Heating season is not far off, hard as that may be to believe. That means that now is the time for you to start thinking about getting your home ready for the weather to cool off. Part of those preparations is evaluating your heating system. Is your furnace up to the task of keeping your home warm through the coming season? If not, now is the time to replace it. Have a look at some of the warning signs that you need a new furnace.
High Monthly Costs
It’s naturally going to cost you more to operate your furnace during months that you use it a lot than during months when you don’t use it at all. However, you should start to become concerned if it seems like your monthly operating costs are rising much faster than they should be. This could be the result of a specific problem with the furnace, but it could also be due to the accumulation of years of wear and tear. If that’s the case, there really isn’t much you can do other than replace the entire system. Better to do it now, than to spend another few months spending more than you need to on heating.
Frequent Breakdowns
It’s not unusual to need to repair your furnace every once in a while, but you shouldn’t need to do it more than a handful of times over the course of its life, though. If your furnace needs to be repaired multiple times a year, then there is something wrong with it beyond individual breakdowns. Oftentimes, this will happen to furnaces that are near the end of their life. Their various parts are just so worn out that they start to fail in rapid succession, causing repair costs to skyrocket. Once a furnace reaches that stage, it’s better to replace the entire system than to continue replacing one part at a time.
Old Age
If you take perfect care of your furnace, and it’s operating under ideal circumstances, you can typically expect it to last around 10-15 years. That will, of course, vary a bit depending on individual circumstances, but you shouldn’t expect to get an extra decade out of it. Once a furnace passes the age of 15, it starts to develop all kinds of problems like those we’ve already covered. These problems only get worse as the system ages, further impacting the cost of keeping the furnace up and running.
If your furnace is older than 15 years, you really should talk to a professional about installing a new one in your home before the winter starts. It may seem like a big investment, and it is. However, it’s also better to do it now than to have your furnace break down on you permanently in the middle of one of the coldest months of the year.
DB Heating & Cooling, Inc. offers a full range of furnace replacement services in Wyckoff, NJ. If you need a new furnace installed in your home, contact us today for an appointment.