Home Heating System Didn't Work Well All Winter? 2 Reasons It Is Important To Have It Repaired Before You Begin Using Your AC
If your home heating system was "acting up" this past winter, yet was still heating your home, then you may have decided to put off having it repaired in case the HVAC expert would have to shut it off while inspecting and repairing it -- when temperatures drop below freezing, the thought of not having your heating system running for even a few hours can feel daunting. Now that the temperatures are rising, now is the best time to have your heating system repaired.
Aside from the possibility that you may forget to have your home heating system repaired if you put it off until next fall when the temperatures begin to drop, read on to learn two additional reasons why you should really have it looked into now before you begin using your home's air conditioning system this summer.
1. A Duct Problem May Cause Cooling Bills to Sky-Rocket This Summer
If your furnace seemed to be functioning relatively well, yet your home just didn't seem to get as warm as it should have when the heating system was on, then the problem may lie within your HVAC air duct system. The ducts may have become leaky, and energystar.gov warns that, in an average home, as much as 20 to 30 percent of heated or cooled air produced by a home's HVAC system escapes through duct leaks before it ever gets a chance to begin heating or cooling the rooms in a home. If your ducts are especially leaky, then you may have been losing even more air than this during the winter.
If you also have a central air conditioning system in your home, then your furnace is not the only part of your HVAC system that relies on your air duct system to circulate air; these ducts also transmit cooled air throughout your home during the summer when your AC unit is turned on. This means that if your home wasn't becoming warm enough this winter due to duct problems, then there is a high likelihood that you will also have difficulty getting your home cool when running your AC this summer.
If your HVAC air duct system is leaky, then you are not only sacrificing temperature control in your home year-round, but also allowing a lot of heated or cooled air to "go to waste" as it is released through the leaks in your HVAC ducts before it gets the chance to travel into the various rooms of your home to heat or cool them. This may have already caused your winter heating bill to sky-rocket, and if you don't have your leaky ducts repaired before you begin using your air conditioning system, then you can look forward to cooling bills that are much more expensive this summer than they likely ever were in the past.
A residential heating repair technician can examine your HVAC ducts to see where the warm air was escaping all winter and then take steps to seal the leaks and/or holes before you begin losing all of your cool air this summer.
2. A Faulty Thermostat Will Also Affect Your Cooling System
If you cranked up your home's thermostat in an attempt to heat your home to a comfortable temperature this winter, yet your home didn't seem to warm up anywhere near the temperature you had your thermostat set on, then your home heating problem may have lied in a faulty or malfunctioning thermostat. As you likely know, that thermostat also communicates with your air-conditioning system if you have central air, and that means that if your heating problem was due to a faulty thermostat, then you may also have problems cooling your home properly this summer.
Your home's thermostat has many parts, and it could need just a simple repair, like an anticipator adjustment or recallibration that would take a residental heating repair technician just minutes to perform. However, it could have a more serious problem or have gone completely bad. No matter what ends up being wrong with your thermostat, a repair or replacement will be well worth it when your AC bills don't skyrocket this summer due to problems the faulty thermostat causes and your home heating system works well next winter.
If your home heating system wasn't working well this past winter, but you put off having it repaired due to fear that the repair technician would have to turn it off while repairing it and "leave you in the cold" for a few hours, then realize that it is important to have it looked into before you begin using your air conditioning system this summer. If the problem lies within a part of your HVAC system that both your heating and air conditioning systems use, then a repair now can help keep your family cool this summer without sky-high cooling bills.
For more information, contact a professional HVAC repair company, such as A & E Heating and AC Inc.