Thermostats are a necessary component of your heating and cooling system. While they might sit on your wall and feel like the remote to your television set, they provide a unique service that can be overlooked by many homeowners. Thermostats are in charge of being the human connection—the temperature regulator that sends the signal you program to the complicated machinery down in your basement. If you’re noticing that the thermostat numbers don’t match the heat or cooling that’s coming from your air ducts, there could be a major problem at hand.
While many homeowners would overlook a thermostat problem, we implore you to schedule HVAC maintenance in Shreveport if you’re experiencing a dissonance between the numbers displayed on your thermostat and what’s actually being produced by your heater. That and the fact that an older thermostat could be costing you money.
Don’t believe us? Keep reading!
That’s a tongue twister! After you’ve said that five times fast, listen up!
You’ve probably heard us talk about heater maintenance quite a lot in this blog, but you might not have been told what heater maintenance actually does. A technician doesn’t just come to shine a flashlight on your system and tell you that “It’s all good.” There is a thorough checklist involved, just like how a doctor gives you a thorough check-up every year!
When the last cold days of winter and early spring are in your rear-view mirror you probably won’t need to turn your furnace back on until fall comes again. In fact, we recommend you do either a partial or full shutdown of your furnace system once the weather forecast shows nothing but warm days for a long stretch to come. This is an easy way to lower your energy bills. 
Spring is often a time of weird weather shifts, but the trend is toward warmer weather until the true summer heat settles in. You’ll use your home heating system less and less through April and May until it shuts off for a few months.
When the cold weather winds down as spring advances, you’ll want to put the winter far behind you and consider your summer plans. The air conditioner in your house will soon switch to regular operation, so this is the ideal time to schedule its annual maintenance appointment.
As the winter winds down and the official start of spring arrives (i.e. this week), you’ll probably not give much thought to your furnace. The weather is going to warm up gradually on the climb toward the summer heat.
A furnace generates heat, either using gas burners or electrical heating elements, to warm up the air, then uses a blower to send the heated air into the ductwork of a home. As with any heat-generating appliance, there’s some potential for a fire hazard, although this is rare for modern furnaces. However, if you ever notice an acrid burning odor coming from the vents when your home’s furnace is running, it can be alarming.
We’ve talked about this topic before, but it was a few years ago—and it’s one of the most important subjects to know about when it comes to home heating. Gas furnaces are the most common type of home heating systems, and cracked heat exchangers in gas furnaces are a major problem and serious potential safety hazard. Understanding the cracked heat exchanger can be a real lifesaver! 
Now that we’ve settled into the winter, the heater in your home will work on a regular basis to provide comfort. Chances are high that the heating system you have installed is a gas furnace—the most popular type of home heating system in the country. A gas furnace is reliable and uses an inexpensive fuel to run.
