If you keep up with pop-culture, you might recognize the words “Winter is coming.” This line, popularized by the tv show Game of Thrones, is an infamous omen of things to come, a harsh winter that will be brutal and difficult to endure.
Fortunately, unlike the folks in that show, we’re lucky enough to have HVAC systems in our world, making winters rather cozy and pleasant. However, if you live in a cold area and your furnace is on the fritz, the phrase “winter is coming” might be just as foreboding to you if not more.
At Powerhouse Heating and Air Conditioning, we serve the people of greater Omaha, NE, and we know how difficult a winter can be when you have a busted furnace. So how can you know when it’s time for furnace repair or replacement? In this two-part article, we’ll elucidate.
Your Bills Are Higher But Your Usage Hasn’t Increased
If there’s one thing that gets people to pursue furnace repair even quicker than cold weather, it’s money. The last thing you want to do is pay more money every month for bills, when you’re getting the same usage out of your heater.
If your bills start going up, it’s a sign that your furnace is starting to become less efficient. Unfortunately, just like humans lose the spry spring in their step as they age, so too do heaters and furnaces. Wear and tear will make your furnace work harder, thus hiking up your bill even if there’s not a noticeable difference.
In such instances, it’s worth giving your furnace a diagnosis. The first thing you can do is check your air filters; these should be replaced every one to three months, but sometimes they get neglected for far longer than that. If your filters look fine but the problem persists, it’s a good time to consult your local Omaha, NE HVAC company for furnace repair.
Your Furnace is Abnormally Noisy
Furnaces tend to stick around for a while, so there’s a pretty good chance that, at this point, you have some kind of familiarity with the sounds it makes. In a similar vein, it’s probably not hard to tell when it’s making a noise that it shouldn’t be making. If your furnace starts making weird sounds that aren’t typical, the last thing you should do is just ignore it and walk away. The overwhelming likelihood is that something is wrong with it. If you don’t pursue furnace repair, you might have to end up replacing it entirely.
Rattling, loud buzzing, humming, and screeching are all sounds that your furnace shouldn’t be making. It could be something as simple as some screws coming loose, but it could also be indicative of a more serious condition, like a failing fan or motor. It’s impossible to make a blanket statement that covers every case, which is why it’s so important to call your local Omaha NE furnace repair technicians to diagnose the problem.
Uneven Temperatures Throughout House
If people can be fired for not doing their job, then it’s only fair to be able to fire your furnace under the same circumstances (or at the very least, to get a furnace repair technician to slap it on the wrists). Now, keep in mind that this doesn’t mean “the furnace isn’t working at all.” If that were the case, the need for repair would be pretty self-evident.
Instead, it’s good to see whether the heater is still heating every room reliably. When furnaces start to reach the end of their lives, the quality of their service will start to deteriorate, and uneven heating throughout the house is a symptom of this. It’s fairly common for this problem to go unnoticed, because sometimes the affected room is one that’s seldom used. A good practice to keep tabs on your heater is to check if every room in the house is warm. A lack of heat could mean that your furnace is losing it, or that there’s a problem with your ducts. In both instances, calling a local furnace repair technician would be a great step in the right direction.
Your Furnace Has Been Ignored For a Year or More
Whether it’s your body, your cat, or your furnace, it’s usually not good to go for more than a year without a general health checkup. For one, you’re generally supposed to be replacing your air filter once every month, so if you’ve gone a whole year without any sort of maintenance, you’ve already ignored your heater’s needs for about 12x longer than you should.
Do yourself a favor and call a furnace repair technician to come check on it. A furnace is like a car or a bike; if you neglect general maintenance, you’ll start to see diminished effectiveness, and likely decrease its overall lifespan by a good chunk. At Powerhouse Heating and Air Conditioning, we believe in forming positive ongoing relationships with our clients, and we’d be happy to perform regular checkups for you.
Call Your Local Omaha HVAC Experts
If any of the above conditions are true, or if you simply want some peace of mind, call Powerhouse Heating and Air Conditioning today! We are happy to serve the local residents with our comprehensive knowledge of all HVAC-related issues, a broken heater being one of them. Don’t let yourself freeze this winter! Call us today, and ask for the special first-time offers we have for new clients!
If you’re looking for more potential issues with your furnace, keep reading on to Part 2, where we will discuss reasons why you might need to replace your furnace altogether.
