How to Extend the Lifecycle of Your Cedarburg, WI Heating System

If your heating system has been working overtime for years to keep your Cedarburg, WI house warm and comfortable, it may be time to get it serviced. Although standard furnaces have a lifetime of 15 years, they frequently fail due to improper maintenance. Attention and regular maintenance, on the other hand, can make your furnace survive longer than its actual lifecycle. The following provides a few pointers to help you extend the lifecycle of your heating system and keep it in good working order.

Replace Your Air Filters

A clogged filter will make your furnace work harder. Dust, dirt, and other indoor contaminants are held in your filter, so they don’t recirculate through the air in your house. If you don’t replace that clogged-up filter, your system will have to work harder to pull air through it, potentially resulting in costly furnace repairs.

So, how frequently should you change your HVAC filter? The general rule is to change it every two to three months. However, if you have pets or household members with allergies, try changing your filter each month.

Have Your Ducts Cleaned

Your ductwork, like any other equipment, requires frequent cleaning and maintenance. Because air ducts are the medium that allows the heated air to enter your home, they are easily polluted with dirt, allergens, and other particles that degrade your air quality. Furthermore, unclean air ducts make your furnace operate harder than it should, thus reducing its lifespan.

As a result, to enhance your home’s air quality, arrange professional HVAC ductwork cleaning. If your home has allergic members, pets, or smokers, you should get your ductwork cleaned more frequently.

Upgrade Your Thermostat

The lifespan of your Cedarburg, WI furnace is determined by how hard you push it. If you’re at the office for eight hours daily but keep your furnace on full blast, you’ll be overworking your system and overpaying on your electricity bills.

Invest in a smart thermostat instead of needing to recall setting your thermostat before going out. You may program your thermostat to alter the temperature of your house depending on the time of day. Set your programmable thermostat’s temperature back by 7-10 degrees for eight hours each day to save the most money. This method can save you up to 10% on your heating expenditures.

Insulate Your Home

If your home has any openings through which heated air might escape, you must seal those gaps immediately. The loss of heated air would significantly increase your utility costs and make your heating system work harder to achieve your desired temperature.

Ensure that no heated air is escaping from the gaps in your ductwork, windows, doors, or any other house components. Maintain your home’s insulation and seal all leaks and cracks as soon as possible.

Use Fans Clockwise

Have you ever seen the tiny switch on the back of your ceiling fan? This is where you may change the rotation of the fan blades. Most people believe that ceiling fans are exclusively used to cool space. However, this is only true if the rotors are turned counter-clockwise. Change the direction of your ceiling fan to clockwise to help warm a space. This draws cold air up and forces any heated air from the ceiling downwards along your walls and onto the flooring.

Using this tactic will make your spaces warmer without requiring you to turn on your heating system. In fact, homeowners who utilize ceiling fans during winter can save 15% on heating costs. This also means that you’re not running your furnace until it’s necessary, which considerably extends its lifespan.

Perform Regular Maintenance

The best way of showing that you care about your furnace is by giving it seasonal maintenance. Get expert maintenance on your system every autumn before turning up your heating system. Allowing an HVAC expert to fully examine and clean your entire system on a regular basis may significantly increase the lifespan of your furnace. A clean furnace will not only operate more effectively than a filthy one but having a maintenance check will also allow our experts to notice any possible repair issues and solve them immediately before they cause significant harm to your system.

We are a certified, experienced, and licensed company serving Cedarburg, WI residents. Our experts can service or perform annual maintenance to keep your furnace working properly. We also offer furnace installation, cooling services, electrical installation, and indoor air quality service. Call Hometown Heating, Air & Electric today to set up an appointment.

What’s the Difference Between a Heat Pump and Furnace?

There’s a large draw toward heat pumps given their vastly superior efficiency rating. However, they may not be appropriate for every circumstance. Discover the differences between heat pumps and furnaces as you consider what’s best for your home.

Are There Similarities?

Before looking at what makes these systems different, let’s look at how they’re similar. Both still require air to flow through your house and the system. That means both will have air filters that need periodic changing. It also means that both will need routine maintenance to maintain their operational efficiency.

A professional should also size and install both. Getting a unit that’s too large or too small can have detrimental effects on the system, let alone your utility expenses. Further, both are hazardous to install if not done properly.

Furnaces Generate Heat

Furnaces generate heat to keep your house warm. Depending on your particular unit, it either does this with an electric resistance element or by burning a furnace fuel, which is more common. In southeastern Wisconsin, the most common fuel type is natural gas, which is run to individual homes through underground lines. In more rural areas or with older houses, there may be a fuel tank outside the house, which is usually either propane or oil.

Heat Pumps Transfer Heat

Heat pumps act more like an air conditioner in that their job is to transfer heat, not generate it. Just like an AC unit will absorb heat from the air inside of your home in the summer, making it cooler, it absorbs heat from the outside air in the winter.

This may seem a little odd since you probably think the air outside in the winter is cold. However, it’s cold because your skin and body temperature are warm. When the refrigerant in the heat pump system cycles to the coils outside, it expands and becomes very cold. This difference in temperature allows it to absorb heat, even from what you might think is cold.

When the refrigerant moves into the house, the compressor forces more refrigerant into a smaller space. This increases the pressure, which raises the temperature, allowing it to transfer the heat to the air inside of your home.

Since the heat pump isn’t actually producing heat, the air coming from your vents may not feel as warm as that from a furnace. Heat pumps tend to run nearly constantly in cold weather to keep your home comfortable.

Furnaces Are More Efficient in Colder Weather

Heat pumps can only transfer heat as long as the coils remain colder than the air temperature. The closer the air temperature gets to the temperature of the coils, the less efficiently it runs. The particular heat pump you have will determine the operational temperature range, with most models starting to lose efficiency around 40 degrees Fahrenheit and not working below 25 degrees.

This is why it’s recommended to have a secondary heat source for when the temperatures enter dangerously low ranges in Wisconsin. The most common is to have a furnace that will automatically kick in when temperatures drop below an efficient range. This ensures you’re always running the most efficient heating source for your home. Most all-electric models come with an electric resistance element heater. However, you may opt for a dual-fuel model, which has a standard gas or oil furnace as part of the package.

You Can Both Heat and Cool With a Heat Pump

One of the major draws for heat pumps is that they can pull double duty, both heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. These systems come equipped with a reversing valve, which changes the direction the refrigerant flows in the system. Over the summer, the inside part of the system is low pressure. However, it becomes high pressure during the winter.

Changing from heating to cooling mode is as simple as switching the setting on your thermostat. Simply hit a button or flip a switch, and the system knows what needs to change internally. Just be sure to adjust the temperature properly and reset your programs for the change of seasons.

Hometown Heating, Air & Electric has been the service provider of choice for people around Cedarburg since 2016. Our award-winning technicians proudly provide air conditioning and heating maintenance, installation, and repair combined with indoor air quality solutions. Call today to schedule your consultation with one of our expert installers to discuss the right system for your home.

Common Furnace Noises and What They Mean

When your furnace suddenly starts making strange sounds, it’s only natural to be concerned. You may be worried about spending a bunch of money on repairs, having your heating system break down on you, or even, in the worst-case scenarios, needing to replace your furnace altogether. Don’t panic yet, though. While many noises can represent problems and should not be taken lightly, the majority of them can be minimized if you’re proactive about it. Knowing what each type of noise means can help you save yourself quite a bit of discomfort and money.

Whistling Noise

A whistling noise is one of the least serious sounds you may hear coming from your heating system. The furnace’s air filter causes this noise in most cases. That air filter protects the furnace by trapping floating particles of dust and dirt, but when the filter itself becomes clogged, it makes it harder for the heating unit to pull air through. This is where the whistling noise is coming from, and you should take the sound as a signal that it’s time to replace the air filter with a new, clean one. Ideally, you should try to make this change a regular part of your furnace care routine.

Banging or Booming Noises

If you’re hearing occasional or even regular banging or booming noises coming from your furnace, you shouldn’t ignore it. These sounds typically happen with gas-burning furnaces, which usually means that gas is building up within the appliance. The noise happens when there is a delay with the ignition of the gas burners, which is usually caused by one of the burners being dirty or clogged. You won’t want to try and fix this yourself, and you also shouldn’t wait around to bring in a professional because a malfunctioning gas burner can sometimes cause damage to the heat exchanger, which is a more serious problem.

Screeching or Shrieking

If you’re hearing a high-pitched screeching, shrieking, or squealing sound coming from your furnace, it’s certainly annoying, but it’s probably not all that serious. In most cases, it’s caused by a motor issue such as a loose or damaged belt or possibly just a loose screw. It may also mean that the bearings need to be lubricated so that they can operate more smoothly. It will be hard to tell on your own which of these is actually causing it, so your best bet will be to bring in a heating technician as soon as you can.

Popping Noises

If you’re hearing occasional popping sounds coming from your HVAC system, the issue may actually be taking place in your air vents as opposed to inside your furnace. Your heating system uses these ducts to circulate heat throughout your household. However, sometimes when that warm air from the furnace comes in contact with the cold metal of the ducts, the metal starts to expand, which can result in those popping sounds that you’re hearing. In most cases, this is nothing to worry about, but for your own peace of mind, you may consider bringing in a ductwork expert for an inspection.

Rattling Noises

If your furnace is regularly making a rattling noise while it operates, you would be wise to turn the appliance off until you’re able to have it professionally inspected. It’s possible that this noise is only being caused by a loose panel or screw, which is a relatively minor concern. Alternatively, it could be a more serious problem, such as a cracked heat exchanger, which can lead to carbon monoxide leaking into your home. Even if the problem is only a loose screw, that loose part may end up contacting and damaging other parts of the furnace, so you don’t want to take the risk of leaving it running.

At Hometown Heating, Air & Electric, we are a locally owned and operated business that has been serving the greater Cedarburg, WI, area since 2016. We strive to earn the trust of our community by treating them like friends and family and by providing them with excellent comfort services. Our areas of expertise include heating, cooling, and indoor air quality. We also fully believe in supporting our local community, which is why we participate in a variety of community and chamber events in the area.

Let our friendly team take care of your household needs. Give us a call at Hometown Heating, Air & Electric, and get an appointment on the books today.

5 Tips to Ensure That Your HVAC System Is Ready for Winter Storms

Everyone knows how bad winters can be around Cedarburg, including the infamous snowstorms. One of the many challenges these intense storms bring is keeping your HVAC system running strongly. Here are five tips to prepare your HVAC system for the storms that are sure to come this winter.

1. Schedule Your Heating Maintenance

The most important thing that you can do at the start of the season to prepare for the coming storms is to get your system’s routine maintenance performed. You’ll enjoy better efficiency throughout the entire season as a result. However, you’ll also stave off predictable breakdowns when extreme weather strikes.

Routine maintenance cleans your system to allow it to operate with less stress, extending the life of all system components. Additionally, it seeks to identify components operating suboptimally before the weather turns frigid. Any components already straining will fail with the additional strain this weather brings, leaving your house without heat and with expensive emergency repair bills.

2. Check Your Vents

Your system depends on air movement to efficiently heat your home. It creates air movement by producing high pressure at the output vents and low pressure at the return vent. If these vents are closed or obstructed, then the air doesn’t circulate properly throughout your home.

This also means that closed doors inhibit your system’s ability to heat your home. Sure, one room may seem pleasantly warm, but it means that your system runs longer to bring the rest of your home to your set temperature.

Whenever possible, keep all doors open to spaces that your heating system serves. Keep your vents open, and ensure that each one has at least a 2-inch clearance above and around it. This ensures that air can effectively flow from the vent and create that circulatory flow.

3. Keep Your Air Filter Clean

Your air filter is critical to keeping air flowing through your HVAC system. It removes particles that would otherwise settle on the sensitive internal components. But its placement means it also easily creates an airflow restriction at the start of your system if it gets clogged.

Most 1-inch filters need replacing about every 90 days if you have average air quality. However, freezing temperatures may make your home unusually dry, leading to more airborne particles. Keep some extra filters on hand in case you need to change your filters during a storm.

Plan to check your filter monthly over the winter to catch it early when it clogs. When you do check it, gently vacuum off the intake side to extend the filter life and prevent reduced airflow through your system between filter changes.

4. Fix Small Problems

Small problems may be difficult to catch if they occur after your maintenance visit. However, noticing small changes may help prevent unnecessary strain on your system before the bitter cold arrives. Some subtle signs that you should watch for include:

  • Reduced airflow from your vents
  • Unusually long heating cycles
  • Cooler air from your vents
  • Unusual rattles or squeals
  • Sooty residue around your vents

A clogged air filter may cause some of these, so check there first. If you’ve just changed your filter, or if it’s pretty clean, call for a certified technician to identify the underlying problem. This protects your system and family from an emergency repair at the time you depend on your system to stay safe.

5. Think Through a Generator

Winter storms notoriously knock out power for at least a short time. Think about whether you’ll try to use a portable generator when this happens. Plan for where you’ll set up the generator so that you don’t risk carbon monoxide poisoning.

Plan for how you’ll which appliances you’ll connect to the generator and how you’ll get them connected. Be sure that you have appropriately sized and rated extension cords and know how you’ll run them through your home. Consider firing up the generator at the beginning of the season to make sure that it starts and runs properly before you might need it.

When you need reliable HVAC service, trust the Hometown Heating, Air & Electric team. We’ve been serving Cedarburg since 2016. Our NATE-certified technicians provide heating and cooling installation, maintenance, and repair, along with indoor air quality solutions. Call to schedule your heating maintenance or repair with one of our expert technicians today.

What Happens During Furnace Maintenance?

HVAC maintenance has grown prominent in the minds of homeowners over the years, and rightly so. Properly maintaining your system is the difference between burning money versus keeping an efficient unit. Here’s what you can expect during a routine maintenance visit and why it’s important.

Safety Checks

Furnaces are so common in our homes that most of us forget there are risks with running them. You see the occasional warning about carbon monoxide poisoning, but you seldom see that risk connected to your furnace. There’s also the occasional story about a gas leak that leads to a house fire or an explosion.

Fortunately, these kinds of incidents are relatively rare, so we easily forget about them. However, when we neglect to take care of mitigating these risks, that’s where you see them start to crop up.

Further, you want to make sure the safety systems built into your heating system are working properly. These might include your gas shut-off switch as well as the heat safety switches.

Your annual furnace maintenance appointment will include the necessary checks to ensure your system will be safe this winter as it runs. Your technician will check for carbon monoxide levels around the furnace while it’s running. They’ll also look for any signs of gas leaks and test each of the safety components so that you can resolve problems before they become catastrophic.

Deep Cleaning

As air moves through your heating system, it deposits small particles that slip through your air filter onto your heat exchanger and circulating fan. As these collect, it inhibits your furnace’s ability to transfer heat and restricts the system’s airflow.

Your technician will gently clean both of these areas during your annual maintenance appointment. Care must be given to ensure they don’t damage either component, which can happen just by using the wrong cleaning products. This task is a major part of keeping your furnace operating at peak efficiency.

Function Testing

The only way to know whether your system is working properly is to objectively test its performance. This means running a full cycle to ensure the thermostat is sending the signal and that all the components engage at the right time.

Additionally, you want to make sure that your system is producing the right amount of heat. This is called the temperature rise, or how much warmer it makes the air than the ambient room temperature.

Your technician will run your system through an entire heating cycle to ensure that it works properly. While it’s running, they’ll double-check your heat rise to ensure it’s optimal. If anything comes up, you can get the needed repairs done without relying on an emergency repair before jeopardizing your family’s safety.

Component Inspection

Beyond testing, some of your components need a visual inspection to ensure they’re operating safely. This is especially true for your heat exchanger, which may crack over time. Your circulating fan motor, burner, and igniter may all show visible signs of problems and will be inspected during routine maintenance.

Tightening and Balancing

Your system creates vibration as it runs, which loosens some components’ mounting screws and electrical connections. Loose mounting bolts and screws lead to additional movement while your system runs, causing excessive strain on those components. Loose electrical connections create additional electrical resistance, which increases heat in electrical wiring and components.

Your circulating fan must also maintain balance to prevent damage to the motor and spindle. Dust collecting on the fan wheel and loose mounting bolts may cause the fan to go out of balance. All of these connections are tightened during your maintenance visit, and your circulating fan will be balanced to reduce the strain put on your system.

Why Maintenance Matters

If all of that isn’t enough to convince you of how important furnace maintenance is, consider your system’s warranty. Manufacturers understand all of what is described above and recognize that without proper maintenance, your furnace will experience preventable repairs. To reduce the risk of these warranty claims, they often require regular maintenance as a term of the warranty.

Even if your unit is no longer under warranty, attending to these areas reduces your overall operating costs. Keeping your system running efficiently lowers your utility costs, reduces preventable repairs, and extends the lifespan of your appliance. There’s little you can do for your system that’s as reasonably priced as annual maintenance.

People throughout Cedarburg have trusted Hometown Heating, Air & Electric to keep their homes warm since 2016. Our NATE-certified technicians provide heating and air conditioning installation, maintenance, and repairs as well as indoor air quality solutions. Call to schedule your furnace maintenance appointment with one of our expert technicians today.

Are Electric Furnaces an Energy-Efficient Option?

In the quest for greater efficiency in your home, one important component to consider is the furnace. After all, during a Cedarburg winter, a furnace gets used extensively, resulting in significant energy usage. If you currently have a gas furnace, you may wonder if an electric furnace offers better efficiency and the possibility of a lower utility bill. By understanding how an electric furnace from Hometown Heating, Air & Electric operates, you will be well-equipped to understand the nuances of energy-efficiency when it comes to furnaces.

Turning Fuel Into Energy

The efficiency of a gas furnace is rated with a measurement called the AFUE rating. AFUE standards for annual fuel utilization efficiency. This standard looks at how efficient a furnace is at turning the fuel it uses into useful energy. Specifically, the more heat that a furnace can create from a specific amount of energy, the higher its AFUE rating will be.

A common furnace of today will have an AFUE of around 80. High-efficiency furnaces range anywhere from 90 to 98, although the high end of this range can be quite expensive. However, electric furnaces from Hometown Heating, Air & Electric beat every gas furnace in terms of efficiency since they have an equivalent AFUE rating of around 100%. This makes sense when you consider that a gas furnace has to turn its fuel into a flame, meaning that at least a small amount of the fuel that a gas furnace takes in is lost as light energy instead of being transformed into heat energy.

Not as Fast

Unfortunately, efficiency alone isn’t enough to grant you a lower utility bill, at least when it comes to furnaces. That’s because the fuel that is used by a gas furnace is utilized more effectively than in an electric furnace. In a gas furnace, the heat that is created is at a much higher temperature than in an electric furnace.

Therefore, even though some energy is inevitably lost in a gas furnace from Hometown Heating, Air & Electric, it only has to run for a short period of time to bring your home to the desired temperature. This means that a gas furnace is able to make up for any efficiency shortfalls by utilizing less fuel overall. On top of that, natural gas and fuel oil are much less expensive per unit than electricity, meaning that your utility bill will likely be less with a gas furnace even if it’s an older model with an efficiency below 80%.

Still Plenty of Perks

Although an electric furnace is more expensive to operate, there are still advantages to owning an electric furnace. For one, an electric furnace doesn’t bring with it any risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from natural gas. Although electricity can cause an electrical fire, a properly installed electric furnace is a very low-risk appliance.

Plus, electric furnaces are quieter because they don’t require a burner or a draft inducer to operate. Additionally, you can operate an electric furnace without a flue. If you don’t already have a flue installed, this can save you significant money on installation costs. Perhaps the best part of an electric furnace, though, is that its initial price is lower, making it more affordable if you need to replace your furnace but have a limited budget to do so.

An Even Better Option

If you don’t currently have gas service at your home and you need an efficient option to heat your home with electricity, a heat pump from Hometown Heating, Air & Electric is the best way to go. Heat pumps don’t require any gas to operate because they extract heat from the outside air to heat your home. All that’s needed is a marginal amount of electricity to keep the extraction process going.

For the cold Wisconsin winters, your best bet is a geothermal heat pump that utilizes the consistent ground temperature to keep your home warm. However, even an air-source heat pump can be quite useful and still save a fair amount of energy compared to a conventional electric furnace. Therefore, even with only an electric supply, you have plenty of options to keep your home comfortable this winter.

Keeping You Warm on the Coldest Days

At Hometown Heating, Air & Electric, we understand just how cold the winters around here can get. That’s why we take pride in offering superb maintenance, repair, and installation services for heating systems of all types. We can also perform those same services for air conditioners so you can stay comfortable in the summer, as well. Our many years of exceptional service has resulted in an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and countless five-star customer reviews. To learn more about your options for heating your home this winter, contact us today.