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What Is a Thermocouple and How Does It Work? If you have an old furnace, this small part plays an important role in your furnace! What Is a Thermocouple? Prior to 1993, all gas furnaces were made with a standing pilot light. If you have a furnace that was installed after 1993, it comes equipped with an electronic ignition, so no pilot light is needed. A thermocouple in essence is just a small safety device that detects whether or not your furnace's pilot light is on. It is a small metal rod made of two different metals that is located near the pilot light and hooked into the gas valve. It works by utilizing the "Seebeck effect", named after Johnann Seebeck, who found that two different types of metals in close proximity to each other will create an electric charge in relation to the overall heat that they sense. When the pilot light is on, the thermocouple can sense the heat from the flame and it in turn sends the proper voltage to the gas valve to keep it open and ready to ignite the burners. If your pilot light goes out, it will lose it's voltage and your gas valve will close to prevent gas from leaking into your home, or even worse flooding the combustion chamber and catching a spark that can cause an explosion. Common Thermocouple Problems One of the most common problems with a thermocouple is it becoming dirty and in turn giving off improper readings...

My Furnace Is Tripping The Circuit Breaker. What's Going On? The last thing you want to deal with on a cold night is a furnace that refuses to work. It's never fun to deal with a furnace that refuses to work on a cold day or night. If you've recently noticed that your furnace keeps tripping your circuit breaker when you go to turn it on, here is some background as well as possible causes. Electricity & Your Furnace Although your furnace may use natural gas, propane or oil to heat your home, it also needs a good dose of electricity to power all of it's electrical components. Some of the largest parts in your furnace that use electricity include the circuit board, blower motor as well as the gas valve. If you have an older furnace, it may utilize a standing pilot light instead of a electronic ignition source.  Most Common Cause: Stressed Blower Motor The most common cause for your furnace to trip your circuit breaker in your blower motor overworking itself. The blower motor can begin to overwork itself when air flow to the motor becomes restricted. One of the largest causes of this is a dirty air filter. If you haven't changed your filter in a while, be sure to check to make sure it's not overly dirty. Standard 1 inch filters should generally be changed once every 30 days. If you have a thicker media filter, they can usually last 6-12 months depending on your...

My Furnace Keeps Short Cycling. What Is Going On? A furnace that is short cycling can be a frustrating issue when you are trying to keep warm. A short cycling furnace can be a frustrating issue to have. Unfortunately, after not being used all spring and summer, some furnaces have some issues when it comes to firing up for the first time in the fall. Let's take a look at some common issues that could be causing your furnace to short cycle. Dirty Furnace Filters Dirty filters are one of the top causes of furnace and air conditioner break downs. If your filter hasn't been changed in a while, go ahead and take a look at it. If the filter is very dirty, not much air will be able to pass through it and it can cause your furnace to overheat, which could be causing it to short cycle. This is a simple fix that could prevent a future furnace repair. Furnace Is Oversized This type of issue is unfortunately only fixed by having your current furnace removed and the correctly sized furnace installed. If you have a furnace that is too big for your home, it will end up using much more energy than needed. This ultimately means that the warmer air will not be properly distributed throughout your home. Your home will heat for a very short period of time, and then the furnace will kick right back on again, continuing to short cycle. This is not good...

How Can I Protect My Family From Carbon Monoxide? Carbon Monoxide left unchecked can have some deadly consequences. Learn what you can do to prevent it! Effects Of Carbon Monoxide Carbon monoxide is a tasteless, odorless, deadly gas that in large amounts, can potentially kill a person. Carbon monoxide harms you by binding to the hemoglobin in your red blood cells, reducing the amount of oxygen your blood cells can carry to your heart, lungs and brain. This dramatic decrease in oxygen in the blood leads to oxygen starvation, also known as hypoxia. Depending on the amount of carbon monoxide in the air, it can affect you in different ways: 100 PPM (parts per million in the air) - Slight headache in 2-3 hours 200 PPM - Dizziness, nausea, fatigue, headache within 2-3 hours 400 PPM - Headache and nausea after 1-2 hours of exposure, life threatening within 3 hours. 800 PPM - All of the above within 45 minutes, collapse and unconsciousness after 1 hour. Death within 2-3 hours. 1,000 PPM - Loss of consciousness after 1 hour. 1,600 PPM - All of the above within 20 minutes. Death within 1-2 hours. 3,200 PPM - All of the above within 5-10 minutes. Death within 1 hour. 6,400 PPM - Death within 30 minutes 12,800 PPM - Immediate bodily effects. Death within 1-3 minutes.  Furnaces & Carbon Monoxide Since your gas furnace burns off some type of fuel to heat your home, it will naturally produce carbon monoxide in some...

Gas Vs Electric Furnace: Which One Is For Me? When it comes to furnaces, you have several different options. Is a gas or electric furnace right for you? While it generally comes down to preference, there are some major differences between gas and electric furnaces. Let's take a look at each one to see which kind is right for you. Gas Furnaces The majority of homes in the United states are heated by a gas furnace. If you are looking for the hottest "heat", a gas furnace is definitely the way to go. However, it is important to note that you must have a natural gas connection at your home to be able to utilize a gas furnace. Amazing, I know. Gas furnaces are incredibly safe, but you must also have a carbon monoxide detector installed with it to verify it is venting properly and not leaking any of the deadly CO gas into your home. Another great benefit of a gas furnace vs an electric one is that it uses much less electricity to run. Assuming you have regular maintenance on your gas furnace, you should not have any major furnace repairs needed. Most gas furnaces can last 15 years or more if taken care of. Electric Furnaces For those without access to natural gas, this is one route to go when it comes to heating. An electric furnace essentially does that exact same thing as a gas furnace, but it heats your home by using electric heat strips....

Gas Furnace vs Heat Pump: What's the Difference? Should I get a furnace or a heat pump? What is the difference anyways? There are a few different options you have when it comes to heating your home. Among the most popular are furnaces and heat pumps. Although there are several different types of furnaces available today (gas, oil, boiler), in this post we will be looking specifically at gas furnaces as they are the most popular option in homes today. Gas Furnaces A gas furnace is by far the most popular option in heating your home here in the United states with approximately 56% of homes utilizing one each winter. A gas furnace is known to provide the hottest heat when compared to a heat pump as it utilizes it's own fuel source (burning gas) to heat your home. Furnaces can also heat your home under any condition, no matter how cold the weather may be outside. If you live in areas of the US that become very cold each winter, a gas furnace is probably the best option for you. Not to mention, furnaces are generally much cheaper to install vs a heat pump. A new furnace installation generally costs anywhere between $2-4,000 depending on the efficiency of the furnace you have installed. Although it may seem obvious, you will need to verify you home has a natural gas connection to have a gas furnace installed. If you happen to live out in the country, fuel oil furnaces, boilers...

How Does My Furnace's Gas Valve Work? The gas valve on your furnace is one of the most important parts! Without it, your house would be quite cold! The gas valve on your furnace is one of the most important parts. It is ultimately responsible for delivering an adjusting the flow of gas pressure to your furnace to keep it lit when running. A gas valve replacement is a common furnace repair in older furnaces. Let's take a look at the different kinds and how they work to keep your home warm in the winter! Types of Gas Valves Combination gas valve: This type of gas valve was introduced around the 1960s. A combination gas valve contains a handle, a thermocouple, a regulator, and a solenoid valve. In essence, it contains everything needed for the operation of a gas fired furnace.  Gas chain: These types of gas valves are quite common and require the operator to manually turn a valve to open or close the flow of gas to the furnace. Once opened by the user, the solenoid valve will only open to allow gas to flow when the furnace actually calls for heat. Otherwise, you'd have a non-stop flow of gas into your home! A safety switch will only remain open if the thermocouple is heated to a minimum temperature, verifying the furnace is actually in heating mode. How The Gas Valve Works The furnace's gas valve is operated by electromagnets. There are two different valve's that work in...

How Cold Is Too Cold For My Heat Pump? Heat Pumps are highly efficient units but they do come with some drawbacks when the weather gets really cold. Will My Heat Pump Work When It's Cold Out? This is a somewhat 2 part answer. The short answer would be yes, your heat pump will heat your home in cold weather. The tricky part is exactly how cold does it have to be before your heat pump just cant keep up? Let's take a look. Heat Absorption Your heat pump heats your home by absorbing the heat in the outside air and transferring this heat indoors. This is great when there is some heat in the air for it to transfer, but when temps drop below freezing, the efficiency of your heat pump begins to suffer. This is why you have what is called "aux heat" or "emergency heat" when you have a heat pump. This emergency heat comes in the form of a furnace inside your home (electric or gas) and it takes over for your heat pump when it just can't keep up anymore. Emergency Heat Source When the temps outside begin to drop below freezing, your thermostat should automatically switch from your heat pump to your aux heat due to the loss of efficiency in your heat pump heating your home. Now, this can be customized to switch at a certain level, but most are smart enough to know when to switch over themselves. Some people that refuse...

Protect Your Air Conditioner From Thieves Your air conditioner holds some pretty valuable parts that many thieves would love to sell With the warm weather on its way, many people start getting their air conditioner's ready to go. But did you know your air conditioner can also be a prime target for thieves? Scrap metal is a big business and your air conditioner has many valuable parts that are worth money when sold. The most valuable being the copper lines that hold your air conditioners refrigerant. Here are some tips to keep your unit safe all year round. Security Lights Simple enough but also quite effective. Installing motion sensing security lights that illuminate the area around your air conditioner will put anyone who is trying to do something they shouldn't on full display at night.  Lock It Up There are many different cages on the market that you can buy to secure your air conditioner. The highest quality cages are made of steel and have posts that are put in the ground in concrete to secure them. They have a lock on them that can be opened with a key to make servicing your air conditioner a breeze for your service technician. These cages aren't the cheapest, but compared to a new air conditioner it may be worth the cost! In The Clear This seems obvious, but make sure your air conditioner isn't buried in bushes or other shrubbery and is out in the open where it is visible. Bushes...

Spring Cleaning Checklist 2018  Spring is almost here! The warm weather, the outside activities, and of course the annual spring cleaning checklist. Here are 5 of the top things you and your family should be looking at this spring to help keep your home in good shape all year long. Clean the Dryer Vent A years worth of laundry will begin to build up a lot of dust and particulates in your dryer vent. It is a good idea to put this on your spring cleaning checklist and clean this out to prevent overheating fires. Did you know that a clogged dryer vent can cost you up to $3.00 more per load of laundry? It is also worth noting that new clothes tend to produce more lint than older clothes. Signs that your dryer vent might be clogged include: clothes taking longer to dry, the outside of the dryer gets really hot, the vent hood flap doesn't open, and it's been more than a year since the vent was cleaned last. Vacuum and Steam Clean Carpets During the winter, it is so easy to track in a lot of dirt and salt, which then gets transferred onto your carpet and other rugs. Professional carpet cleaning (hot water extraction) will help your carpets return to looking new and also vastly extend the life of them. Also, did you know that your carpets are the largest air filter in your home? Dust and dirt in the air will fall on the carpet and...