The first precept of a popular self-help book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is “be proactive.” “Proactive” has since become one of those empty business buzzwords like “paradigm” or “dynamic,” but the underlying premise, that’s it’s better to act first rather than to react, is a solid one. It’s such a universal concept that we can readily export it from the boardroom to the basement and apply it to our furnaces.
When you perform maintenance on your HVAC system on a schedule rather than when you encounter a problem, you’re being proactive by practicing preventative maintenance. This is important because while HVAC technology has come a long way since the days of wood-burning stoves and blocks of ice, systems are not yet so advanced that they can fix their problems themselves. Dust that accumulates in air conditioners keeps accumulating. Hairline fractures become full cracks. Though HVAC technicians are happy to provide annual tune-ups for your furnace that will keep it working its best, not all maintenance needs to be in an expert’s hands. If you understand the importance of HVAC preventative maintenance, you can do your part to keep your system optimal and bring in the experts when needed.
Maintain Peak Efficiency
Your furnace’s Average Fuel Utilization Efficiency rating plays a big part in its selection. Furnaces that boast AFUEs above 90 lose very little of their heat energy to exhaust, getting the most out of the fuel you burn. Without routine preventative maintenance, however, that number is less of a report and more of an aspiration. By checking in on your furnace, particularly by making regular filter changes, you can keep your fuel efficiency high and your oil or gas bills low. Save yourself trips to the store by buying your HVAC filters online.
Stay Safe
Preventative maintenance keeps you and your family safe in many respects. An HVAC system with insufficient filtration will trigger allergies in sensitive people, high humidity from a malfunctioning air conditioner can release toxic gases from home building materials, and fractured secondary heat exchangers, which work hard to extract all possible heat from the exhaust, can fracture and release deadly carbon monoxide gas. Stay on top of your system to protect you and your family’s health.
Maximize Your System’s Lifespan
The importance of HVAC preventative maintenance manifests itself when you buy your next model—or rather when you don’t. A well-maintained furnace can last up to 30 years, and its air-conditioning counterpart can last up to 20 years. Without regular care for them, however, you can forget about reaching those numbers. That means shopping for expensive furnaces and air conditioners before you should have to, and the purchase and installation costs will make you wish you had made investments in your old system. Proactivity pays.
