Furnace Maintenance And Chimeny Cleaning

By Author: Jonathan Steele
Total Articles: 8
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Tis the season for furnace maintenance and repairs. Any time it is not heating season, it is the best season to make repairs. By the way, when was the last time you had your furnace inspected and cleaned?

Most people put this off till the winter months when they need their furnace. The only problem with waiting, so has everybody else. This means you will pay a premium to get your heating system cared for. How else is the overtime going to be paid for.

Right now is the best time to have your heating system checked out and cleaned. Included in the inspection, have the chimney looked at. If you do not have a chimney cap, this is the best time to get one installed.

The importance of heating and chimney maintenance on your home cannot be stressed enough. Sometimes misconceptions about furnace and chimney maintenance can cause us to think that chimney inspections, for instance, are not necessary.

In the past year, a dear friend died of CO2 poisoning. Although a rare accident, it does not need to happen to you or your loved ones. The best way to protect yourself is to become an educated about your furnace ...
... and the needed maintenance requirements.

When thinking of the furnace, all my life the words clean, efficient natural gas were equated with safe. Safe was equated into not needing to be inspected or maintained. Unlike the coal and wood stoves we had, this gas did not build up soot. Well, at least that my thinking. I was wrong and almost dead wrong at that.

You see, having asthma as a child, even to this day, my respiratory system is rather sensitive to oxygen levels. So much so that one night I awoke to the feeling that something was not right. It was at 3:56 in the middle of the night. My wife sleeping blissfully. Usually a sound sleeper, something was beckoning me to get up.

Going from the second floor to the first, it became apparent that it was carbon monoxide. It was easy to tell by how hard it was to get my breath. Then on starting to go down into the basement, it became even more evident.

The windows were opened allowing the house to be aired out. Next running upstairs, my wife was awoke and fine although, like me, a bit surprised. How could this be.

The next day she went out and got a CO2 monitor. It confirmed what my lungs were saying. The alarm went off immediately. This started the research to find out why we almost died from what was always thought to be safe.

This being our first house, nobody ever told us nor did we know that the boiler for our baseboard hot water needed to be cleaned annually. On taking a few screws out and looking down the pipe, the culprit was staring me in the face. What appeared to be easily one inch of soot lined the entire inside of the area where the fire and heat did their jobs.

The problem, the soot prevented the gases from easily escaping up so they found the easiest path to get out, which in this case was not the chimney.

Now, furnace cleaning, chimney inspection and any needed repairs are part of our annual maintenance.

There is an additional benefit.

As my wife the Realtor® can tell you, the house that is well maintained will sell faster than one with problems. Regular maintenance may not readily be noticed. Absence of that maintenance is usually obvious.

So, keeping a log of the furnace and chimney maintenance provides an added feature that will make our house more sell-able.

Armed with a piece of typing paper and a marker, in big letters are the words: Furnace and Chimney Maintenance Log. Then with an arrow pointing down to the book holder on the wall, this paper is taped on the wall above the log book. Doing this just added a few points to the overall impression of our house.

The bottom line, we do not have to worry about not having heat or scramble to find a repairman. This also means we do not have to pay emergency rates to get things fixed in the middle of the night.

We get them when work is scarce and they are the cheapest. With the money we save we can go out and have a nice dinner and show.

So, go ahead and get it checked out. Make sure your family will be safe come the next heating season.

Do this and you will be able to keep warm, be healthy and maybe maintain a bit of your wealth.

Good health to you and yours.
Jonathan Steele has worked with masonry since his youth. His experience includes chimney reparis. Now a public speaker, artist and webmaster, he lectures on numerous topics relating to health and safety.

The Learn Persuasive Public Speaking and Communication Website by Jonathan Steele.

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