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Outdoor temperatures are dropping as we cross over into December, and we hope that you’ve already arranged to have maintenance for your natural gas furnace. If you haven’t, it’s still not too late to schedule it with us and have your heating system in excellent shape for when the cold weather really strikes hard.
Earlier in the fall, we discussed why it’s advantageous to have professionals install a whole-house dehumidifier to prepare your home for the winter. Cold weather tends to draw moisture out from the air, and furnaces can also make the air in a home uncomfortably dry. A humidifier can counteract this so you have better comfort, less need to run the heater, and a decrease in the health issues associated with low humidity.
We’ve already talked a bit this season about the importance of scheduling heating maintenance in preparation for winter. You definitely don’t want to get caught without a working heater during a cold Illinois winter. But there’s another important maintenance job you should take care of this fall. A heating system won’t work without electricity (even a modern gas furnace uses some electrical power), so make certain that the whole-house generator that protects your home’s electrical system during a power outage is also ready for storm season.
The most common type of heating system in the U.S. is the natural gas-powered furnace. This fact alone tells you a lot about the safety of gas furnaces: if they were actually “dangerous” installations, there would be far fewer of them, and electric-powered furnaces would be far more popular.
In some of our recent posts, we’ve discussed the possibility of arranging for installing a new residential heater during the fall. If you have an old furnace that no longer is living up to its former standards, then it is a wise idea to schedule a replacement before the winter arrives. That way you’ll be prepared for the cold and have a system that works at high energy efficiency.
Although boilers are not as common residential heating systems as furnaces, they are still popular, and many homes today enjoy the even warmth and energy-saving performance of the hydronic heating from boilers.
Temperatures are falling as we move deeper into the fall and closer to winter. Now is the time to prepare our homes and heating systems for the rigors of another Skokie, IL cold season. That means you should have professional heating maintenance scheduled (if you haven’t done so already) and take care of replacing old heaters if they are no longer working well.
The type of heating system put into a home is often limited by the home’s construction. For example, a house that has a ventilation network of ducts in the walls and floors will benefit from having a forced-air system (such as a furnace or heat pump) that attaches to ductwork. In homes that lack ductwork, a boiler is often an excellent choice for heat distribution.
We understand that the fall season can often be one of the busiest times of the year. It hardly seems like the summer has ended before planning for Halloween and Thanksgiving and visiting relatives and kids going to school start consuming all the days of the calendar. With all that’s going on, do you really need to worry about one more thing like scheduling heating maintenance? Why not put it off until next year?
September is almost over, and that means the cold weather is not far off. This is the start of what we in the HVAC industry call the heating season, when furnaces and boilers come on to keep the chill at bay.
