It’s time to start preparing your home for the cold winter ahead when the hot summer weather starts to cool down. While you might be thinking about insulating your windows and doors, a very important component of preparing your house for winter is servicing your heating system. There are a few different tasks that will need to be on your list to ensure that your heating system will work adequately when the cold weather hits.
Change Your Air Filters
A great place to start is to replace the air filter on your HVAC system. Having a clean filter is essential to ensuring that your system is performing optimally. This reduces the amount of airborne debris inside of your home, which improves your indoor air quality. For more indoor air quality solutions, our team at Gunthers Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing is your go to! Most homeowners will opt for installing a fiberglass filter that offers a good mix of affordability and filtering capability. If you find that you have severe allergies or someone in your household is dealing with respiratory conditions, it’s advisable to purchase a filter that has a high MERV rating.
Schedule Professional Maintenance
Another important task on your maintenance list should be to schedule professional maintenance service. Bringing in a licensed professional will help confirm that your system is working at its peak efficiency level. This is also necessary to maintain the warranty coverage on your unit. An HVAC professional will be able to look over all the components of your system and alert you to any potential problems.
Unblock Your Air Vents
If you have a forced-air heating system, then you have various vents in each room of your house. All too often, homeowners accidentally place items in front of these vents. This restricts airflow. It’s a good idea to walk around each room of your home and check each vent to ensure there’s adequate space around it. This allows your heating system to work as efficiently as possible. A good rule of thumb is to have at least three feet of open space surrounding each vent.
Program Your Thermostat Settings
Now is the perfect time to go ahead and switch your thermostat from cooling mode to heating mode. If you have a programmable or smart thermostat, it can be extremely helpful to program settings that optimize your energy savings. For example, consider setting your thermostat at a lower temperature for the hours that your family is not at home. This will help you save on heating bills throughout the entire winter season.
Give Your System a Test Run
No maintenance checklist is complete without doing a thorough test run of your heating system. You’ll want to switch your thermostat from cooling mode over to heating mode and turn the system on. Let it run for around 15 minutes. It’s a good idea to walk around each room of your house and ensure that hot air is coming out of the vents. While it’s not uncommon for your system to have a mild burning smell for the first couple minutes of operation, it shouldn’t last much longer than that. If it does, you should shut off your system and contact a licensed HVAC professional for further assistance.
Check Your Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detectors
Part of your fall heating system maintenance should include checking your carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. You should test each one and ensure that you put in fresh batteries. It’s highly recommended that you have at least one carbon monoxide and one smoke detector on each level of your residence. This also includes units directly outside the main bedrooms of your home.
Switch the Direction of Ceiling Fans
If your home has a few ceiling fans, they should be running counterclockwise in the summer months. This lowers your summertime energy bills. However, the direction needs to be switched when winter approaches. Setting your ceiling fans to spin in a clockwise direction will help push air upward. This will force the warm air stuck at the top of your room to move outward. As it travels towards the outside walls of the room, it will be pushed down to the floor. This will circulate the warm air to keep you and your family comfortable without having to turn up the settings on your thermostat.
Reliable Heating Service
Gunthers Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing offers reliable heating service for residents of American Fork, UT, and the surrounding areas. Call us today to get the help that you need with your home.
