When the summer weather finally settles in and we know we’ve seen the last of the chill for the season, you’ll face a decision about your heating system. Should you shut it down entirely for the summer until it’s needed again in the fall? Or is it better to simply keep it on, but not in use?
The answer to this question varies depending on the type of heating system you use, and it’s not always an absolute “on” or “off” distinction. We’ll go into the details for the different types of systems you may have:
If you’ve been through at least one spring in Ohio, you know that the season is never a guarantee the cold weather will vanish for good. Cold snaps can continue to happen even into June. You never know when you’ll need to have your furnace or boiler running again. This is why you shouldn’t shut down either for the season until the summer weather has well and truly arrived.
At the end of each winter, you’ll want to assess your furnace and ask yourself if it is getting close to—or even reached—the end of its service life. If you think the furnace is too old, the spring and summer is a good time to have the new installation work done, since you won’t need to have the furnace keeping your home warm.
People enjoy a fresh start at the beginning of the year. You may be thinking that a new start is what you need for your home heating. You have an old furnace that you think isn’t living up to its old standards. It sounds like a good reason to have a new furnace installed, and there are many excellent options on the market for a high-efficiency heating unit.
If you feel colder in your house than normal this winter to the point that you’re putting on heavy layers of clothing, nudging up the thermostat to much higher temperatures, and listening to family members complain about their rooms feeling like iceboxes, the trouble may be a heating system that’s struggling to keep up.
Furnace manufacturers design their heating products for durability and dependability. But at the same time, furnaces are complex devices and they can suffer from a range of malfunctions during their service lives. These troubles can be kept to a minimum through regular heating maintenance, but nothing can prevent all possible problems. And no problem with a natural gas furnace is more concerning, and more in need of a speedy response, than a cracked heat exchanger.
The air filter on the HVAC cabinet of your home has a vital job to do—and it isn’t connected to the quality of the air circulating through the house. People often have this misunderstanding: they hear the word filter an imagine the mesh of the filter trapping unhealthy particles in it. You can have HVAC technicians install special indoor air quality filters into the ductwork to remove contaminants from the house—but the one already in place isn’t doing that job.
December is Winter. The actual season doesn’t officially start until the solstice on 20–21, but winter weather doesn’t run on a strict calendar anyway.
As we prepare our homes for winter, it’s important to assess our heating systems. The best way to do this is to schedule routine maintenance 
The weather is cooling down at the end of October—we’re finally in the full fall weather. That means furnaces are going to start coming on for the first time since early spring.