As the temperature continues to drop, now’s the time to start taking the safe operation of your gas furnace into consideration. By teaming up with your reliable HVAC contractor, you’ll be able to ensure that your household will be comfortable and protected throughout the heating season.

Four steps to gas furnace safety

1. Preventive maintenance – It’s important to schedule gas furnace preventive maintenance annually. During these checks, your technician will test your heating system’s safety features and service your equipment in order to ensure that your furnace will run safely without the risk of costly repairs.

2. Carbon monoxide (CO) detectors – Your home’s gas-fired appliances such as your furnace, stove, dryer, etc. are all capable of emitting carbon monoxide, a colorless and odorless potentially lethal gas. In order to operate these appliances safely, invest in at least one CO detector to cover each floor of your home. These detectors should be located where sleeping residents can easily hear an alarm, and should be mounted about 12 inches from your ceiling. Your contractor can direct you to CO detectors that are UL-certified, display readouts of your home’s CO levels, or double as a smoke detector.

3. Check your filter – While your HVAC technician will clean or change your gas furnace filter during preventive maintenance, it’s also important that you regularly attend to your filter. Dirty or clogged air filters can not only damage and/or disable your equipment, but can also compromise safety. When these filters become too dirty, air flow is restricted to the system’s heat exchanger. This can cause the exchanger to overheat, leading to cracks that an emit carbon monoxide.

4. Check furnace efficiency– Make sure that a professional performs a full furnace and water heater combustion analysis to ensure the heating system is operating safely and at peak performance. Be sure to get a copy of the efficiency report

For further advice and gas furnace safety tips, contact the professionals at Overland Park Heating & Cooling. We proudly serve the greater Kansas City area.