If you’re like many homeowners here in the Florence area, there’s a good chance that you use a gas-powered furnace to keep your home and family warm. Furnaces are a great choice—both powerful and cost-efficient when properly installed and well-maintained. Today’s furnaces have an even higher efficiency rating than ever before. In fact, the highest rating now available for a gas furnace is 98%.
But this efficiency doesn’t mean much if you aren’t using your furnace as safely as possible. Furnaces are not inherently dangerous, but there are components within them that could cause one to become dangerous if it misses professional services, such as annual tune-ups.
The heat exchanger is one example of this. A cracked heat exchanger is definitely a potential hazard, and we’re going to dive into the “why” behind this below. While this problem is more common in an older system (10–15 years old), we encourage you to keep this information on hand and stay on top of your maintenance appointments even if you have a brand new system! Read on to learn more.
It can be easy to ignore some of the sounds coming from the systems and appliances in your home. This is because it’s easier to deny something that may be amiss, since fixing the problem can be an expensive inconvenience. However, there really are some noises that should never be ignored. While a rattle, for example, might signal nothing more than a loose panel on the cabinet that you can tighten yourself, it could alternatively suggest that you have a cracked heat exchanger—which is a much more serious problem.
As most homeowners are aware, portable generators are relatively convenient, but can be a hassle and also present a bit of a safety risk. They run on gasoline and release large amounts of carbon monoxide (and so should never be used in an enclosed space such as your garage). They can also be prohibitively inefficient when you consider the cost of fuel. Plus, the generator itself is not exactly cheap for a low return on investment.
It’s that time of year again! You know, the time of year to start using your heating system. Yup, that’s right, the year is nearing its end, which means winter is right around the corner. Summer might not seem all that long gone, but you need to think about your heating system and how reliable and effective it’s going to be this year. It’s also important to remember that no heater is immune to problems, but with proper care, you can reduce the number of big heating repair surprises.
The electrical system of your household is one of the most important parts of your household. Pretty much all of your appliances require this system to function. Even gas-powered equipment typically has an electric starter or ignition. So if your electrical system is struggling, you can experience all kinds of problems within your living space.
How much time do you think you spend considering electrical safety? If you’re like the average homeowner, probably not much. However, this is one of those things you want to think about every now and then. And if you’ve come across this blog post, it probably means it’s something you’re thinking about right now!
This summer was definitely one of our hottest! You’re probably looking forward to the cooler temps and actually using your heater instead of blasting your air conditioner day in and day out at this point. Of course, if you want to be as comfortable as possible while efficiently using your HVAC system, then it’s important that you take a few HVAC care steps before you get too far into fall. One of those steps is to take care of any lingering 
With the unseasonably warm weather we have had in our area recently, it may seem odd to even think about heating maintenance right now. But as rare as recent weather was, we usually get cooler temperatures the majority of the year. So, as fall approaches, it’s important to assess our heaters and see what kind of shape they’re in. This is especially true if you own a business or manage a commercial property. If you think a residential heater has a lot of maintenance needs, then imagine what your commercial heater might need!
Summer is still progressing along, and this means that now is the perfect time to check to ensure your air conditioner is up to the task of getting you through the rest of the warmer weather. If your system has been struggling, and if it’s an older system (more on this below), then it’s a good idea to start looking into air conditioning replacement now rather than waiting for it to completely break down.
It goes without saying that it’s been a little hot in our area recently! While summers are never cold, we’re definitely not used to the extreme heat we’ve been experiencing in recent weeks (with more to come). So we would completely understand your temptation to blast your air conditioner at the lowest temperature possible. This could actually be doing more harm than good to your air conditioner, while not doing much at all to improve your comfort.
