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The HVAC system is the core of your home. We spend most of our time indoors whether it be awake or sleeping, how comfortable you are in the hot summer or winter months depends on the reliability of your furnace and air conditioner.

The purpose of this article is so that new home owners become familiar with their HVAC system, and the maintenance required to ensure you are doing the right steps to take care of your equipment and indoor air quality.

We're talking about topics like:

• How to maintain good indoor air quality in your home

• Tips for buying a new water heater

• Pros and cons of investing in a home energy audit

• Reading up on the latest HVAC trends

• The importance of an annual furnace inspection.

The HVAC room is used for more than just storage

HVAC technicians already know it; your furnace and air conditioner are not the glamorous pieces of your new home. Real estate agents don’t talk about it, and home buyers usually ignore the HVAC system room altogether, but it is important to know if your HVAC equipment or air quality products have been maintained well, or not at all.

If you have just bought a new home:

Go ahead and take a peek at your furnace room, after all, it’s used for more than just storage! If you aren’t interested or need a hand then you should schedule a visit from a professional HVAC technician to make sure your system is well-kept and to make sure all filters are fresh and new.

Here are a few things you should look for:

1. Check the furnace filter
   It should be regularly changed, and it is very unlikely the previous homeowner changed it for you before moving out.

2. Do you have any indoor air quality products?
   Look for a HEPA system (usually a large box, attached to the furnace vents near the furnace), and/or an ultra-violet light system. You’ll want to make sure you keep the filters and bulbs regularly changed (typically yearly) to improve indoor air quality.

3. How does your HVAC equipment sound?
   While your furnace system is running, just take a moment to listen to the unit; make sure unusual sounds are not occurring such as scraping, knocking, and banging.

4. The overall general condition of your equipment?
   While looking at the exterior of HVAC equipment is not a fool-proof way of determining its condition, it can be a good indicator to start with. Look at your water heater, check for no leaks or heavy rust marks, and the same goes with the air conditioning system and heating systems.

How to maintain good indoor air quality in your home:

Now that you have had a peek into your furnace room you should have been able to determine if you have any time of indoor air quality products attached to your furnace; this includes a HEPA system, an ultra-violet light system, ERV/HRV system, and even a humidifier or dehumidifier system. If you do not have any of these products, then unfortunately you have nothing to maintain outside of regular replacement of the furnace filter.

If the previous owner has invested in an indoor air quality filtration system, great! Most furnace-attached air quality products require minimum maintenance, and filters or ultra-violet bulbs need to be changed once per year. The only necessary steps are determining the model number of your products and buying the correct match of replacement.

You can do this by researching the name of the product online or checking the product manual. This can be tedious to some people; so we will remind you if you are in the local area of London Ontario or in Southwestern Ontario, Platinum Air Care’s air and water filtration service department has a variety of options to help you with filter or bulb replacement.

Another aspect many customers appreciate is getting a full duct cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, and furnace cleaning package. This is recommended to new homeowners for many reasons and the age of the home is irrelevant if the vents have never been cleaned before, newly built homes have excess leftovers of drywall dust, insulation, and even screws, tools, or other building materials that have fallen into the vents during construction.

Drywall dust and insulation fibers are the main culprits if you are noticing dust quickly accumulating after you have just cleaned your floors or countertops. When it comes to older homes, accumulation and neglected vents are very common, especially when it comes to the dryer vent. Having your dryer vent cleaned is important because it can help prevent dryer fires and your clothing dryer will work as it should, clogged dryer vents usually struggle to properly dry the clothes on one cycle.

We will remind readers that this section is specific on maintaining indoor air quality; if you do not have any type of filtration system it is highly recommended you look into adding one as poor air quality inside a home can affect our health and well-being.

The importance of annual furnace and HVAC inspection:

Canadian climate gets cold or hot fast, when that happens companies like Platinum Air Care always get many service calls for no heat or air conditioning. This is because their HVAC equipment was not checked or prepared before they needed to use it.

Annual furnace and HVAC inspections can be an important step in keeping your heating and cooling system running smoothly. The service will help you avoid potential health and safety issues, such as the buildup of dangerous gases due to a gas leak or a faulty pilot light. Inspections will also find problems with the heating or cooling system before they become too costly for homeowners to repair themselves. An annual inspection is key to maintaining those systems and providing you with peace of mind as a homeowner.

Tips for buying a new water heater:

As a new homeowner in Ontario, your water heater is likely to be a rental unit. Like purchasing your home, buying a water heater is an investment for the long term, and can be compared similarly to renting your home vs owning your home. Both a home and water heater can be financed to own, and over time you will quickly save money compared to renting.

That isn’t the only option available to you though, if you purchased an older home, with an older rental water heater, you can also opt to have the rental company replace the water heater with a new and efficient model, and continue to rent.

And of course, regardless of renting or owning, your choice is of the actual water heater itself; this can be a traditional tank system or an instant hot water tankless system. Both have pros and cons, but in terms of efficiency, a high-quality tankless water heater such as the Navien NPE2 series is the clear winner.

Pros and cons of investing in a home energy audit:

A home energy audit is an examination of all aspects of your home’s energy use and can be conducted by a professional auditor. The auditor will go through the house and use various tools to look for any leaks or other ways that heat or cool air can escape.

They will also check the insulation level, measure the amount of fresh air coming into the house, and identify any inefficient appliances. The work they do helps you find ways to reduce your utility bills, become more comfortable at home, and make sure your family members stay safe from poor indoor air quality like asthma or allergies.

Investing in a home energy audit is a good idea if you have been thinking about upgrading any old equipment in your new home. By having a professional home energy audit, the auditor will look at your current situation, and in a set period of time after (for example 6 months), purchases such as a new furnace or windows can provide you with rebates. These rebates typically recover the cost of the initial audit and put some money back into your pocket after everything is said and done with.

The biggest drawback of this service is that it is expensive and takes time to complete, but those are both things that a lot of people have a lot of both of. You also need to be aware that it does not provide comprehensive solutions to all the problems in your home, just some problems.

Conclusion:

It doesn’t take a lot of attention, but it does require some. Maintaining your home’s HVAC system and indoor air quality is as simple as regular replacement of the furnace filter and filtration system’s filters or ultra-violet bulbs. Just keep in mind you should have a professional involved when it comes to annual HVAC maintenance.

You can always book a full HVAC & ventilation inspection with Platinum Air Care. We can go over the entirety of your system including the furnace, air conditioner, water heater, check your indoor pollution if it is maintained or not, sources of poor indoor air quality, check if your system is heating or cooling correctly, and tune-up your HVAC system to make sure your furnace does not have to work harder to produce the same results so you don’t have to.