Proudly Serving West Michigan & Southwest Michigan
The winters in Michigan can be brutally cold, so keeping your home as warm as you want isn’t always easy. Dealing with freezing temperatures also means heating your home can be extremely costly. The good news is that there are some effective options for ensuring your house remains warm and comfortable while simultaneously keeping your heating costs from being quite as high.
Have a Professional Maintain Your Heating System
Whether you have central heating or a radiant heating system, bringing in a certified professional to maintain the equipment at the start of every winter is crucial. An annual tune-up or maintenance service is the most effective way to avoid issues that could prevent your heating system from working as well as it needs to. It also helps decrease the chances of your heating suddenly giving out and requiring an emergency repair. In addition to ensuring your heating works effectively, annual maintenance improves efficiency. Another major benefit is that it helps protect the life of your heating system so that you get as many years out of your furnace, heat pump, or boiler as possible.
If you want to ensure your HVAC system is properly maintained and you get the most out of it, you should consider signing up for our Service Professor MVP Home Protection Plan. As a plan member, you’ll receive a comprehensive heating maintenance service every winter and an AC maintenance service in the spring or early summer. You’ll also receive additional perks and benefits, such as priority scheduling and discounted services. You won’t have to pay trip charges or dispatch fees when you need any services during normal hours, and you’ll get a discount on dispatch fees when you need emergency services after those hours.
Schedule a Duct Cleaning Service
If you haven’t had your ducts professionally cleaned within the past three to four years, doing so now can improve how well your heating system works and how warm your home stays. Dirty air ducts can greatly decrease a central heating system’s performance. All of the debris that accumulates inside a ductwork system over time creates blockages that restrict airflow. The pressure inside the ducts is increased, making the system unable to circulate hot air around the house as effectively as it should. This means the system won’t heat as quickly and may struggle to fully heat every room. An especially common issue when air ducts are overly dirty is that the rooms at the ends of each duct branch don’t receive sufficient heat and never get quite as warm as you wish.
Don’t Forget to Replace the Air Filter
Another major key to ensuring your central heating system works effectively all winter is checking its air filter regularly and replacing it as necessary. The filter continually traps dust, lint, hair, and other particles as the heating system runs, and it will always start clogging up at some point. Once the filter begins to clog, the blower can’t draw as much air in through the filter and puts out less heat. This will often lead to your heating system struggling on colder days.
The best way to ensure a dirty filter doesn’t impact your heating system’s performance is to put in a new filter at the start of the winter and then check its condition every month. Although you typically won’t need to replace the filter more than once every two to three months, it’s still a good idea to check it monthly since it could start clogging more quickly. This is especially true if you have cats and dogs in your house and during colder periods when your heating runs more throughout the day.
Make Sure Your Thermostat Is Set to Auto
One mistake some people make during the winter is not using the correct fan setting on their thermostats. Unless you have an old manual thermostat, there should be two fan settings — “On” and “Auto.” During the winter, you always want to set your thermostat to “Auto” mode so that the blower or fan only runs when your furnace or heat pump is on. If you switch to the “On” setting, the fan will run constantly and circulate air around your house. It’s fine to use this setting occasionally if you’re looking to improve air circulation and ventilation. However, constantly leaving it set to this mode means you’ll end up with cooler air blowing out of your vents whenever your furnace or heat pump isn’t running. Some rooms will cool down more quickly, and your heating will likely run more than it normally would.
Watch Out for Signs of Any Heating Issues
Another key to keeping your home comfortable all winter is to monitor your heating system’s performance. Even minor issues with a furnace, heat pump, or boiler can quickly snowball and lead to greatly decreased heating performance as well as a risk of the unit breaking down. Poor performance also has the potential to take years off the unit’s life. You should have a professional inspect your heating system as soon as you notice any issues with its performance. Some things to look for that indicate you need to have your heating system inspected include weak airflow, longer heating cycles, uneven temperatures, unusual noises, and increased energy bills.
Consider Upgrading Your Heating System
If your heating system is 12 to 15 years old, upgrading to a new one can provide major dividends in increasing your comfort and lowering your heating bills. A new furnace, heat pump, or boiler will almost certainly heat more quickly and provide much more even heating across every part of your house. It also won’t use as much energy as your current unit does.
One of the best options for dealing with the cold Michigan winters is to install a two-stage or variable-speed furnace or heat pump instead of a standard single-stage unit. Single-stage units only have one setting and always heat at 100% capacity, resulting in them needing to continually cycle on and off and constantly fluctuating temperatures. Two-stage and variable-speed units can run at full capacity when more heat is needed but will often run at lower power. This allows them to evenly circulate heat around the house while limiting how much energy they use. A variable-speed unit can be an especially great choice. Instead of only having one or two settings, this type of unit has multiple settings that it can automatically switch between based on the current temperature and how much heat it needs to put out to maintain or quickly raise that temperature.
At Service Professor, we’ve accumulated more than 40 years of experience providing expert heating, air conditioning, electrical, and plumbing services. We have locations in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, and Grand Ledge and proudly serve customers throughout Western and Southwestern Michigan. If you’re looking for help keeping your home warm this winter, give us a call to get your maintenance, repair, or furnace installation needs taken care of properly.
