It's important to know the basics about your home heating. Heating accounts for about 45% of a home's energy costs in an average year. If you know some basics about your unit, you can potentially save yourself time, money and the headache of costly repairs.
You'll also be empowered to know when you can handle something on your own - and when it's time to call the professionals at T&M Fuel!
First, let's talk about the Kinds of Home Heating You Might Use...
You might have a furnace or a boiler that is the heat source for your home, here's some basics on how they differ:
FURNACES
Furnaces and boilers differ in terms of how they heat a home: typically it's hot air vs. water. Furnaces heat your home in the first way, using hot air. They distribute hot air throughout the home using a blower motor and your home's duct system. Furnaces are extremely common in New England, and can be set on a thermostat. As your home cools, and the air temperature drops below your thermostat setting, the furnace kicks in and distributes heat by the methods explained above.
BOILERS
Boilers use water instead of air. Hot water is distributed through a pipeline that snakes through your home. Boilers use a pump that heats air through baseboards, cast-iron radiators or in rare cases radiant flooring systems. Steam boilers have the same type of system, except that they distribute steam through a piping network, which eventually heats radiators. These are both referred to as “hydronic heating systems” and can run off of gas, oil, electricity or alternative fuel sources, such as wood pellets. Boilers are also triggered by your home's thermostat - kicking on when the temperature drops below the temperature you set.
What Else Is There?
Heating systems have three main components
1)Heat source: This is either your furnace, producing hot air, or your boiler, producing hot water or steam.
2)The heat distribution system: This is how the heat moves throughout your home – those are the blower motor/duct system in the case of your furnace OR the baseboards or radiators in the case of a boiler.
3)The control system: this is how you control the temperature settings in your home and it regulates the amount of heat that is distributed. The thermostat does this! To keep your home at 68 degrees, you'd set your thermostat to 68 degrees and the furnace/boiler and heat distribution systems kick on when the heat drops below that level.
Maintenance: What You Need to Know
When you rely on an appliance for something as critical as heating your home, maintenance is key. Having a professional from T&M come out an annual basis to do a general inspection of your heating system and make sure you are set for the winter season will help keep your family warm all winter long.
Some things to keep on top of:
1) Replace the filter in your furnace/boiler every three months. This is something you can do on your own, ask a member of our team to show you how!
2) Have your burner/boiler cleaned. You should call us once a year to have this done! The most common type of repair associated with burner/boiler is dust, build-up and misalignment.
3) Have your blower assembly cleaned regularly. The blower is the source of pressure that moves the air through your air ducts. This is another piece of routine maintenance T&M can handle for your annually - even just 1/16th of dust on the blower load could throw the pressure out of balance and cause issues with your home heating.
4) Have the flame-sensing rod cleaned. This is a common issue with furnaces, because it's not something people generally have cleaned on a regular basis. The furnace will turn on and off, but doesn’t stay on. It cycles to attempt to start the furnace, but will shut off as a safety precaution. You can avoid common repairs to this and other furnace/boiler parts with a simple annual inspection by one of our experts.
Furnace Life Expectancy
Most furnaces’ and boilers' life expectancy is about 15 years. Can you imagine? A furnace literally goes through millions of on and off cycles in that 15 year time period - that's a ton of usage. And each time it is turned on, the metal it's made of expands and contracts as it heats and cools. Over time, the metal can crack. This can cause danger to you and your family through carbon monoxide leaks. We recommend our customer's keep an eye on their furnace, particularly as it ages and to invest in a yearly inspection with T&M Fuel.
If you find yourself with a broken furnace, it’s important to get it replaced right away (usually within 1-3 days). T&M can help with that too.
Give us a call today to schedule your annual inspection and maintenance. 508-761-7651.
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