Avoiding Heating Mistakes: Fireplaces, Exhaust Fans and Maintenance

Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning

Gaithersburg HVAC Contractors

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In parts one and two of this multi-part blog series, we’ve reviewed several common heating mistakes made by homeowners and how to avoid them. Ensuring quality heating and air without spiking your energy bill is relatively straightforward, but there are a few roadblocks some homeowners run into.

At Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning, we’re here to help with a variety of heating services, from furnace installation and repair to regular maintenance before the heating and cooling seasons.

We also provide our clients with expertise and recommendations for how to properly use and optimize their system, and we’ll be happy to bring this expertise to your home – including helping you avoid some of the errors commonly made during the winter when it comes to the heating system. Here are some additional tips.

Fireplace as a Heater

For areas of the home that have a fireplace, you might be thinking about using this as your heating source instead of the furnace or other installed heating system. Unfortunately this can backfire as it will increase your heating bills and also decrease your heating consistency and comfort.

This is primarily because the majority of the hot air created by a fireplace doesn’t enter your home at all – it shoots up through your chimney and leaves the house. Meanwhile, the same chimney setup allows in cold air from the outdoors, forcing the furnace to work harder. Typically fireplace areas should be sealed when they aren’t in use and they should not be used as a home heating replacement.

Exhaust Fan Use

Exhaust fans in bathrooms are valuable, particularly for limiting humidity and decreasing any risks of mold or mildew. They also help improve air quality. However, they should only be used for brief periods of time in the bathroom or kitchen and then turned off. These fans actually pump warm air out of the house and lower the temperature during winter.

Lack of Maintenance

Finally, perhaps the single biggest mistake a homeowner can make in both the cooling and heating season is neglecting maintenance for their system. We strongly recommend twice-yearly maintenance: Once during the fall period before winter, and once again during the spring period before spring hits.

These appointments offer our HVAC professionals a chance to inspect your entire system, from basic connections to ducts, filters, refrigerant quality and many other areas. We’ll spot minor issues before they grow into more significant ones, allowing us to perform low- or no-cost repairs instead of you being forced to shell out for much larger-cost issues down the line. If you haven’t yet had your system serviced this season, it’s not too late to give our team a call for an inspection.

For more on how to avoid common heating mistakes, or to learn about any of our HVAC services, speak to the staff at Presidential Heating & Air Conditioning today.