Furnace Maintenance

Inspect furnace before cold weather hits
Maintenance can save money, improve safety

By MORRIS and JAMES CAREY
Associated Press

With cold weather rapidly approaching, it's a good idea to inspect your home heating system to make sure that it's safe and in peak operating condition.

Ideally, the furnace should be inspected by a heating professional at least once a year just before its start-up for the season. Many heating companies offer annual maintenance contracts. Even if you do your own maintenance, the system should be inspected by a professional every three to five years.

Always be sure that the power is turned off to the unit before attempting repairs. The first step in a tune-up is filter replacement. The filter protects the blower from dust and dirt that would otherwise damage the motor. The filter also helps reduce the amount of dust discharged throughout the house.

The filter is typically located where the cool air enters the furnace — just behind the grille at the cold air return or at the entrance to the blower chamber or sometimes at both locations. For most furnaces the filter slides in and out.

Be a smart buyer. Don't buy just one filter; buy a full case. The per-filter price drops significantly and you'll have replacement filters handy so you can replace them every one to three months of blower use. Homes with pets or homes that are in dusty areas will require replacement more often.

Once you have the furnace filter removed, it's a great opportunity to tidy up the blower compartment. Use a vacuum cleaner with an upholstery brush attachment to remove dust and debris. Then, vacuum soot and other debris from the interior of the fire box or burner chamber. Use caution when working at the interior of the burner chamber because many are lined with a fibrous material.

Next turn to the ducting and cold air return as well. This is more of a health issue than one that relates to furnace efficiency. This is of special importance to people with respiratory illness or allergies.

Dust, dirt, pollen, animal dander and other airborne contaminants are pulled into the ducting each time the blower is operated. These contaminants build up in the ductwork and can make the system an ideal breeding ground for mold spores, bacteria and foul odors.

Duct cleaning is not something that can be done effectively by the do-it-yourselfer. The process, which costs about $300 to $500 for the average home, uses a powerful portable vacuum along with an "air snake," which is fed through all of the ducting. The air strips the interior of the ducts and feeds the debris into the special vacuum. This process should be performed every one to five years, depending upon accumulation. Check with a heating contractor for a referral.

Loose fan belts not only make the furnace operate less efficiently, they can also make quite a racket. For most furnaces fan belt tension can be adjusted at the motor brackets. A properly adjusted fan belt should "give" about half an inch. A badly worn belt should be replaced with a new one.

If the furnace is oil-fired, the bearing at the pump motor should be oiled with a few drops of fine machine oil. The fuel filter in the main oil line should also be replaced annually. The burners should be checked every two to five years to make sure that they mix the correct amount of fuel and air for proper combustion.

Smoke emission tests should be made for oil furnaces. Black smudges surrounding the door to the burner compartment are a sign of poor combustion and the need for burner adjustment.

The replacement of the fuel nozzle on an oil-fired furnace with a smaller nozzle can greatly diminish its fuel consumption. This will cause the furnace to run for longer periods and consume less fuel. It can cost in the neighborhood of $50 and is especially effective on energy-guzzling older furnaces.

As with an oil-fired furnace, the burners for a gas-fired furnace or boiler should be checked for proper combustion every two to five years by a heating professional. The heat exchanger should be inspected once each year for leakage or dangerous combustion gases. Many local utility companies will perform this service at no charge or for a modest fee. Whenever the smell of gas is present around the furnace, the gas supply to a gas-fired furnace or boiler should be turned off and the utility company or a heating professional should be notified. The system should not be used until it is inspected and repaired.

One way to make your gas-fired furnace more efficient is to replace the pilot light with an electronic ignition system. This can cost $200 to $300 but will ultimately pay for itself in energy savings.

For homes with forced air heating, the ducting has a great deal to do with the overall effectiveness of the system. Many older homes have ducting that is rusted through, allowing heated air to escape into attics, basements and crawl spaces. Poorly sealed connections and non-insulated ducting are other big energy wasters.

Damaged ducting should be replaced with new material. All joints and connections should be secured with screws and sealed with silver duct tape. Non-insulated ducts should be wrapped with 1-inch-thick fiberglass duct insulation. The material can be secured with silver duct tape. •

Tips for keeping heating costs down

The price of natural gas and other heating fuels are likely to be high this winter. You can, however, hold your expenses down.
While it's still warm enough to work outside but cool enough to work in your attic is a good time to take care of the chores that will make your house more airtight and easier to heat this winter.
Before you get to the point where your furnace is on every day, do as many of these things as practical:
• Inspect your heating system or have it inspected.
• Check the insulation in your attic, exterior walls and above unheated basements and crawl spaces. Adding attic insulation gives you more bang for the buck than most other energy efficiency measures.
• Check windows and doors for leaks. Walk around the house on a breezy day with a smoldering incense stick. Holding the stick near windows and other openings will reveal drafts.
• Caulk stationary joints. Places where two housing elements come together, such as the seams where window frames meet siding, should be sealed with latex caulk containing silicone. Old, dried caulk along seams should be scraped away and replaced.
• Use weather-stripping between moving house parts. A wooden door slab closing against a wooden or metal door frame will not seal completely. Materials that give a little can conform to the high and low places along the joints improving the seal. Plastic or copper V-shaped strips are good for sealing door edges. Felt, pliable rubber and foam rubber weather-stripping can help make windows airtight.
• Inspect door sweeps and replace as needed. One of the biggest potential draft sources is the gap under doors. Sweeps with flexible materials that seal tightly to the door's threshold are invaluable, but they can deteriorate after years of use. If you have an attached garage, you need a seal at the bottom of the garage door.
• Install a programmable thermostat. These devices turn down your home's heating system during the hours you are usually asleep or away from home. A rule of thumb is to lower the thermostat one degree for every two hours you don't need heat.
• Find out the energy efficiency of your current furnace. The efficiency rating may be posted on the furnace, or you might have to contact the manufacturer. If your furnace is 10 years old or older, it probably is considerably less efficient than furnaces being installed today. Replacing a 60%-efficient furnace with an 85%-efficient furnace would reduce a $300 natural gas bill to about $210.

— JAMES CUMMINGS,

COX NEWS SERVICE