We often remind customers who have natural gas furnaces that these systems aren’t “dangerous.” It’s true that gas furnaces can develop safety hazards, but this is also true of many different home appliances. With the right maintenance for your furnace, as well as calling for prompt furnace repair in Plattsburgh, NY whenever necessary, you can expect your gas furnace to safely serve you and your family for many years.
To help explain how your furnace operates safely, as well as how to tell when something may be wrong, we’re going to look at several key safety features built into gas furnaces.
The standing pilot light was the conventional way that natural gas furnaces lit their burners whenever the heating system turned on. They’ve become so identified with home furnaces that people take for granted that pilot lights are still around doing the same job as usual.
One of the most important facts you need to know about your home’s gas furnace is when to have it replaced. No powerful appliance like a furnace can last forever and, considering our extreme winter weather, it’s amazing most furnaces last for as long as they do. At a certain point, you’ll need to make the choice to stop arranging for 
This is something that will cause a sudden pit of panic in your stomach: it’s a cold winter day and when you turn the furnace on … nothing happens. The burners won’t ignite and you can’t see the blue color of the flames in the cabinet. That means no heat for the house. 
If you have a furnace in your house that’s more than 15 or even 20 years old, any replacement system will have a higher energy efficiency rating. This because standard for gas furnaces have changed dramatically over two decades, and even the new mid-efficiency models have a higher standard than the mid-efficiency models at the start of the 21st century.
When a furnace first turns on for the winter season, it emits a burning odor into the air from the vents. This is normal. It’s odor of the dust along the heat exchanger or heating elements burning off as the unit heats up. The smell will subside after a short time and the furnace will get into the regular groove of warming the house.
The 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.
“Spring hasn’t even arrived yet, and yet I should be thinking about replacing my furnace?”
