What You Must Know Before Buying a Furnace for Your Gainesville Home
We know that not everyone may need a new furnace right now, but it’s important to learn the keys that will likely influence your choice when you are ready to buy. Below are five important considerations that Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning advises our customers to think about during their evaluation:
1. Heating Repair Frequency
Just like any appliance, as furnaces age, the probability of frequent heating repairs increase. If your heating equipment is over 15 years old, you might start to experience relatively expensive repairs. Costly, yet typical repairs include blower motor failures, ignition control failures and heat exchanger failures.
2. Operational Cost
The efficiency of gas furnaces in Gainesville area homes today naturally influences your home energy bills, and the level of efficiency can vary tremendously depending upon the system you buy. Furnaces older than 15 years can be terribly inefficient, wasting up to 40% of the dollars you spend to heat your home. Even the latest models of furnaces can waste up to 20%.
3. System Maintenance
A correctly maintained furnace will run more efficiently, reduce the likelihood of expensive repairs and most of all ensure your safety. After all, these are gas-fired appliances. Another point worth mentioning is a properly tuned furnace will last longer before replacement is necessary.
4. Tune-up Checks
Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning often receives questions concerning what really can be done to tune-up or maintain a furnace and there are actually many essential checks and calibrations in the process:
- Gas Pressure and gas valve calibration
- Cleaning and checking safety switches
- Cleaning the heat exchanger
- Inspecting the heat exchanger for dangerous conditions
- Cleaning the blower system
- Cleaning and replacement of worn ignition sensors
- Others...
5. HVAC Maintenance Interval
A certified technician who has the education to perform a tune-up should maintain heating equipment each year. In short, without routine maintenance, frequent repairs combined with old equipment are a couple of the more obvious indicators of a need to replace your furnace.
Excessive energy costs and the need to reduce energy consumption are also strong reasons to weigh the replacement of your furnace. In fact, an independent study by Decision Analyst shows nearly 20% of homeowners who recently replaced their furnace specifically did so to lower their utility bills.
Gainesville area homeowners seeking more information are urged to call Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning at 352-414-4006.
