How To Prepare Your Furnace & Heating System For Winter In Tucson
We know that winter doesn’t mean a short visit to the Ice Age like it can in other parts of the county – but most people will still need to turn on their furnace or heating system at some point.
It’s important to remember that AC/Heat systems are fairly complex pieces of machinery – they need to be in great working order for three reasons:
1. Your family’s safety
2. Maintaining energy efficiency and low utility bills
3. Ensuring the systems lifespan is not reduced by running inefficiently or too hard.
With that in mind, we’ve put together a short guide on how to prepare your furnace and heating equipment for winter in Tucson.
1. Inspect and change your AC filters – we have so much dust here in Tucson that they get clogged fast. Your system will then have to work harder to move air through your home, using more energy and running harder.
2. When heating systems break down, it’s typically during the coldest spell – i.e. when you need it most. Obviously it’s when the unit has to work hardest that it’s under most pressure and can fail leaving you and your family feeling the freeze.
To avoid this, have a skilled technician give the whole system a service and inspection. Many time, this simple process can identify what is going to fail once the real cold sets in.
Rite Way currently offers a phenomenal $79 Heating Tune Up and Inspection – if we service it and Rite Way certify it, and it breaks down during the winter, we will refund your $79 – thats how confident we are in our technicians and the quality of our tune up…
3. Take a look at your smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detector, and the batteries in your thermostat. You can do this at any time of year, but the truth is that lots of us neglect this important task. The change of the season is a great time to reminder yourself to take care of it.
4. Since winter is preceded by Fall, it’s possible that you’ve had branches, leaves (or mesquite beans) falling from trees. Take a look at your outside unit, and make sure that the inside is free of debris which could damage the fan and other parts. Also take this time to make sure that intake or outtakes for the system are not blocked with debris either.
5. We all love to open our windows in Tucson in the fall. It feels great, but remember that your home is an almost sealed system when it comes to air. Your system will work hard to remove moisture from the air, and if you open the windows on a wet day, or at the end of monsoon, you’ll bring a large amount of moisture into your home which your AC/Heat system will need to work hard (using energy) to remove.
As always, if you need extra help preparing your system for winter, give Rite Way Heating, Cooling and Plumbing a call on 520-282-4465 or stop by our friendly location at:
5712 E Speedway Blvd
Tucson AZ 86712
(on Speedway between Wilmot and Craycroft)
