Christmas is just around the corner, which means there are some things you need to do regarding your HVAC system and your home to stay safe through the entire season. While you’re busy shopping, decorating, planning, entertaining, and cooking, make sure that you also pay attention to your HVAC system to keep your home safe and warm this season.

Staying Safe During the Holidays with Your HVAC System

In order to give yourself the best chance of having incident-free holidays, keep the following top tips for HVAC safety in mind:

1.   Don’t Cover Your Thermostat

As much fun as it might be to let your decorating spirit get away from you, be careful that you don’t blanket your thermostat with decorations in order to complete your Christmas theme. You might be tempted to hide your thermostat but if you do, it won’t be able to read temperatures accurately. As you can imagine, this will make the comfort levels in your home all over the place and most likely will end up costing you quite a bit of extra money on your heating bills.

2.    Do Check on Your Outdoor A/C Unit

You might not think it’s necessary with winter quickly approaching, but it is actually important to take a look at your outdoor unit this holiday season. However, you should check from time to time to make sure there are no obstructions, debris, or anything else right up next to the unit that could cause issues with its operation when the weather turns warmer.

3.   Do Keep Flammable Items Away

You should also check your furnace from time to time to make sure that there are no objects near it that could cause a fire or malfunction. In addition, watch fabrics, papers, and anything else flammable away from all heat-generating decorations and appliances in order to avoid dangerous holiday fires.

4.   Don’t Cover Your Air Vents

With all the decorations, gifts, and extra people around the house this holiday season, make it a point to frequently take a glance at your air vents and make sure nothing is blocking them fully or even partially. Even a partial block can increase your utility bills more than you might think. Keep clear vents to maintain a warm, comfortable, safe home and keep your energy bills low.

5.   Do Schedule Your Annual Maintenance Check-Up

The best thing you can do to stay safe this holiday season in your home is to have our HVAC experts perform a maintenance check on your system. This way, we can make sure that your system is running as efficiently as possible.

Many times, our team catches small, hidden issues during maintenance checks that otherwise would’ve turned into bigger, more inconvenient, and more expensive problems. A malfunctioning system can spoil the holidays, so make sure that you do everything you can to avoid a sudden HVAC emergency at the worst time.

Your Bay Area HVAC Company: A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc.

Count on A-1 Guaranteed to perform expert HVAC and solar services throughout Solano, Napa, and Contra Costa counties. Our team offers a 100% money-back guarantee for 100% peace of mind for our customers.

We can handle any task regardless of size, and we service all makes and models of HVAC systems and components. Make sure your home stays safe this holiday season and call on A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc. for your preventative maintenance. Schedule your appointment with us today; don’t wait for an HVAC emergency during the holidays to reach out to us!

When taken care of and properly maintained, a new furnace should last for between 15-20 years. However, when units are neglected, their life spans are usually cut considerably short.

Once per year, you should call on A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc. for regular routine checkups on your system. Many critical tasks can only properly be done by our pros! That being said, you can still do some things yourself to help maintain the longevity of your furnace.

Top 5 Things You Can Maintain on Your Furnace

So, what are some of the things that anyone can do themselves to help keep their heating systems in primo shape in between professional tune-ups?

1.   Check the Blower Motor

Your furnace’s blower motor is what drives the fan that moves the air for your furnace, moving air through the heat exchanger to warm the air and distribute it. Many furnace blower motors also provide the air for air conditioning units, too, and it’s where the air filter is installed.

If a blower motor’s many working parts aren’t maintained, they can begin to break down. Listen to see if you hear “new” noises from the area that could signal an issue with the motor or the blower wheel. Listen for high, shrill sounds that sound like metal pieces rubbing against each other. Also, listen for a loud humming, which could signal an electrical problem.

2.   Change the Filter

When the filter gets dirty, change it! This should usually be done about once every two to three months. However, if you have pets and/or a lot of dust and dirt in your home, you’ll likely need to change your filter more often, probably about once per month. You probably have been told time after time to change the filters; it’s advice that is repeated so often because it’s so crucial.

If it’s been a while since the air filter was last changed, inadequate airflow will be delivered to the furnace and it won’t operate as it should, which can cause bigger, more expensive problems down the road.

3.   Make Sure the Exhaust Flue is Clear

This one is for those who have gas furnaces. The gas flue is what allows deadly gases to leave your home and go outdoors. You must make sure that your flue remains free of obstructions because otherwise, air won’t be able to move freely and hazardous problems can quickly arise. Severe health problems and death can occur when a flue is blocked because of a buildup of nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and/or carbon monoxide.

4.   Reduce the Heating Load

Sealing your home’s envelope is going to reduce its heat load, which is the amount of heat needed to comfortably warm your home at the temperature you set on the thermostat. You can use a wide variety of products to seal air leaks to help keep warm air in and cold air out.

This will not only save you money on your heating bill but also reduce the workload of your furnace and increase its lifespan.

5.   Do A Perimeter Check

Make sure your furnace area is clear and there is nothing dangerous, flammable, or congestive nearby. Even though furnaces are usually located in storage areas like basements, crawl spaces, or even closets, they are not designed to work efficiently when surrounded by storage containers.

Remove all clothes, boxes, gasoline, aerosols, paint, and everything else; there should be no household items ever placed in the vicinity of your furnace.

Call on the Top HVAC Repair Company in the Bay Area

Whenever you need professional HVAC service near Solano, Vacaville, Fairfield, Berkeley, or throughout Contra Costa and Napa Counties, trust our award-winning team at A-1 Heating & Air, Inc. Contact us and schedule an appointment today for your HVAC system repair, replacement, or maintenance.

There are a lot of people who don’t know anything about the main components of their central heating units, and that’s okay! That’s why we’re here: to take care of your furnace and A/C unit for you.

However, it’s still always a good idea to at least be a little familiar with the main components of your heating system. When you know what they are, it can make it easier for you to know when something has gone wrong with them and ultimately, when to call A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc. for HVAC service in the Bay Area.

Getting to Know the Parts of Your Furnace

Following are some of the major parts of your furnace and the functions that each one is responsible for providing so that you can enjoy a warm, comfortable home on those cool California nights:

Blower Motor

This is the component of the furnace that has the job of forcing the heated air into the air ducts in your home, delivering it to all of the areas of your building. This is a critical component that is designed to function for many years.

Heat Exchanger

After gas combustion takes place in the furnace, the byproducts of those reactions that linger are toxic fumes, including carbon monoxide. A heat exchanger is a vital component that separates the toxic gases from the air that will enter your house. The heat exchanger has long tubes that are S-shaped that vent out these toxic gasses through the roof.

Flue Pipe

This pipe helps your furnace transport those toxic gases to the outside of your home or building.

Thermocouple

The thermocouple is a component of your furnace that is situated next to the pilot light. It has the primary function of making sure that the pilot light remains lit. It acts as a sensor and will shut the furnace off if it cannot detect that the pilot light is on. As you can imagine, this is a critical safety feature.

An important note about thermocouples: they tend to become dirty as they age, and if they get too dirty, they can lose the ability to sense that pilot light. When this happens, it will tend to keep shutting the furnace off, mistakenly “sensing” that there is no pilot on. So, if your thermocouple isn’t regularly cleaned, it will eventually need to be replaced. It’s just one reason to call on A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc. for services like routine HVAC maintenance!

Pilot Light

In order to start a flame and get your furnace running, it must have a mechanism that will light the gas. In times gone by, furnaces used a pilot that burned continuously and when the furnace came on, the gas would be lit. Today, however, furnaces use a hot surface igniter (HSI). This component glows red hot to ignite the gas when it’s needed.

Burner

The burner is the part of the furnace at which the gas is ignited with a spark. This is a crucial component because it is what enables the furnace to create heated air.

Flame Sensor

This is the component that has replaced thermocouples in many new furnaces. Flame sensors shut off the furnace if no heat is detected. Just like thermocouples, they need to be kept clean.

Gas Valve

Set at different pressures, natural gas is supplied through pipes, and at the entry to your home, the gas valve steps the pressure down. This corrected pressure is then carried to the furnace. When the safety switch on a furnace fails, the gas valve is also responsible for shutting off the gas.

Looking for an HVAC Company in the Bay Area?

Count on A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc. for all your HVAC needs. We’re the leading HVAC service company in Solano, Contra Costa, Napa, and the entire Bay Area. Get a free quote and schedule your appointment today!

Are the furnaces in your rental units ready for cooler weather?

Autumn brings with it some welcomed cooler weather to California, which means that it’s once again time to start thinking about the furnaces in your rental units. The last thing you’re going to want to do during the winter and summer months is head out during the middle of a chilly night to take care of an HVAC emergency that could’ve been prevented with a little bit of planning ahead.

For this reason, A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc. is proud to provide the following fall HVAC checklist for California landlords. All of them may apply to your properties or just a couple of them might. Either way, it could be a great boon to you to look over this fall HVAC checklist!

Check Around Outside and Create a Zone

Before too much debris comes flying around and collecting near your outdoor air conditioning units, make sure you’ve done everything you can to clear the areas around those systems. Autumn often brings stronger winds, which can bring all kinds of leaves, branches, bark, and other types of debris that can collect.

An excess of this stuff around air conditioning units can smother them, cutting off the airflow to the units and causing all kinds of potential problems, from causing a lack of cooled air in the spring to burning the motors up. Clear any and all debris around the air conditioning units so that when the spring comes, they are ready for renters to turn on when they want to.

Have Every HVAC System Checked by A-1 Guaranteed

Each year, it’s a good idea to have an inspection in the spring and in the fall. That way, our experts can inspect your systems, perform tune-ups, and give you recommendations for repairing or upgrading any before the cool winter air sets in. Taking care of problems now, instead of when a tenant calls you for urgent repairs in the middle of the night, will save you a lot of time, frustration, and money.

Change furnace filters, and make sure that all of your tenants have a few extra ones in their possession so they can change them as often as they need to be. Tenants are much more likely to keep up with the important task of changing filters if they are provided them to have on-hand and receive a reminder text or message every 30 days.

Replace Parts When They Need to be Replaced

It might be tempting to hold out on having parts or units replaced if they are “still working.” However, it’s never good enough to have them just “working.” This is because when HVAC units are not in optimal condition, when they are more than a decade old, or they haven’t been serviced in quite a while, they don’t perform efficiently. For example, a HVAC System that is 10 years old is only 50% as efficient as the new ones that are installed these days.

This lack of efficiency not only means higher costs for whoever pays the heating and cooling bills but also will mean big, expensive repairs down the road for you.

HVAC Autumn Maintenance in the Bay Area with A-1 Guaranteed

Managing maintenance for rental properties can be a challenge, which is why our team here at A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air is committed to helping our customers ease that challenge. We cannot stress enough the importance of being proactive when it comes to furnaces and air conditioners!

To schedule an appointment with us, contact our team today! We serve customers throughout Contra Costa, Napa, Solano, and all nearby areas.