Summer is coming to a close, and although we can still expect some warm weather through the early fall, now is an excellent time to begin planning ahead for your heating system. You probably haven’t thought about your home’s heater for a while, but before you know it, you’ll need to have your furnace or boiler working once more to keep you and your family comfortable.

When you turn your heating system back on for the cold season, you don’t just want it to work right: you want it to work well, without draining excess energy to perform its job. To see that your heater will work at its best, arrange your annual heating maintenance. A technician will look over your system to see that it isn’t in need of repairs and that it will keep working without wasting power.

Call Lifeline Plumbing today to set up an appointment for heating maintenance in Schaumburg, IL. Signing up for one of our maintenance plans will bring you additional savings and benefits.

Maintenance and heating efficiency

The principle way that regular maintenance improves a heater’s efficiency is that it reduces the effects of aging on the heater. As a heater gets older, its parts will wear down and grow dirty, and this will lead to it working harder in order to achieve its standard level of heating. Technicians during maintenance will handle the adjustments, fine-tuning, and replacements that will keep wear and tear from harming efficiency.

Cleaning component in the heater is an important part of protecting its efficiency. For example, in gas-powered furnaces (the most common type of heater found in homes), dirt and grime along the burner will lead to energy waste as the burner struggles to create enough heat to work. Technicians will check the burner to see if it needs cleaning, and remove it and wipe away the dirt and dust if it does.

The maintenance technicians will also see if the thermostat that controls the heater is fine-tuned and properly calibrated. Even if the thermostat is only a few degrees off, this can cause the heater to run poorly and waste energy.

Maintenance targets where repairs and replacements are necessary to prevent larger repairs in the future. As long as a heater runs with a repair need, it will run less effectively—even if you can’t detect a difference in heating power. Prompt heating repairs will help restore any loss in efficient energy use.

If you keep up with maintenance every year for your heating system, it should retain 95% of its efficiency throughout its service life. But for every year that you miss maintenance, the heater will lose, on average, 5% efficiency. Don’t let your heater decline long before its time, and avoid unnecessary elevated bills:

Call for heating maintenance in Schaumburg, IL from Lifeline Plumbing as soon as you can so you’re prepared for that inevitable first cold day.