A good furnace is indispensable for getting you through the fall and winter in Durham, NC, but some furnaces are better than others. Here are three signs that your furnace is too inefficient to keep around any longer.
1. High Utility Bills
Since technology constantly improves, newer furnaces are bound to be more efficient than older ones. As a furnace ages and its parts endure more strain and use, the functioning of the system will decline. As a result, efficiency may collapse even further.
This can happen because dirt and other debris have obstructed your furnace components or ducts, leading to both poorer airflow and poorer gas flow. Consequently, your heating system will need to eat up more energy to produce the same results as before, which will cause your heating bills to rise. While cleaning all these components can mitigate this problem, that will begin to have diminishing returns.
2. More Frequent Malfunctions
Your furnace will inevitably break down. Skilled repair can usually bring things back to normal. However, if your system begins breaking down more often, it will eventually no longer be worth it to keep paying to fix it.
3. Age
The typical furnace should last for about 15 to 20 years, but electrically powered ones can function well for a bit longer. After your unit crosses this threshold, you should at least begin giving some thought to replacing it with a newer model.
Once your system gets this old, it’s likely to experience many of the obvious efficiency problems we’ve already discussed. Careful and regular maintenance may keep your furnace working longer than average, but keeping a system around for too long will always end up costing you.
An inefficient furnace is a burden that no homeowner in Durham, NC should bear. To get a new one, just call Lee Air Conditioning and ask for our furnace installation services.
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