It is October and time to take a look at your home heating needs. It is hard to hear that with these beautiful 70 and 80 degree temperatures that we are experiencing in Southern Idaho, but whether you live in the Boise region, Twin Falls, or Pocatello and Idaho Falls regions, you know that it is only a matter of time until things change. If it is anything like last year, it may even change on a dime!

You should always have your heating system checked and maintained every year. This will prolong the life of your system, save you money, and provide greater safety and comfort to you and your family. This is common sense and good home economics management 101.

What I want to address in this article is what the homeowner should be on the look-out for if they’ve perhaps foregone regular furnace maintenance and tune-ups. Here are just a few signs that your system needs immediate attention.

Most heating units will smell when you turn them on the first time you use them. All the dust and debris on the coils has to burn off and this produces a “hot” odor. Once your furnace runs for a bit, you shouldn’t have any other smells coming from the heating ducts. However, if after that initial startup, you smell something disagreeable coming from your system and or register vents, it’s always best to have it checked out by a heating systems professional technician as soon as possible. Of course, if you ever smell a strong gas odor you should open some windows, evacuate the premises immediately and call your gas utility.

Just because your heating unit is running does not mean it’s in proper working order. It stands to reason if you hear any type of banging, whining, clicking, or groaning noises coming from your furnace, then it has a problem. If could be anything from a loose belt or a worn out part that is about to break. Sometimes those noises are there to let you know there is a problem and you should have the heating unit checked. Letting it go will only cause it to cease to function when you most need it and your repair bill can only get bigger.

In some cases, you might notice your power bill is higher than normal to heat your home. Even though your furnace is running, it might not be producing the amount of heat needed to keep your home heated in a comfortable and efficient manner. Please note: If you continually have to raise and lower your thermostat, you may have a mechanical efficiency problem with your system. It may be leaky ductwork, a faulty thermostat, or even an intermittent pilot ignition system problem. Having your furnace maintenance done once a year will take care of these types of problems. For you folks on a level pay or “budget” pay program with your utility, you need to pay particular attention to your power consumption and compare on a year to year basis. While these programs can be budget friendly in the short term, they can mask heating system inefficiencies for an entire year! On these types of programs you may only know how bad your maintenance problem is when your system breaks down or at the anniversary of your program when your monthly bill goes way up!

When your system won’t turn on during a cold snap, the decision to call your heating repairman is an obvious and easy choice. But, what about those times when something just does not seem right with the system? When your system does not turn off, or seems to have to “work really hard” to get your home up to temperature, you should be calling your furnace repairman, too. Sometimes a faulty thermostat can be the cause of your furnace not turning off, while another time it may be a fan motor causing problems, faulty wiring or other problems that may cause the furnace to have trouble running the way they were designed. Most often there will be some kind of warning signs to you. Many times those signs are what you hear and don’t hear. You might hear a “Kerplunk” when the heating unit starts or stops. You may hear an excessive “winding up and then down noises”. It might even have a vibration you can feel when it runs, starts or stops. These symptoms, among many others, all describes heating units that are probably headed for a breakdown.

Of course, if you have your furnace regularly maintained, you are much, much less likely to experience any of these symptoms, or be without heat when you really want it. Remember, your furnace will never break down on a warm day. Your home heating system is much more likely to break down during a cold dark night when you and your family need it the most. That is the point of my article. It is to get you to consider having your heating system checked and tuned prior to those cold, dark nights that are just around the corner.
The comfort and peace of mind you will receive will well make it worth the small cost!