First Choice Heating & Cooling Blog: Archive for the ‘Heating’ Category

Your Furnace Is Older Than 15: A Few Things to Know

Monday, September 30th, 2019
ancient-furnace

rustic old furnace

Keeping track of your furnace’s age is a good idea. This is because knowing how many years you’ve had your system provides guidance on if and when you need to consider repair or replacement.

If you are the owner of a furnace in Brighton, MI and you have had your forced-air heating system for over 15 years, it may be time to call a professional. The experienced technicians at First Choice Heating & Cooling will be able to help you make informed decisions regarding your unit.

There are some things you need to know about your heater when it reaches this age. If you are interested in the indicators that may show your furnace need replacing, read on.

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It’s Time to Schedule Heating Maintenance—Don’t Skip It!

Monday, September 16th, 2019

furnace-repair-technicianSeptember, when summer officially ends and autumn begins. We know it’s hard to say goodbye to summer weather, although fall has its joys. To get the most from the fall and ensure you enjoy a comfortable and worry-free winter, you need to ensure your heating system is ready to get back to work.

In other words, it’s time to schedule regular fall maintenance for your heating system.

Yes, this is another item on an already busy fall “to do” list. But it’s an important one. Please don’t decide you can sit out maintenance this year because the heater is “doing fine.” Skipping maintenance for even a single year has consequences, and if you skip it once, you’re more likely to skip it again in the future. (You know it’s true.)

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Shutting Down the Furnace for the Summer

Monday, April 29th, 2019

furnace-burners-smallAt First Choice, we like to help our customers save money with their heating and cooling systems. Our summers and winters can force HVAC systems to put in an immense amount of work, which can make for steep utility bills. But there are many ways to cut down on energy costs, and one of them is partially or completely shutting down your home’s furnace during the summer.

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Furnace Repair Cost vs. Furnace Replacement Cost: What You Should Know

Monday, April 1st, 2019

piles-of-moneyWhen the winter weather finally ends during spring is one of the best times to consider making a big change with your home’s central heating system. Most years you won’t need to make any major changes—as long as the furnace is receiving regular maintenance and hasn’t shown signs its losing efficiency/dropping in performance. (Always be on the look out for a spike in your heating costs as a sign the furnace may be aging rapidly.)

However, if your furnace has recently given you trouble, you may be thinking about putting in a new one. Or, you could choose to have repairs and keep the furnace running for a few years. When comparing the cost of repairs against the cost of replacement, there are a few things to keep in mind.

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The Winter Home Stretch and Your Furnace

Monday, March 4th, 2019

winter-sceneYep, it’s still winter. It’s plenty cold. But we’re now in March, and this means the first official day of spring is a few weeks away. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’ll instantly start to enjoy warmer weather—but it does mean we are in the home stretch.

This is an important time for the furnace in your home. This heater has already put in months of hard work to protect your family’s comfort. During this final stretch of winter is when it’s most likely to suffer from a malfunction or possibly even a full breakdown. Please don’t take for granted the furnace will sail through until the day when you can shut it off for the season! Here are a few things about your furnace in Fenton, MI to consider at this time of year.

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What to Do When Your Furnace Fails

Monday, February 18th, 2019

inside-a-natural-gas-furnaceIt’s the “Worst Thing That Can Happen During the Winter”—a home furnace that suddenly stops heating. If it’s a cold day, this can be a serious emergency.

What do you do when you’ve got a cold furnace? The right answer is: “Call an HVAC professional to repair it.” But that’s only part of the right answer. There are some checks you can make first to see if the furnace stopped working for a simple reason. Once you’ve eliminated these basic mistakes and errors, you can reach out to a professional to come in and find out what caused the furnace to fail and then fix it.

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What’s This “Tonnage” Mean for a New Furnace?

Monday, February 4th, 2019

When the time arrives for a new installation of a furnace in Brighton, MI for your house, you’ll have to navigate plenty of numbers and stats aside from the price of the unit. For example, there’s the AFUE rating, which is how the energy efficiency of a furnace is rated. The higher the percentage, the more efficiently it uses fuel.

One number you’ll hear often is the tonnage of the new system. It’s vital that your furnace has the proper tonnage for your home. What does this actually mean, and how do you find the right tonnage?

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Make Sure to Regularly Change the Furnace Filter

Monday, December 24th, 2018

man-holding-furnace-filterWe can offer plenty of advice for how to better and more energy efficiently heat your home during the winter. And we can offer plenty of heating services in Davison, MI to improve your overall comfort. But if we could only say one thing, only give a single piece of advice, it would be to regularly change your furnace’s air filter.

Thankfully, we have our own website and the space to elaborate on this advice …

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This Old Furnace: When It’s Time to Replace It

Monday, December 10th, 2018

ancient-furnace

We can’t imagine you harbor any nostalgic feelings about the furnace warming your home during the winter. Furnaces are not romanticized pieces of machinery; they’re kept out of sight and are entirely functional in appearance. You don’t decorate your furnace for the holiday season. (It might be dangerous anyway; the furnace needs to be clear on all sides.)

Where are we going with this? There’s no reason to keep around an old furnace just because. No attachment. Most of the time, the only thing holding people back from scheduling a replacement for an old furnace in Fenton, MI is the costs involved. But in most cases, it’s less expensive to have a new furnace put in, and often the safer choice.

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Heating Repair Myths You May Believe

Monday, November 26th, 2018

woman-with-glassesWe’re now in what we in the HVAC business call “heating season.” It’s when home heaters turn on and work steadily all the way through the early spring—and sometimes longer than that.

As you settle in for the end of the year with your home’s furnace, boiler, heat pump, or other central heating system, we’d like to provide you with some information to dispel common myths about heating repair. Because we live in an era of instantaneous info available through the internet, it’s easy for these fictions about heaters to spread. Once you know the reality, you’ll be able to take the best possible care of your household heater.

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