Heating
Furnace maintenance in Kansas City, KS

As we enter the winter season, it’s necessary to get your heating system ready to meet all your heating needs. It’s never a good idea to wait unit you need to be using your heating system to test it out for the first time. In fact, there are various things you’ll want to do to ensure that your heating system will work effectively to evenly heat your home.

Get Professional Service

The best place to start your heating system preparation is by scheduling professional maintenance service. This service will ensure that your system is working at peak efficiency so that it can produce adequate heat for your home. It also helps to identify any potential problems with your system while they’re small and easier to fix.

Consider Ducting Services

One of the biggest reasons that you may experience uneven heating in your home is due to your ductwork. When there’s a restriction in your ducting or a large leak, it can prevent hot air from reaching one or more rooms in your home. A great way to remedy these problems is with duct cleaning and sealing service. Duct cleaning will remove any internal debris, like dust and pet hair, that could be blocking the airflow throughout your system. Sealing service will seal up any air leaks to ensure there’s no heat loss.

Consider HVAC Zoning

HVAC zoning is a great way to help promote even heating of your home. It basically splits up your home into different zones that are controlled via their own thermostat. One of the most common scenarios for HVAC zoning is a two-story home. It’s very common in this household setting for hot air to drift upstairs and keep your second level at a higher temperature than your first level.

HVAC zoning can allow you to easily provide heat for the lower level of your home without wasting energy heating the upstairs. This will allow both levels to remain at a fairly even temperature while saving money in the process.

Seal Up Air Leaks

One of the biggest culprits of uneven household heating is air leaks. These leaks typically happen around door and window frames. As cold air from outside seeps into your room, it can cause the temperature to drop. Sealing up potential air leaks with caulking or weatherstripping is a great way to reduce cold air seepage into your home.

Ensure Adequate Insulation

Insulation plays a key role in resisting the cold air from affecting the interior temperature of your home. As insulation ages, it’s going to become less efficient. Furthermore, if it gets moved out of place or ripped apart due to pests, it can further lose its thermal resistance.

Opt for checking your insulation and replacing any missing pieces. Your insulation should sit just above the floor joists in your attic. If it sits below that level, consider adding more. You want to ensure that your insulation has an R-value that either meets or exceeds the recommended value for your local area.

Use Ceiling Fans in Reverse

Another great way to promote even heating throughout your home during the wintertime is with ceiling fans. Be sure to run them in reverse mode where they will force air outward instead of down. This will allow hot air stuck near your ceilings to move outward throughout your entire home. Opt for having functional ceiling fans in all the major rooms of your home, like your bedroom, living room, and kitchen.

Ensure Adequate Airflow at Vents

Air vents are crucial for delivering hot air throughout all the rooms of your home. It’s important to double-check each air vent to ensure that it’s in the open position. Furthermore, inspect the area around the vent for any obstructions. Each vent should have at least three feet of open space around it to ensure optimal airflow in or out, depending on whether it’s a supply or return vent.

Upgrade Your Thermostat

Thermostats tend to have a usable lifespan of around 10 to 15 years. As they near the end of their lifespan, they can lose their calibration and misread the temperature. Furthermore, if they’re placed in a less-than-ideal location, such as in direct sunlight, they can read the wrong room temperature.

If your existing thermostat is over 10 years old, it may be time to consider upgrading. A new thermostat will be calibrated correctly and our HVAC technicians can ensure that it’s installed in an ideal location free from any exterior temperature influences.

Upgrade Your Heating System

As a heating system ages, it will start to operate less and less efficiently. In fact, it may struggle to produce an adequate amount of heat to warm your entire home. If your heating system is over 10 years old, it’s time to consider an upgrade. If you’ve recently added an addition to your home, you may need to upgrade to a larger heating system that can produce enough hot air for your home.

Keep Up With Filter Changes

The HVAC filter inside your heating system is a necessity to ensure that airborne particles, like dust, don’t make their way inside your system. However, when the filter traps too much debris over time, it will create a wall that’s much more challenging for your heating system to pull air through. Keeping up with regular HVAC filter changes can help to ensure that your heating system can stay functioning at its most optimal.

Get a Home Energy Assessment

A home energy assessment or audit is where an HVAC technician will come out to your home and assess areas of energy loss. This includes areas where your home may be losing heat and causing excessive running of your heating system. By getting an assessment, you can learn about problem areas in your home so you can effectively address them to promote more even household heating.

Be Mindful of Blind Usage

When direct sunlight is able to pour into your home due to open blinds and curtains, it can heat up a room’s temperature by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. While sunlight can be a great source of free heat for your home, it can lead to uneven heating issues. Rooms that get direct sunlight will be much warmer than those that don’t.

If your thermostat is in a room that receives regular direct sunlight, it can read a higher room temperature than the other rooms in your home. For this reason, it’s important to be very mindful of your blind usage. You may want to consider shutting your blinds to prevent the room that your thermostat is in from heating up excessively and conversely not turning on your heating system to warm up the rest of your home.

Exceptional Heating Maintenance Service

MVP Air Conditioning, Heating, Plumbing & Electric offers exceptional heating maintenance service for the Lenexa, KS area. Our technicians can assist with all your cooling, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, zoning, indoor air quality, thermostat, and heat pump needs. Book an appointment by calling our office today.

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