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Keep Your Heating System Ready To Protect Yourself From Chilling Blues
If you are the one who waits for temperatures to drop, and do not think about the heater until it’s freezing. Then you need to pay immediate attention to your heating system now. And if you have children at home then you need to be extra cautious to keep them warm, safe and healthy as young children are less likely to recognize when they are cold and more likely to lose body heat quickly due to their smaller size. So, it is time to keep your heating system ready for action before the winter falls due. Following is the check list to keep yourself from chilling blues.
- Have A Professional Service Your Heating System. usually everyone’s heater sits in a basement, garage professional or closet, ignored until you turn on the thermostat and nothing happens. Unless your boiler or furnace is brand new, you should have it periodically serviced by professional to keep it running cleanly and efficiently.
- Bleed Radiators And Change Filters.Most houses have either forced-air systems or hot water radiators.
If you have hot-water radiators, you probably know that you need to "bleed" them to let air out of the system at the beginning of the heating season. First, start the boiler and let it heat up, making sure the circulator pump is running. Open the valve on each radiator and have a container close by to catch the water. Once it's water and not air coming out, close the valve. If you hear air come out and then it stops, but you don't get water, close the valve and move on to another one, and then come back once the system has heated up more.
If you have a forced-air system, then you can improve its performance by making sure the filter in the furnace isn't clogged. How often you need to change the filter will depend on your individual home and system. Check it every month or two until you have a sense of the right routine, then put future dates to change it in your calendar. There should be at least one large grille in the house, usually close to the furnace, that doesn't blow out air — this is the return. Make sure to keep furniture and rugs away from this to keep air flowing.
- Improve Efficiency And Save Money. Once the basics are in place, you can make your heating system function more efficiently by making it smarter. If you don't have a programmable thermostat, it's worth looking into one — they are relatively easy to install, and once you program the heat to come on when you actually need it, you won't waste money heating an empty house. But be sure to find and purchase technology that you'll actually use.
- Keep It Moving. The ceiling fans of the house are meant for all seasons and are not summer specific. To distribute heat throughout the room, find the small switch on the main body of the fan that reverses the fan's direction. When you don't feel a breeze, that means the fan is blowing air upward, circulating air without cooling the room. Hot air trapped at the ceiling will be forced down along the walls. You'll feel warmer, and the thermostat will be satisfied sooner, saving you money.
- Be Safe. Since the furnace is often in the basement, it tends to coexist with our stuff. Things pile up, and someone may leave flammable items close to the heater's pipe. Keep the area around the furnace clear so that it can both draw in air and exhaust properly and safely.
In addition to smoke detectors, you should have carbon monoxide detectors near bedrooms and the heater, ideally on every floor. Carbon monoxide is slightly less dense than air, and as it is usually warmer, will probably rise through the house, even to upper-level bedrooms. If you have a fireplace, have the chimney professionally cleaned. If you don't use the fireplace, stop hot air from escaping out this large hole by using the flue damper or installing a chimney balloon. By applying any of these you are fit to fight the chilling blues.
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