Hello, my name is Darby Aldrich. I would like to talk to you about the importance of maintaining your air conditioning system. When I moved to a hot climate, I did not realize how vital having a running air conditioner was for living comfortably. When the unit just stopped working one day, the temperature inside the house rivaled the piping hot weather outdoors. We had to go to the community center to keep the kids from feeling sick. While we were gone, we had a local HVAC contractor fix the unit. She let us know that some simple maintenance tasks would prevent that situation in the future. I will use this site to closely explore those tasks in great detail. I hope you can use the information to keep your air conditioner running like new. Thanks.
Nothing could be more important than proper maintenance and inspection when it comes to a gas furnace. That's because corrosion or other issues compromise the integrity of the component known as the heat exchanger, allowing deadly carbon monoxide could escape into your home. If you would like to learn more about how to detect a compromised heat exchanger, read on.
Carbon Monoxide Alarms
You don't have to be a trained HVAC technician to figure out that a carbon monoxide detector whose alarm goes off indicates trouble. Often times this trouble--in other words, this unwanted carbon monoxide--stems from the gas furnace. And in a large number of those cases, the problem can be tied even more specifically to the heat exchanger. Keeping numerous carbon monoxide detectors installed in the various levels of your home is one of the most important things you can do to protect the well-being of your family.
Dancing Furnace Flame
As noted above, a cracked heat exchanger allows dangerous exhaust gasses to escape the flue pipe into the air of your house. As this contaminated air mixes with the air being sucked back into your furnace system, it can cause the furnace ignition flames to behave in a strange manner. The most common symptoms are flames that seem to dance and waver when the blower motor comes on. For this reason, furnace technicians often inspect the furnace flame before moving on to other signs of a damaged heat exchanger.
Cracks Or Open Seams
Heat exchangers are subject to huge temperature swings, not to mention near-constant exposure to corrosive exhaust gasses. Over time, these factors allow corrosion and metal fatigue to cause cracks, seams, or other holes to form in the walls of the exchanger. Thus an HVAC technician who suspects that a heat exchanger may be bad will always perform a detailed vision inspection.
Such an inspection can be conducted in a number of different ways. The most basic simply involves the use of a headlamp or flashlight to try and spot any problem areas. This works quite well for larger cracks. However, many times the cracks in question are simply too small to be spotted in this way. In that case, a furnace technician will often turn to thermal imaging. Thermal imaging is a technique that utilizes infrared cameras to spot heat leaks. The idea here is that anywhere that heat is escaping from the exchanger, dangerous gasses are escaping as well.
For more information on HVAC in your area, check out companies like Ronnie Ritchie Service Co Inc.
Share9 May 2017
