Furnace Tune Up

Furnace Tune Up Meriel Bradley: As long as it’s working properly, it’s likely that you don’t give your furnace a second thought. Hidden in the basement it hums along the heart of your home pumping heat through its duct work arteries. To keep it working, furnace maintenance is just as important as vehicle maintenance. Treat it well and you’ll avoid costly repairs and possibly a fatal accident. Peter Temko, service technician at Boonstra’s One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning is here to tell us how to treat a furnace and take furnace maintenance seriously. This is Daily Web TV. We all try to make sure a home is very well maintained but when it comes to heating and air conditioning do you really know what you’re doing. We are here with an expert today from Boonstra’s One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning and that is Peter. Now Peter we’re standing in the basement which is where the furnace is. Is the furnace a challenging piece of equipment to maintain? Peter Temko: The newer pieces of equipment are a lot more complicated than the old style furnaces, so there’s a lot more involved in the newer pieces of equipment than older but it’s the older pieces of equipment that we have to be careful of. Meriel Bradley: So do you think that the furnace is something that people kind of ignore because it’s down in the basement and until something goes wrong, we don’t really think about it. Peter Temko: That’s true. It’s as long as it’s running that’s fine and it’s when that it’s not running is when all of sudden everything is in a high state of affairs, that’s people don’t—as long as it’s there they don’t care about it. Meriel Bradley: Now, the air condition is attached to the furnace, do you maintain and service them both at the same time. Peter Temko: Yes, we do. We try and split the visits up, so you get more bang for your back. You get a preventive maintenance on your furnace and one for your air conditioner. Air conditioners are the same. People just tell you if it’s cool, that’s cool, but if it’s not, it’s not. But as far as maintenance goes it’s all tied in with the furnace filter is critical, lack of air flow, lack of refrigerant, everything is in a balance and you have the air conditioner produces water, so the drain lines have to be flushed and cleaned yearly because if they back up, the water falls, goes down into your furnace and you end up with more problems in your furnace. So we do a thorough inspection of the e-coil, flush the drain line, check refrigerant levels and make sure the filters are clean. Humidifiers have to be shut off during the summer to help the air conditioner work better, so there’s a lot of things people don’t do when it come to AC. Meriel Bradley: I’m standing it great. This isn’t me. I think I need you to come visit my house. Peter Temko: Well, you have to make sure the humidifier is shut down for the summer because the air conditioner is pulling humidity out and the humidifiers putting it back in. So you want to make sure that’s turned off for the summer and the damper is closed. Meriel Bradley: So if we do maintain our furnace properly which is what we should all be doing, how does that affect me? Is it more efficient, I am safer in my house? Peter Temko: A yearly inspection, you’re a lot a lot safer, we come in and do our safety inspection and see all levels and clean and inspect and it is critical with the older pieces of equipment as far as carbon monoxide goes, heat exchangers cracking and issues like that. Efficiency wise, it’s like having your car tuned up. People take their cars in and have oil changed but they don’t touch their furnaces, so it’s something is it does need to be looked after. Meriel Bradley: So the CO, you say you check the CO levels. So obviously as a homeowner that’s not something I’m going to know how to do. Peter Temko: No, so we have combustion analyzers in the truck and every furnace gets a thorough check up and as far as CO readings go, so we have our limits that we know that we can’t go over and that’s when you know bells and whistle will go off if we have you know something that does go off. Most homeowners now should have covered up all their piece of equipment and carbon monoxide detectors in their houses just for safety reasons. Meriel Bradley: So do you check those as well when you come in those meters? Peter Temko: Yeah. Carbon monoxide detectors should be replaced every five years, like smoke detectors, and that’s something a lot of people know about that they are actually, ionizers in there looking for CO, it has no smell. So the homeowners cannot smell the CO until it goes off. A lot of people have been put in the wrong spots, they should have one on every level, more critical in the sleeping area. Meriel Bradley: So when you come in that’s something, you know if I have you coming in every single year, you know when I’ve changed them last, so you make sure that my family is safe. Peter Temko: Yes, we suggest that. I do it myself that you know do you have them. Depending on the older pieces of equipment it is more critical that they have them and just recently Ontario is passing a law, it’s like the smoke detectors every house must have one. Meriel Bradley: Which is great, it keeps us all safe. So that’s one thing that you check for now. As homeowner am I supposed to change the filter every month? Peter Temko: They-- Meriel Bradley: I said am I supposed to? Peter Temko: They have different filters and require different maintenance. Meriel Bradley: Okay. Peter Temko: One inch filters, there are different brands on the market and filters that you can pick it up and see through, they recommend they’d be changed monthly or as needed. Meriel Bradley: Right. Peter Temko: Pleated filters, every three months or as needed. So it depends on what you have as your filtration is based on what is required. They have box filters that require yearly maintenance. They should be changed yearly. Electronic air cleaners should be washed and cleaned every two to three months. Meriel Bradley: Right. So again by having a professional come in, I’m now looking at my furnace properly in that advise. What about efficiency does it make my furnace more efficient to have it properly maintained? Peter Temko: Yes, it does. We come in and we check, everything, it’s like a car. The gas pressures have to be checked that you know they can go, the higher the gas pressure, you’re over firing, you’re creating more carbon monoxide, you’re using more gas, dirty filters, cause the furnace to work harder which is in turn causes your hydro bills and gas bills to go up. So, if everything is maintained and properly setup then you’re saving money on hydro and your gas bill. Meriel Bradley: Now, if we want you to come in and schedule a yearly checkup, it’s easy for us to get a hold of you. I know there’s website. Boonstrasonehour.com is that right? Peter Temko: Yes, that’s correct. Meriel Bradley: And then the phone number? Peter Temko: And you can talk to the girls at the office, they will setup a time for a technician to show up at your convenience. Meriel Bradley: And one hour and I know that we’re going to touch on that in another show but the one hour promise I think is an amazing asset to be completed. Peter Temko: Right. A lot of companies will get there when they get there but Boonstra’s as we pride ourselves on getting there when we tell we’ll be there. Meriel Bradley: Nothing like great service. Thank you so much. Peter Temko: You’re welcome. Meriel Bradley: Now if you want more information be sure to check out the website. I’m Meriel Bradley, we’ve been talking about keeping your furnace maintained and your house safe and you’ve been watching Daily Web TV.