Heating Season Tune-Ups Save Money & Extend Equipment Life! (September 2010)
About 55% of American homeowners have their heating equipment professionally serviced at least once a year, according to a recent survey of homeowners across the country by Honeywell, Inc.
They’re the smart ones. An annual heating system “clean & check” tune-up is one of the best home maintenance investments you make. (Oil-fired heating systems generally require more frequent service, at least twice a year.)
What about the 45% of homeowners who neglect annual maintenance? The pay the following penalties:
1) Fuel bills rise as much as 10 – 15% as a result of inefficient equipment operation. It’s like having a fireplace the burns money.
2) Accelerated equipment wear. Annual maintenance extends equipment life as much as
20 – 30 %. This translated to an additional 5 – 10 years of usage for you furnace or boiler.
3) Here at Grand Lake Plumbing & Heating we will tell you that about 75% of all repairs that we do could have been avoided with regular maintenance. Heating system repairs typically run into the hundreds of dollars – more fuel for the money burning fireplace.
4) Most important, annual heating inspections can save your life and those of your loved ones. Small cracks in a heat exchanger or problem with the flue system could allow deadly carbon monoxide gas to seep into your home. Hundreds of people in the US lose their lives each year in these tragedies. Our trained service technicians know how to spot danger signs in the system.
Incomplete furl combustion and high flue gas temperatures are the main causes of low heating efficiency. Our service technicians will perform a variety of test to measure the combustion efficiency of your system before and after turning it op. The service technician will also clean and check (replacing if necessary) the burner, combustion chamber, heat exchanger surfaces, oil line filter and flue pipe. Pumps and fans should be lubricated if necessary. With boilers, the technician will take the time to remove sediment from boiler and steam lines, as well as checking the fan thermostat on warm air systems. Otherwise the fan may operate longer than necessary, wasting energy.
Modern heating equipment is very sophisticated. The well-equipped service technician has an array of electronic measuring devices and tools to properly service these units. Some old-timers still operate with old “eyeballing” methods, such as adjusting the flame on a burner merely by looking at this color. While many of these old timers have remarkable skills, they simply are not up to the task of keeping a modern heating system operating at peak efficiency. Put your trust in our properly equipped service technician.
While heating inspection can be done at any time, early fall is the most popular time for most homeowners to schedule these visits. To avoid the rush, many homeowners have their fall heating inspections done as part of our annual service partner agreements. Grand Lake Plumbing & Heating offer a Plumbing, a Heating, and a combo of Plumbing & Heating agreements. To find out how you can receive your free heating inspection give us a call today and we will get you signed up as one of our Service Partners.
Give us a call today to get your heating system checked before the snow starts to fly.
Happy First Day Of Fall and have a great rest of your week!
