Let us keep your family warm and safe this winter.
The heating season is upon us and I think it would be an excellent idea to put some thoughts together on what you as the homeowner should and should not do to prepare for another North Carolina winter. The first thing we should recognize is what you use to heat your home with. Do you pay a gas bill to PSNC. In this case you have a gas furnace. Gas furnaces should be cleaned and inspected once a year. Gas furnaces have a lot of safeties to make sure it does not blow your house into the next century. These safeties have to be checked for proper operation. There is also a flame sensor in some of the newer furnaces that has to be cleaned to make sure you will not have to call us when your house reaches the sub zero mark. Older furnaces use a thermocouple for the same purpose. If your furnace has a thermocouple you will need to call us so that we can talk about all the money you are wasting year round on keeping the pilot flame going. The new furnaces have a HSI (hot surface igniter) Which also has to be checked but is not on until there is a need for it.
We also need to make sure your furnace is safe to operate by inspecting your heat exchanger. If you should have a crack in your heat exchanger you may get one of the by products of combustion namely carbon monoxide to infiltrate your house. The symptoms of CO poisoning is nausea, light headedness, and it feels like you have the flue. If you are asleep this could be very dangerous. The best defense is a good offence. Have us install carbon monoxide detectors that will sound an alarm when there is only 70 parts of carbon monoxide per million parts of air. This is a very inexpensive way to keep your family save.
The other kind of heat that is very popular in North Carolina are Heat pumps. Heat pumps are the most economical way to heat your house. A heat pump is very efficient till about 30 degrees outside. If the heat pump calculates that it is running longer than necessary to heat the space it automatically starts bringing on banks of electric strip heaters that is located in your air handler. This is when the electrical meter outside starts running a little faster, meaning you are now paying a little more for the heat coming out of the vents than you did when it was just the outdoor unit providing the heat. it is actually a little known fact that it is a code that every heat pump has to have a thermostat that can keep the electrical supplemental heat from running when the outside ambient is above 35 degrees. This code is not strictly being enforced by our inspectors in North Carolina yet but look for all of that to change very soon. At Comfort Wizards we made it a company policy that every new heat pump we install will have the capability to keep the supplemental heat off above 35 degrees.
With heat pumps it is very important to know that they are operating correctly. If the outside unit malfunctions or does not have the proper amount of refrigerant it could cause a really high electric bill. That is a surprise I know you want to do without.
So give us a call so we can give your system a once over. On heat pump systems we can also help you with a rebate form from Progress Energy. Progress Energy will send you $45 per system just for getting them maintained
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