Bartels Heating & Cooling Blog: Archive for the ‘Heating’ Category

Reasons You May Want to Install a Garage Heater

Monday, November 22nd, 2021

installing-space-heaterGarages are difficult spaces to heat because they’re often open to the outside with enormous doors and it’s difficult to create effective insulation around them. The heating requirements of a garage make it extraordinarily difficult to connect to the rest of the HVAC system in a home: the standard furnace for a home won’t be able to warm up the garage unless a much larger heater is installed, which would then be overpowered for the rest of the house. Because of these challenges, many homeowners simply don’t heat the garage. 

There are advantages to heating a garage, however, and one of the services we offer as a Mason, OH, HVAC contractor is the installation and service of garage heaters to handle this specific task. We offer several different models of garage heating systems.

Below we’ve listed several reasons you may want to consider having our technicians set up your garage for heating.

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Is Your Furnace Not Working? Here’s Some Steps to Try

Monday, November 8th, 2021

natural-gas-furnace-burnerTime to get ready for winter! We’re already experiencing days dipping down into the ‘40s, and that means your home’s furnace may have already turned on. We recommend you schedule regular maintenance for it if you haven’t already—and we’re the local Mason, OH, HVAC contractor for the job. This maintenance is the best way to prevent your furnace from suddenly stopping during the winter.

Maintenance can’t be 100% effective at preventing problems, however, and you may come across a point this coming season when your furnace stops providing you with heat. You might need to call us to repair the furnace, but below we’ll go over some basic troubleshooting steps to see if there’s a simple reason for the problem.

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Do Colder Days Force Your Furnace to Work Harder?

Monday, October 25th, 2021

woman-freezing-coldThis post is going to be a bit of deflection, because the answer to the question is a simple one: Yes, your furnace works harder on colder days. It doesn’t work differently when it’s colder—the same principles of how the furnace heats and distributes air are at work. What makes the furnace work harder in cold weather is that it must run for longer to raise the interior temperature of your house to the target you need for comfort. 

Now here’s where we deflect, because talking about your furnace working longer during cold weather needs some examination. The, ahem, cold fact we’re looking at is that you are probably making your furnace work harder than necessary on those cold days. This leads to higher energy bills, but it can also lead to a furnace that fails abruptly in the middle of one of the coldest days of the year. Knowing more about your furnace running on cold days can help you avoid emergency heating repair in Cincinnati, OH.

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The Flame Sensor: The Rundown on a Key Furnace Part

Monday, October 11th, 2021

natural-gas-burners-flame-furnaceDuring fall, we stress the importance of our customers having maintenance for their gas furnaces. Maintenance takes care of many important steps to ensure the best performance from a furnace, but the most important benefit of maintenance is ensuring a furnace works safely. 

Gas furnaces aren’t inherently dangerous unless they suffer from neglect. Furnace manufacturers design their products with several vital safety measures, and during maintenance, our technicians carefully check each of them. One of the key safety features in a gas furnace is the flame sensor. Today we’ll give you the basics of what you need to know about this essential part of your furnace and how it protects you.

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Repair Prevention for Your Furnace That Goes Beyond Maintenance

Monday, September 13th, 2021

natural-gas-burners-flame-furnaceIn our last post, we recommended you start thinking about arranging for maintenance for your heating system, even though it’s technically still summer and the fall weather hasn’t arrived. Maintenance is simply the all-around best service you can have done for your home’s HVAC system, and you’ll be thankful you had it taken care of early when the cold finally sets in. For one thing, it means less chance you’ll need furnace repair in West Chester, OH over the season. 

We want to focus more on repair prevention for your home’s furnace. Routine maintenance isn’t the only way you can stop damage to the furnace and avoid expensive repairs or a safety hazard. Follow us below as we delve into some more ways to stop the need for furnace repairs as well as an early system replacement.

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It Isn’t Too Early to Think About HVAC Maintenance for Winter

Monday, August 16th, 2021

dont-forget-post-itAs we’re writing this post, the temperature outside in West Chester is 82°F. Prime summer weather. Nobody wants to think about their home’s heating system at a time like this. The idea of turning on a furnace during a balmy summer day seems crazy. 

But we’re not asking you to turn on your furnace right now, only give some consideration to when you will need to have it turn on. This is the middle of August, and the official start of fall is a bit more than a month away. Fall is when we recommend our customers arrange for winter-prep HVAC maintenance. It’s not too early to start planning, since the best time to catch our technicians for this service is during the fall lull. 

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Why Your Furnace Is Shutting Down Early

Monday, March 29th, 2021

cold-manWhen your furnace turns on to warm up your house, you expect it to run long enough to deliver an even distribution of heat throughout the rooms. If it starts to shut down early, the house will have cold spots. When a furnace behaves this way, it’s called short-cycling, and it’s a common problem we see in residential furnaces. In some cases, there’s a simple solution to short-cycling. Other times, you’ll need to call us for furnace repair in Mason, OH. When in doubt, always err on the safer side when it comes to a furnace and rely on professionals. 

Below are some of the possible sources of a furnace quitting before it gets the job done:

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The Condensing Furnace Option for Your Home Heating Future

Monday, March 15th, 2021

gas-furnaceAs we reach the end of the winter, you may find yourself debating whether furnace repair in West Chester, OH is the best way to keep your furnace running for the next few years. Spring is a good season for upgrades and replacements to your HVAC system, so if you think it’s time to put in a new furnace, the coming months may be when to schedule it.

You’ll need to make some choices about what you want from a new furnace. Just putting in as close a duplicate to your old one misses out on some major improvements in furnace technology. For example, the condensing furnace. 

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March Report Card: Grade Your Heater’s Performance

Monday, March 1st, 2021

thumbs-upMarch doesn’t mean we’re through with cold weather. But it’s when winter officially ends and we start the build toward summer. Now is a good time to think about how your heater performed during the winter so you’ll have an idea if you need to make any updates, repairs, or even a full replacement for it during the spring or summer. 

We’ll go with a grading system you’re familiar with—school report card grades! Consider how well your heater worked over the past winter. Take into account your comfort, how often you needed to run the heater, if it required any repairs, its age, and your sense of its reliability. Give it a grade from “A” to “F” and look at our handy guide below:

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Boiler Life Expectancy: What You Need to Know

Monday, February 15th, 2021

condensing-gas-boilerWhen you have a heating or cooling system installed in your home, you’d like to think it’s the last one you’ll ever need to purchase. Perhaps it will run forever and you’ll only need to have it repaired on occasion.

This isn’t reality, of course, and you know it. One day you’ll have to replace the boiler that warms your home through the winter. But how long can you expect that boiler to run efficiently and effectively?

We can help answer this question and give you some perspective on when a boiler replacement is the best option.

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