Learn about Furnace Maintenance

Meriel Bradly: 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. These are service technicians at Boonstra’s One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning is here to tell us how to treat a furnace and take furnace maintenance seriously. This is DailyWeb TV. We all try to make sure of 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 & Air Conditioning and that is Peter Temko. And now Peter we’re standing in the basement which is where with the furnace is. Peter Temko: Alright. Meriel Bradly: Is the furnace a challenging piece of equipment to maintain? Peter Temko: The newer pieces of a 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 Bradly: So do you think that the furnace is something that people kind of ignore because its 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 it’s running, it’s fine and when it’s not running it’s when it’s all of a sudden everything is in a high state of affairs. As long as it is there, they don’t care about it. Meriel Bradly: Now, the air condition is attached to the furnace. Do you maintain and service both at the same time? Peter Temko: Yes we do. We try and split the visits up, so you get more bang for your bug. You get a preventative maintenance on your furnace and one for your air conditioner. Air conditioners are the same, people just— if it’s cool it’s cool if, it’s not it’s not, but as far as maintenance goes as it’s all tightened. The furnace’s filter is critical, lack of airflow, 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 backup, the water falls and 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, plus the drain lines, check the 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 are a lot of things people don’t do when it comes to a AC. Meriel Bradly: I’m standing in here great. This is me, I think I need you to come to visit my house. Peter Temko: Well, you have to make sure the humidifier is shutdown for the summer because the air condition is just pulling humidity out and the humidifier is putting it back in, so you want to make sure that’s turned off for the summer and the damper is closed. Meriel Bradly: 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? Am I safer in my house? Peter Temko: A yearly inspection, you’re a lot safer. We come in and do our safety inspection and CO 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 tune up. People take their cars in and have the oil change, but they don’t touch their furnaces so it that does need to be looked after. Meriel Bradly: So, you say you check the CO level, 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 it start 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 whistles will go off if something does go off. Most homeowners now should have carbon, in older pieces of equipment, Carbon Monoxide detectors in their houses just for safety reasons. Meriel Bradly: So, do you check those as well when you come in those transmitters? Peter Temko: The carbon monoxide detectors should be replaced every five years like smoke detectors. Meriel Bradly: Okay. Peter Temko: That’s something a lot of people don’t know about that they are actually ionizers are in there looking for CO. Meriel Bradly: Right. Peter Temko: It has no smell. So homeowners can’t smell the CO until it goes off. A lot of people have them put in a wrong spots. They should have one on every level more critical in the sleeping area. Meriel Bradly: 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, as we suggest, I do myself that. Do you have them? Depending on the older pieces of equipment, it’s more critical that they have them. Just recently, Ontario is passing a lot, it’s like the smoke detectors every house must have one. Meriel Bradly: Wow! Which is great, so it keeps us all safe. Peter Temko: Right. Meriel Bradly: So, that’s one thing that you check for. Now, as a homeowner, am I suppose to change the filter every month? I said am I supposed to. Peter Temko: They have different filters and require different maintenance. Meriel Bradly: Okay. Peter Temko: One inch filters, there’s different brands in the market and filters that are the —you can pick it up in the see through. They recommend they’ll be change monthly or as needed. Meriel Bradly: Right. Peter Temko: Pleated filters, every three months or as needed. So it depends on what you have as your filtration based on what is required. They have box filters that are required yearly maintenance. They should be change yearly. Electronic air cleaners should be washed and cleaned every two to three months. Meriel Bradly: Right. So again, by having a professional come in I’m now looking out my furnace — modifies. 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. It’s like a car, the gas pressures have to be checked, the higher the gas pressure, you’re over firing, you’re creating more carbon monoxide, you’re using more gas, dirty filters causing 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 set-up then you’re saving money on hydro and your gas bill. Meriel Bradly: Now, if we want you to come in and schedule a yearly check up. It’s easy for us to get a hold of you. I know there’s a website. Peter Temko: Right. Meriel Bradly: Boonstrasonehour.com, is that correct? Peter Temko: Yes, that’s correct. Meriel Bradly: And then the phone number? Peter Temko: You can talk to the girls of the office. We’ll set up a time for a technician to show up and at your convenience. Meriel Bradly: 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 the company. Peter Temko: Right, a lot of companies will you know, get there when they get there. Meriel Bradly: Yeah. Peter Temko: But in Boonstra’s as we pride ourselves on getting there when we tell you we’ll be there. Meriel Bradly: Nothing like great service. Thank you so much. Peter Temko: Thank you, you’re welcome. Meriel Bradly: Now, if you want more information, be sure to check out the website. I’m Meriel Bradely. We’ve been talking about keeping your furnace maintained and your house safe and you’ve been watching DailyWeb TV.