Red Rock Mechanical, LLC Blog: Archive for the ‘Heating’ Category

October Is Here: Time to Think If Your Heating System Needs Work

Monday, October 1st, 2018

service-blue-markerThe recent rains should serve as a strong reminder: it’s definitely fall, and we’re on the road to winter. Air conditioners will soon turn off for the rest of the year and furnaces and boilers will fire up (or heat pumps switch over to heating mode).

Now, before that happens, ask yourself if your heating system needs work. Can you trust it to make it through another tough winter season?

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Last Minute Furnace Repairs—Don’t Ignore Them

Monday, April 2nd, 2018

hand-holding-wrenchThe weather is still cool-to-cold here, and who knows what sudden shifts may occur through the rest of April and even in to May? You are probably still running your furnace during the evenings and sometimes the days as well. If you think your furnace is showing signs that something is wrong, like a loss of heating power or strange sounds from the cabinets, make sure you call a professional to repair the system right away.

When you read that last sentence, did a pestering voice in your head say, “Why bother? The furnace is about to shut down for the warm season. There’s not much point in hustling to get a minor problem fixed now. Wait it out.”

Please don’t listen to that nagging part of your brain! Ignoring furnace repairs, no matter the time of year, is bad for your comfort, your bills, and even your safety. We’ll explain further.

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Start Considering Furnace Replacement Options

Monday, March 5th, 2018

technician-examines-furnace“Spring hasn’t even arrived yet, and yet I should be thinking about replacing my furnace?”

Yes! Your current furnace is still working away, and will continue to do so until the warmth finally settles in. But the “spring/summer break” for your furnace is an ideal time to make plans to replace it. The point when you need the furnace the least is the time to have it taken out and a new one put in, because…

  • You’ll be far ahead of the next cold weather and won’t have to worry about cramming in an installation in fall.
  • Local HVAC contractors don’t have schedules that are packed during the spring and can find a convenient time to arrange for the work.
  • You’ll have enough time to review your options carefully for a new furnace installation.

Let’s take a deeper look into that last point. Choosing a new furnace is trickier than it may seem, especially if you’ve never had to have one replaced.

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A Ductless Heating Installation: A Good February Investment

Monday, February 5th, 2018

ductless-mini-split-on-wallFebruary is a strange time when it comes to HVAC work for homes. Winter is still here, but now that we’ve moved into the second half of the season, people feel less willing to make big changes to their heating systems. They’ll call for repairs if they need them (at least, they should!), but heating upgrades or new system installations won’t be a priority when warm weather is coming closer.

But we can recommend a few good February investments—aside from those vital repairs—for your heating in Burlington, VT and your home’s HVAC system overall. Today we’re going to focus on one of the best: installing a ductless heating system.

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Mid-Winter and Your Furnace: Why You May Need Service

Monday, January 22nd, 2018

woman-in-sweaterThe middle of the winter is the point when you may have concerns about the performance of your home’s furnace. It’s wise to be on the lookout for potential problems. It’s not only the coldest time of the year, but the furnace has done a half season of work and has another half ahead of it.

There are a number of reasons why you may need to have professionals give your furnace a look and make fixes and adjustments in mid-winter. Schedule your heater service in Burlington, VT or the surrounding areas to ensure you don’t have a furnace that fails for any of the following reasons:

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Some Boiler Malfunctions You May Run Into

Monday, January 8th, 2018

service-reminder-clockA boiler is a great way to provide warmth during a stormy and cold winter—and we’re in the middle of one of those right now! The heat coming from radiators and baseboard heaters is cozy and spreads evenly through a room, without having to blow around any dust from ductwork. A boiler also has a great advantage over a furnace, which is that it usually needs fewer repairs over its lifetime. A boiler contains fewer moving mechanical parts that can break down. As long as you remember to schedule heating maintenance for your boiler each year (do it now if you haven’t!) you should have reliable comfort through the season.

There’s no guarantee, of course, that your boiler will work without any troubles. Let’s look at some possible problems your boiler might encounter. Call for boiler heating professionals to check out the issue before it worsens and you end up with no heat at all!

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Is Your Electric Furnace Not Up to the Task?

Tuesday, December 26th, 2017

cold-sweater-manThere’s a good reason natural gas furnaces are common for heating in Burlington, VT: they have immense heat output that can overcome even the deepest cold days. And we have quite a few super-cold days in Vermont and New York! A gas furnace not only effectively warms up a house, it also saves money since natural gas costs less to use than electricity.

Natural gas, however, isn’t available to all homes in our area. Some homeowners prefer not to use it even if it is available because of safety concerns. For those homes, the electric furnace is always an option—and it can be an effective option as well.

But this winter, are you finding your house is colder than normal, even when you have the furnace turned up all the way? The electric furnace may not be up to its job. Let’s find out why.

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The More You Know: Boilers Rarely “Boil” Today

Monday, December 11th, 2017

large-boilerFurnaces have a long history as residential heating systems. After all, the first fireplaces were basically the original furnaces, and ever since people started to construct pipes connected to stoves to distribute heat to other parts of a building, furnaces have been the most common kind of central heating system.

But the boiler has a long history as well. Boilers didn’t become prominent in homes and commercial buildings until much later than furnaces, but they’ve been common since the 19th century. Boilers offer a number of excellent advantages that have kept them around for all those decades: energy-saving performance, clean heat that doesn’t blow around dust, and a toasty warm feeling that people often prefer to the forced-air comfort that comes from a furnace.

Boilers have changed immensely since their first introduction, of course. Perhaps the biggest change of all is that most boilers today don’t actually boil anything, but instead use hydronic power.

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Why Isn’t My Gas Furnace Turning On?

Monday, November 27th, 2017

natural-gas-furnace-burnersWhen you’re making your winter plans, both in the short-term and the long-term, you probably make most of them around being in locations where you can receive warmth. In your house, that means a natural gas furnace that works whenever you need it to, that will turn on when the thermostat signals your house requires a boost in warmth.

You probably aren’t planning for the furnace to refuse to turn on at all. You can take steps to avoid this during the fall (arranging for professional heating maintenance is one of the best), but there’s nothing that can stop all potential furnace malfunctions. If your furnace isn’t coming on and you aren’t getting any heat, there are a couple of possibilities for why it’s happening. Some you can correct on your own, but others will require you call for heating repair in Plattsburgh, NY from HVAC professionals.

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Does a Furnace Dry Out the Air in a House?

Monday, October 30th, 2017

burners-in-furnaceThis is a question people often ask about furnace performance. During the winter, the moisture level in the air drops as more water vapor becomes pulled out of the air as snow. Dry conditions may be helpful during the summer, when it makes it easier for the human body to cool down in the heat. Bu dry air during the rest of the year presents comfort and health problems. Furnaces are often blamed from causing the air to become even drier. Is there any truth to the idea that a furnace “dries out” a home’s air?

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