You hear about it all the time in Calgary-someone’s furnace shuts down entirely in the dead of winter, during the coldest of snaps like this one we are having again this week. Regular furnance maintenance and scheduling of service go a long way in ensuring things run smoothly with your furnace in your Calgary home.
To put it in perspective, if you equate your furnace to a vehicle, it is approximated that your furnace works approximately 3,200 hours per year. Let’s say you traveled 3,200 km at 100 kph, you’d drive 320,000km in one year. In that distance you’d perform dozens of oil changes, tire rotation, tire replacements, tune-ups and more. Similarly, your furnace needs cleaning, servicing, filter replacement and more.
The top cause of system failure is dirt buildup. When there is buildup, there is inefficient work being done. You are essentially wasting money as your inefficient furnace is not warming your home properly and just adding to your electrical bills. Over time, neglected equipment will just break down and leave you heat-stranded.
Until your Calgary furnace is up and running again, here are some tips of what you can do to keep warm:
- Close all the doors to all rooms in the house to try and contain whatever heat is in them.
- Set up camp in the smallest room of the house-bring food, blankets, your pets, thing to entertain yourselves, and all present in the house into this room-the more bodies in one place, the more heat you will create for the space.
- Keep moving. It’s tempting to hunker down and not want to move, but the more movement you do, the more heat you will generate.
- Make hot drinks, prepare some hot foods, open the oven door every once in a while, but do be cautious. Ditto with candles-though they have the ability to give off tons of heat, it goes without saying they need your full attention and can’t be left unattended.
Once your furnace is back up and running, ensure you schedule regular maintenance on it with the many furnace companies in Calgary such as Arpis or Just In Time . And don’t forget to change your filter regularly!
Mark