Yes, You Still Need to Tune Up Your Furnace In Florida: Here’s Why

Down in Florida, we typically find ourselves relying on our air conditioners much more than our furnaces. That being said, even if you don’t run your furnace that often, it’s still important to keep up with its routine preventative maintenance.

WHY IS FURNACE MAINTENANCE IMPORTANT?

Preventative maintenance for your furnace is important for three main reasons:

1. Routine maintenance makes your furnace safer.

This is especially true if you own a gas- or oil-burning furnace. These types of furnaces burn fuel to produce heat. That process of burning fuel (combustion) produces some toxic flue gases, such as carbon monoxide.

During a routine maintenance appointment, a technician will check your furnace to make sure that those toxic flue gases are being safely vented outdoors and are not mixing with your indoor air. The technician will also inspect your furnace for any fuel leaks that could create a fire hazard.

2. Maintenance helps reduce wear and tear on your furnace.

Even a correctly installed, well-built furnace needs to be serviced and adjusted every so often. As the machinery whirs and runs, parts can lose lubrication, move out of alignment, or loosen.

That type of wear and tear makes your furnace a less effective machine, and it will end up working harder to compensate for its declining performance. The harder the components work, the faster they wear out, which means you’ll end up replacing parts (or even the entire system) much sooner than you’d otherwise have to.

3. Your heating system operates more efficiently with routine maintenance.

As mentioned above, a neglected system with wear and tear has to work harder to perform its job. This means that your furnace will use more energy to warm your home than it should have to. By keeping up with routine maintenance, you’ll notice that your energy bills don’t jump up during the colder months of the year.

Gainesville Preventative HVAC Maintenance

At Bounds Heating & Air, our technicians take pride in providing dependable service and thorough HVAC maintenance. Backed by over three decades of experience, we are Gainesville’s go-to for heating and cooling services. Contact us online or give us a call at (352) 472-2761.

7 Common HVAC Terms That Every Homeowner Should Know

Does it feel like you’re reading a different language whenever you try to read anything about your home’s heating and cooling system? We understand. At one point, all of those terms were new to us too. For this reason, we want to provide you with a glossary, of sorts, that explains some essential terms that every homeowner should know about their heating and cooling system.

Ready to learn how to speak “HVAC?” Let’s get started.

1. HVAC

Let’s start with the term HVAC. HVAC is an acronym for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. People often will refer to an entire heating and cooling system (the heater, air conditioner, and ductwork) as an HVAC system for short.

2. AFUE

AFUE (Average Fuel Utilization Efficiency) is a term for the measurement of a gas or oil furnace’s efficiency. AFUE is a number. That number is the percentage of the amount of fuel energy used to heat your home.

For instance, if a furnace’s AFUE is 80, then 80% of the fuel it uses will be used for heating your home, while 20% of the fuel will go to waste (80% + 20% = 100%). An energy-efficient furnace will have a really high AFUE, meaning that almost 100% of the fuel it uses will be used to heat your home, and only a small percentage of the fuel will go to waste.

3. SEER

SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) is the rating that describes how efficient an air conditioner or heat pump is. The SEER is calculated by dividing the unit’s total cooling power by the total energy used to power it over one year. This equation takes into account temperature differences throughout the year. Taking those differences into account is important because your AC works much harder during July than January.

4. HSPF

HSPF (Heating Seasonal Performance Factor) is similar to SEER and AFUE, only it applies to heat pumps when they’re heating a home. To calculate a heat pump’s HSPF, you divide the unit’s total heating power by the total energy used to power it over one year. In this way, HSPF takes seasonal temperature differences into account.

5. Condenser

Your air conditioning system has two major components: the indoor unit and the outdoor unit. The outdoor unit is called the condenser, that metal box that sits outside with a fan inside of it. Whether you own a heat pump, a ductless mini-split, or a traditional AC and furnace, the air conditioner has a condenser located outdoors, typically in the yard, on the roof, or on a balcony.

The condenser contains a coil with refrigerant that has just absorbed heat from your indoor air. The condenser’s main role is to release all that heat outdoors. For this reason, the condenser needs adequate room for ventilation on all sides and especially on top, where its fan is blowing out the most warm air.

6. Evaporator Coil

Air conditioners and heat pumps have two coils: one is in the condenser, mentioned above, and the other is the evaporator coil. The evaporator coil is located indoors.

Just like the condenser coil, the evaporator coil contains refrigerant. Hot indoor air from your home blows over this coil, and the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the air. The “warmed up” refrigerant moves along a line from the evaporator coil out to the outdoor condenser coil, where it can release that heat outside.

7. Heat Exchanger

Heat exchangers are a crucial component in gas or oil furnaces. Here’s why:

While burning fuel, a furnace creates toxic flue gases and combustion products, such as carbon monoxide. These things are hazardous to breathe, so you don’t want them mixing with your “breathing air.”
The heat exchanger is a thin, metal shield that acts as a barrier between your breathing air and the hot air that gets exposed to flue gases and toxic byproducts that result from your furnace burning fuel.
Because the heat exchanger is made of metal, it transfers the heat from the “unhealthy” air to your indoor air, while keeping out all the harmful things you shouldn’t breathe.
Consequently, your indoor air gets heated safely, and the flue gases and pollutants on the other side of the heat exchanger get vented outside your home where they can dissipate.

Over time, condensation can cause the heat exchanger to rust. This can lead to cracks as the metal expands and contracts from warming up and cooling down. A cracked heat exchanger needs to be taken seriously, as any breaks in the barrier can allow harmful gases and particles to mix with your indoor air.

At Bounds Heating & Air, we’re committed to providing you with top-quality HVAC repairs, maintenance, and installations. Give us a call at (352) 472-2761 or contact us online today!

How to Troubleshoot the Gas Furnace in Your Gainesville Home

As the year winds down and temperatures drop, Gainesville residents will begin to rely on their warm and comfortable home to escape the cool weather. Ineffective HVAC systems can put a crimp in home comfort, and many homeowners find troubleshooting a gas furnace to be an intimidating job. Here’s how to approach common furnace problems if they occur.

Furnace Produces No Heat

Check the thermostat first to make sure it’s correctly set. If you’ve set the thermostat back while you were out, be sure to engage the furnace again. If the thermostat is set, check the circuit box to see if a fuse has blown.

Finally, you should check the furnace itself. Ensure that the gas control valve is open and the pilot light is lit.

Furnace Cycles On and Off Rapidly

When the furnace cycles rapidly, it may be a problem with airflow. Check to see if the air filter is obstructed or clogged. Then do the same to the furnace combustion chamber’s air intake. If neither of these areas is obstructed, it may be that the blower fan or the burners themselves are dirty or need some adjustment.

Furnace Noise is Excessive

Often an indication of insufficient maintenance, a noisy furnace may mean that a component in the blower fan needs lubrication, the burners are dirty or the pilot light needs adjustment. Although furnace issues can happen to anyone, keeping up with annual HVAC maintenance will reduce the need for troubleshooting a gas furnace.

Furnace Doesn’t Produce Sufficient Heat

If the furnace isn’t heating well, check to make sure that the thermostat is set correctly and heat is being delivered through the ducts and not obstructed by a dirty air filter. Leaky ducts may also cause you to lose heat. A home energy audit can help you determine where heat is lost in your home.

To learn more about troubleshooting a gas furnace, schedule an energy audit, or call for repairs to your HVAC system, call us today at Bounds Heating & Air!

Category: Gas Furnace