If you are like myself, you like to be proactive when it comes to needing new things for your home. There is nothing worse than having your furnace going out in the middle of the night on the coldest night of the year, and you don’t have time to research the best furnace for your home. Here are a few things to think about before your furnace quits working on you:

• How old is your heat pump or air conditioner?  If it more than ten years old, start shopping!   The new high-efficiency units on the market now can save you up to 20% on heating and cooling costs!
• How old is your furnace or boiler?  If either of these is older than 15 years old, you should start looking for a new furnace or boiler!  Consider getting an Energy Star qualified furnace.  They are 15% more efficient than a conventional furnace. If you have a boiler, an Energy Star qualified boiler is 5% more efficient than a new, standard model!  These directly translate into heating and cooling costs savings!
• How often are you repairing your HVAC equipment?  If you are constantly having your Chicago heating and cooling company coming out to do repairs, it may be time for a new furnace or air conditioner.
• Are your energy bills constantly going up?  If you are using the furnace and air conditioner the same and finding that your energy bills are constantly going up, your heating and cooling equipment may have become less efficient.
• Are there rooms in your home that are too hot or too cold? There can be many reasons for this ranging from improper equipment operation to duct problems to inadequate insulation. This is definitely worth having a Chicago heating and cooling company come out and check. They can advise how to fix these problems instead of just putting a bandaid over it.
• Do you have a programmable thermostat?  Why tax your furnace when you aren’t home or while you are sleeping?  If you don’t know how to install your own thermostat, there are many Chicago heating and cooling companies that will happily come out and do it for you.  A programmable thermostat will save you money each and every month!
• Does your home have humidity problems?  Poor equipment operation, inadequate equipment, and leaky ductwork can cause the air to be too dry or too humid.
• Is your house excessively dusty?  Are you using the correct filters on your furnace?  Has your furnace been cleaned lately?  Also, leaky ducts can pull particles and air from attics, crawl spaces and basements and distribute them throughout your house.
• Is your heating or cooling system noisy?  You could have an undersized duct system, a lose part, or even a defective one!

As you can see, there are many questions you need to ask yourself to figure out if you just need a Chicago HVAC equipment repair or if you will need  to actually replace your HVAC equipment instead.  Call your local Chicago heating and cooling company to see what would work best in your HVAC situation.

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1. Is your utility bill continually increasing?  For example, here in Chicago, we have had an uncharacteristically warm winter.  If you are still seeing your heating bill increasing, there may be something wrong with your duct work, thermostat, or your Chicago furnace can’t handle the load on it.
2. Is your furnace making weird noises like creaking?   Creaking can be a sign of defective or loose part.  If you have never opened up your Chicago furnace before, you will want to hire a Chicago HVAC heating company to come take a look.  If you don’t know what the inside of a Chicago furnace looks like, you will not be able to diagnose this issue yourself.
3. Is the pilot light flame blue?  If the pilot light flame is not blue, you may have an issue.  For example, if it is yellow, you may have some carbon monoxide present, and carbon monoxide is not something you want to mess with it on your own!  Carbon monoxide can cause nausea and flu-like symptoms.  If you have carbon monoxide in sufficient amounts trapped in your home, it can actually kill you!  Another issue is a fire or explosion set off by any spark in your home.  This is one of those cases you definitely want to have a Chicago HVAC heating company come out and take a look.  A yellow flame could just be dirt, but you would much rather be safe than sorry.
4. What is the age of your furnace?  The average life expectancy of Chicago furnaces is between 16 and 20 years.  If your Chicago furnace is in that age range (or older), you may want to start shopping before your Chicago furnace goes out in the middle of the night.
5. When did you do maintenance on your Chicago furnace last?  Are you changing your filters monthly?  Have you had your local Chicago heating company come out and clean your furnace out in the last year?  To keep your Chicago furnace running in tip top shape, you will need to do regular maintenance.

Enjoy this warm weather while it lasts.  However, keep in mind these 5 signs to know if you need a Chicago furnace repair!

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1.  Most handymen are NOT qualified jacks οf аƖƖ trades. They may know a little bit about everything, but that definitely does not make them an expert on any of those things. A licensed Chicago HVAC contractor instead will have went to school for Chicago furnace repairs and new installations. A handyman who does not know what they are doing can actually cost you more money in the long run when you have to hire a Chicago HVAC contractor to come fix what they did wrong.

2. Handymen often do not have the correct licensing, insurance, etc to even be working in your home. If your handyman breaks something in your home and doesn’t have any insurance, there may be no way for you to recoup your cost.

3. Do you really want someone who isn’t a professional working on something as important as your furnace? Would you let your neighbor diagnose you with having a medical condition? Most people would not, yet they would pay a non-professional thousands of dollars to work on their Chicago furnace repairs.

4. Is your handyman credibile? There are sooo many fly by night people who overcharge аnԁ under-deliver. Just being a handyman also makes it very difficult for you to verify if you have somebody in your home that уου саn truly trust.

5. Does your handyman have references? Most handymen don’t have a reference list you can call to see if they have done a good job in the past. However, Chicago HVAC companies will not only have a list of references, you will be able to check their reviews on Google, Angie’s List, and with the Better Business Bureau. You can see who you are dealing with before giving away hundreds or thousands of dollars.

As you can see, a handyman may not be your best bet for Chicago HVAC repairs. Instead, yουr best bet іѕ tο hire аn experienced Chicago furnace repair company οr contractor tο work οn уουr system like Around The Town Heating and Cooling.

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However, we should.  According to the EPA, “. . . .a growing body of scientific evidence has indicated that the air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities.  Thus, for many people, the risks to health may be greater due to exposure to air pollution indoors than outdoors.”  How crazy is that?  Our Chicago air outdoors may actually be better than  our indoor air!!!  Now, I know you are wondering what you can do about this.  Here are a few things to look at in your life:

1.  Do you air out your home regularly?  If you have a forced air system (which I think most of us Chicago furnace users have), you should be doing this every other day.  You just open the doors and let the fresh air in for about 5 minutes.   I know I am amazed on how much fresher my home smells after doing this.

2.  Do you regularly change your furnace filters?  If your furnace filter is caked with dust, it cannot work optimally.  It is also just going to be blowing more dust into your air!

3.  What kind of cleaning products do you use?  Look at the back of most of your cleaning products, and it will scare you.  If you cannot pronounce the ingredients, do you really want to be spraying it around a closed up home?  A lot of the chemicals in cleaning products contain VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which can make asthma worse, irritate your eyes and throat, and cause headaches.  Switching to natural brands can definitely help.

4.  Are you using the correct filter for your Chicago furnace?  When I first moved into my home, the old homeowner had taken a filter he bought who knows where and cut it down so it would fit in the furnace.  Needless to say, that is not the correct way to get your furnace filter to work correctly.  Make sure you buy the correct furnace filter the first time.  (Needless to say, that was one of our first home purchases!).  All filters are also not created equal.  There are furnace filters that stop everything from pollen to dust to any other allergen you can think of.  There are even electronic furnace filters!

5.  Do you have any plants?  There are many plants out there that look nice and pull toxins from your air.

6.  Do you smoke?  Smoke will hang around long after you are done with your cigarette and can get into your clothes, your furniture, etc.

7.  Do you use air fresheners?  Most air fresheners contain those VOCs that you do not want in your home.  Scented candles often don’t help either.  Instead, dab lemon, orange, eucalyptus, or even lavender oil into the corners of the room.  If you have an old spray bottle around your home, you can fill it up with 2 cups of water to 10 drops of essentials oils.  You can then spray that around your home.

8.  Do you clean your pets bed?  This is one of those jobs that can easily be overlooked.  Did you know that pet hair and dander can add allergens to your indoor air?  Plus, if you pet goes outdoors, you may find some mold on their bedding too!  By washing their beds as often as you do your own, you can minimize adding this into your indoor air.

9. Is your air conditioner and furnace the correct size?  If not, you need to have a HVAC contractor come out.  The right size air conditioner and furnace will provide better air quality and comfort.

10.  Do you have a carbon monoxide detector?  In an ideal world, you will never need one.  However, routine maintenance is also critical to keeping systems operating at peak efficiency.  This is especially true for gas furnaces since exhaust leaks can release carbon monoxide into your house!  You definitely don’t have a clean air environment if you are leaking carbon monoxide.

There are many different ways in which you can clean up the air you spend the most time in.  Everything from adding plants to upgrading your forced air heating system (aka your Chicago furnace) can make great improvements in the quality of air in your home.   How are you improving your air quality?  Do you have any tips we haven’t listed?

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Heating and cooling has a wide variety of uses such as baking, food processing, distilleries and processing metals and so on. But the term heating and cooling within our business is associated with heating your home or office and cooling your home or office for the comfort of people.

Heating and cooling has many types of equipment to be used for comfort heating and cooling. We prefer Trane heating and cooling equipment for our residential and commercial uses. Operational performances outlast most other brands available in the market today, and have excellent warranties second to none that comes along with the equipment when installed new.

There are many other types of heating and cooling products that provides comfort heating and cooling in homes or business such as water and steam boilers, wall mounted heating units and electric heating units. On the cooling side of things, there are cooling units such as Unico high velocity cooling units and space pack high velocity cooling systems. Other comfort heating and cooling product that is available to use for heating and cooling purpose’s are thru the wall units and PTAC units, these units are still widely used in apartment buildings and condominiums in the Chicago area.

If you are in the market for heating and cooling in Chicago look no further than Around the Town™ heating and cooling today by calling 312-243-9896.  No catchy slogan to lure you in, Around the Town Heating is where you should begin!

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