a hot day, or coming up from asphalt. But when it comes to home heating, radiant heating means a particular type of comfort system: hot water circulated from a boiler raises the temperature of pipes running through a subfloor, which in turn heats up the floorboards. These heated surfaces then send heat waves into the room. (You can also have radiant heating through room radiators or baseboard heaters.)
There’s probably nothing more upsetting to find on a water heater than rust or other forms of corrosion. Because water heaters have water and metal in constant contact, the development of corrosion seems like something that should naturally occur. But yet it rarely does… until the water heater is at an advanced age. When people spot a corroded water heater, they often think that it must be replaced. Is there any truth to this?
‘Tis November, and that means the winter is just looking over the edge of the calendar. The colder weather is already starting as temperatures routinely drop down into the 50s. Much worse is coming, of course, but this is a time when you can expect to start running your gas furnace on a regular basis. And it’s also a time to pay close attention to how it runs. If there are any minor issues with it during the early season, you want to have them repaired before the extreme cold hits and HVAC technicians have crammed schedule. Early repairs will also help stop an emergency when the furnace stops working altogether on a freezing cold day.
Do you have a natural gas furnace to provide your home with warmth over the winters? Chances are good that you do, since gas furnaces are the most common type of residential heater in the country—and their powerful heating ability makes them especially popular in in places like Chicago that experience harsh winters.
Although a gas furnace is a great way to heat your house, it can present a number of safety hazards without proper care. These aren’t difficult or arduous steps, but they can make a big difference for your home:
One of the important indoor air quality installations that we handle for homes in Chicagoland is a whole-house humidifier. During the winter, moisture freezes out of the air and often leads to air with less than 30% relative humidity—too dry for comfort. When the humidity is this low, it adds an unpleasant edge to the already cool temperatures because heat can leave the body quicker. It also allows for the quicker spread of illnesses and can create damage to wooden and painted surfaces.
The most important way to check up on your home’s gas furnace to make sure that it’s ready to handle another tough Illinois winter is to schedule professional maintenance. Our regular maintenance program is an easy way to take care of this each and every year.
If you’ve already had your heating maintenance appointment, we still recommend that you make a check on your furnace a few weeks afterward, right before the major cold strikes. It’s simply good planning, and you can never be too sure about your furnace!
The weather is finally starting to cool down along with other signs that fall has truly arrived (i.e. Halloween merchandise in all the stores). If you have a heat pump to provide comfort for your house, now is a good time to switch it over to heating mode to see if it’s working correctly. If the heat pump comes on and either blows out cold air or room temperature air rather than the warm air you expect, you want to know about the problem now rather than when the serious cold weather arrives.
Last week, we wrote about making the choice to replace an aging furnace. But you may be one of the homeowners who relies on a boiler and radiant heating for winter comfort, rather than a furnace. You will have to deal with replacing your boiler at some point, although the considerations with a boiler are a bit different than those with a furnace.
