It’s Hot! Keep your system cooling, wash out your condensing unit outside. A good steady stream that is strong enough to wash off dust, cottonwood seeds, and other plant material.
Install a new filter indoors.
Stay Cool and call us at BEEBE HVAC if you have any problems.
You may be wondering what the pros and cons of a gas furnace are if you are helping design your new home or face replacing an old heating system. A gas furnace can be an excellent heating option for your home.
To best inform yourself on your heating choices, our Kansas City HVAC pros at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning present this list of 7 pros and cons to think about if you’re considering installing a gas furnace.
Choosing what type of heating to use in your home is a big decision. We present the below-listed pros and cons to provide you with the ability to make an informed decision based on the following criteria: heating efficiency, cost-effectiveness, adaptability, desirability, upfront costs, service life span, and maintenance costs frequency.
Gas furnaces tend to heat homes faster than electric furnaces, which is certainly a major plus for keeping your home nice and cozy during the cold winter months. Gas furnaces heat up faster than electric furnaces because they come up to maximum temperature as soon as the burners begin running.
Switching from an electric heater to a gas heater can be incredibly cost-efficient. Many homes save an average of at least 50% on heating bills when switching from electric heat to gas heat. According to a midwest utility company, homeowners living in cold climates can expect to save approximately $1,700 a year in heating bills by using a gas furnace.
Gas furnaces are adaptable in that a newly installed gas furnace can connect with your home’s existing HVAC system. The fact that a newly installed gas furnace doesn’t require an overhauling or replacement of the rest of your current HVAC system is a huge plus.
If you rent out homes or are considering selling your home at some point, then consider that gas furnaces are often the most popular option among homeowners and renters. Renters are fans of gas furnaces as several of the cons do not affect them, such as the higher installation and maintenance costs, and they’ll save on monthly heating expenses.
While gas furnaces are cost-efficient in the long run, they are more expensive to install upfront than other heater types. While the upfront expense is a con to choosing a gas furnace, consider the overall benefit of significantly lower monthly heating bills.
Perhaps the biggest drawback to choosing a gas furnace is its shorter expected service life than other heaters. We expect a well-performing, well-maintained, quality gas furnace to last approximately 15-20 years. Compare that to the 20-30 year service expectancy of equally high quality, well-maintained electric heater.
Gas furnaces typically require more maintenance from an HVAC technician. These furnaces use a combustion process that requires scheduled inspection and preventative upkeep to avoid problems such as carbon monoxide leakage.
Thankfully, Kansas City homeowners can turn to the HVAC professionals at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning to perform excellent furnace maintenance, inspections, and repairs. Always install a carbon monoxide detector in your home for added safety.
If you live in the Kansas City metropolitan area the experts at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning are here to help you make the best heating system decision. Contact us today to discuss the pros and cons of a gas furnace and your options for installation.
If you’re wondering if you can stay warm and cozy and save money on your heating cost this year, you’ll be glad to know the answer is a resounding yes! Continue reading “How to Save Money on Your Heating Cost this Year”
If you use a gas furnace in your home or business, consider these four gas furnace safety tips to keep in mind to ensure the health and safety of everyone in the building.
When fuel is used to power an appliance, we must be mindful of following best practices for safety and wellbeing.
As HVAC professionals, our team at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning are experts in gas furnace safety. We have provided a list of crucial tips to keep in mind so you can safely enjoy the warmth and coziness your gas furnace provides.
Gas furnaces can produce carbon monoxide as a by-product of their combustion process. When the heating system is working correctly, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are vented safely outside your home.
However, leaks can happen if the furnace is damaged, and therefore it’s critical to install carbon monoxide detectors on every level of your home and near all sleeping areas.
Carbon monoxide can cause serious and potentially deadly health effects by lowering the oxygen level in your blood. Remember that we can not detect carbon monoxide through our senses. Therefore, installing carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home and near every sleeping area is crucial to catching a leak.
HVAC professionals performing scheduled maintenance inspections once or twice a year can catch any problems that need resolution before they become costly repairs or turn into dangerous situations. There are many parts to a functioning gas furnace, and the best way to ensure your furnace is functioning properly, and therefore safely, is by calling in an HVAC expert.
At Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning, we recommend scheduling regular maintenance inspections at least once a year, and ideally, once in the fall and once in the spring.
You may feel tempted to store items near your furnace to save space. Storing items near your furnace is not wise due to the potential for a fire this scenario can cause. Always keep the area around your gas furnace clear of debris or storage.
Even if you have your furnace in a larger room that you use for storage, such as a basement, make sure that you allow several feet between the furnace and any other objects. Doing so lowers the risk of a fire starting and maintains clear and easy access to your furnace for maintenance, inspection, and repairs.
The gas furnace flame should burn blue. You need to quickly call an HVAC technician to diagnose and repair a problem if you notice yellow, orange, or green streaks or a complete color change.
Changing flame color means the furnace is not burning at the correct oxygen and gas mixture. Of particular note, if you notice a yellow flame there is a buildup of carbon monoxide through incomplete combustion.
The buildup may be small enough not to cause health effects but always err on the side of safety and call in an HVAC technician. If you notice a discolored furnace flame and feel any early symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning like headache, nausea, fatigue, or dizziness, you should vacate the home until an HVAC team can fix the problem.
Preventative maintenance is always key to best practices for ensuring efficiency, longevity, and safety.
If you live in Kansas City, follow our gas furnace safety tips and schedule a maintenance call today with our expert team at Beebe Heating and Air Conditioning.
Smart technology is increasingly used, talked about, and advertised in our daily lives, and as such, you may be wondering if you could benefit from a smart thermostat this winter. Installing this temperature-regulating technology can be advantageous to homeowners interested in additional convenience, high-tech performance, and energy saving. Continue reading “Could You Benefit From a Smart Thermostat This Winter?”
Staying comfortable and warm inside during the cold winter months, and ensuring critical infrastructure, like plumbing, continues operating, underscores the importance of heating maintenance in the winter.
Without proper maintenance, your heating system could fail during a time of year that could have significant consequences on health, safety, and the operating systems in your building.
At Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning, we know how critical properly functioning heaters are for the winter months in Kansas City. We are experts in installing and maintaining HVAC heating systems, and in this article, we’ll outline the importance of heating maintenance this winter.
A properly maintained, efficiently operating heating system is crucial to you and your family’s health, wellness, and comfort. Performing proper maintenance on your heating system helps to ensure that no costly failures occur that could result in a period of significant discomfort until the system is back to performing well. If you’re in the Kansas City area, you can benefit from our expert heating maintenance services at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning.
If you live in a cold environment and your heating system goes out due to a lack of maintenance, you may have to stay elsewhere until the system is back in operation. You may also resort to wearing piling on heavy coats and blankets inside your home for warmth. Pets, children, the elderly, and people with some forms of chronic illnesses may be at particular risk if the heat suddenly stops working in your home.
Winter months are particularly straining on your heating system, and without proper maintenance, this strain could result in your heating system needing replacement earlier than expected. Replacing the heating source in your house can be a costly and extensive project.
Spending the time and money on yearly preventative maintenance is a far better option than having to prematurely replace your entire heating system, especially in the middle of winter.
When your heating system undergoes regular maintenance, it runs in an optimized state, and thus, more efficiently. As such, your monthly energy bills are lower than if the system is running inefficiently, which will result in higher monthly energy bills. The less your heating system has to work, the longer it will last, and the less money you will spend in the short term and long run, by far.
Performing warranty-approved and required maintenance on your heating system is critical to keeping your warranty valid. Considering that heating systems are the most strained in the winter, you’ll want to ensure that you perform necessary maintenance in the winter to keep your warranty valid.
Scheduling regular maintenance checks on your heating system can help you identify specific parts that need replacement. It’s far better to replace those parts as needed rather than leave your system unattended until a cascade of part failures occur that lead to an entire system needing replacement.
For instance, you may be noticing temperature variations resulting in certain parts of your home not heating as well as others. A regularly scheduled maintenance check helps identify issues, and components that need replacement or repair, ensuring your whole building optimally heats.
From preventative maintenance to tune-ups and identifying small problems, scheduling winter maintenance is crucial to ensuring the longevity and optimization of your heating system. Now that you know the importance of heating maintenance this winter, make sure you reach out to us pros at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning for expert maintenance service.
If you own a commercial property in a seasonal climate, following a detailed winter checklist for your commercial building heater is critical to ensuring longevity and optimal performance. If you own a building in the Kansas City area, you probably know that maintaining a heater for your commercial building is crucial to endure the winter months. Continue reading “Winter Checklist for Your Commercial Building Heater”
If you are noticing performance issues, you may be wondering what the signs are that it’s time to replace your furnace. While high-quality furnaces can last up to 20 years of service, they will eventually age out, and it will be time for a replacement. The Kansas City HVAC professionals at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning have the expert answers you need.
Below, we have provided the tell-tale signs that your furnace requires replacement. These signs include the age of your system, varying and inconsistent temperatures in your home, higher-than-expected heating bills, excessive noises, and a yellow pilot light flame.
The average service span of most high-quality furnace heaters is about 15 to 20 years. If your furnace is at least 15 years old, you may want to start thinking about hiring an HVAC professional to install a new furnace.
If you are not experiencing any problems with your furnace, you may not yet need a replacement, but make sure to perform regular maintenance inspections and be on the lookout for any of the below-listed signs.
If you notice that your house has cold spots and heats irregularly, then it may be time for a heater replacement. Particularly dramatic and noticeable shifts in the temperature of your home can especially be a sign that your furnace may be failing.
Often, older heaters near the end of their service life will fail to distribute heat throughout the house.
If you notice this sign we recommend that you schedule a service call to diagnose the issue and determine if the problem is repairable or if the furnace requires replacement.
One particularly frustrating sign of a furnace that may need replacement is an increase in your monthly heating cost. If your furnace is breaking down, it will not run as efficiently and will have to work harder to heat the home. It will waste more fuel in the process, thus increasing your monthly heating bill.
Regardless of the type of furnace you have, you should not notice excessively frequent or loud noises. It’s time to call in a professional if you hear loud rattling, banging, and screeching noises.
Chances are some serious mechanical damage may be occurring to your furnace. If your furnace is already older than ten years, it’s often more cost-effective in the long run to replace it with a new model.
A properly functioning furnace should have a blue pilot light flame, always. If you notice that the pilot light flame is yellow on your furnace, then you need to immediately call in an HVAC technician.
The yellow flame is a sign of a ventilation problem with your system and incomplete gas combustion. This incomplete combustion can lead to an elevation of carbon monoxide levels in your home.
While you can potentially address indoor air quality decline through cleaning parts of your HVAC system, it can also be a sign that your furnace requires replacement.
Your furnace may be damaged or aged to the point that it is not heating efficiently, combustion correctly, or properly diverting combustion gases away from your home.
Our experts at Beebe Heating & Air Conditioning can set up a time to diagnose your furnace and determine if we can perform a cost-effective repair or if we recommend replacement.
If you live in Kansas City and have checked off these 6 signs of a possibly failing furnace, contact us today.
If you are not performing your own fall HVAC maintenance, then you risk problems with your system. Keeping your entire system maintained will ensure your HVAC is there when you need it.
Often, the fall can be short and it can get cold rather quickly. You need to have your HVAC system ready to handle the workout it will get all winter long. There are a few things you can do yourself.
Keeping your HVAC maintained is the best way to prevent any problems or the need for costly repairs.
Start by checking around your furnace. Make sure you remove any boxes, sleds, clothes, or anything that may have been stored in the basement. Keep these all several feet away from your furnace.
Then open the vents and check that there is nothing built up inside. Vacuum out the dust, lint, and pet hair that has been gathering. This will prevent blockages and fires.
Changing your filters is one of the best ways to make sure the air will flow. If you have older filters that require cleaning, change them for some more higher efficiency filters.
These will help to catch more dust and debris better. Many newer filters have electrostatic charges in the pleats that trap particles. This improves the way the HVAC functions and helps with air quality.
Once the leaves start to fall, they can clog up the vents and outdoor systems. Get rid of the leaves, branches, and other bits of garbage that may blow into your yard.
You should keep an eye on this until the leaves have all gone, just to make sure there are no problems. The air needs to move through the system, so keep other toys or other objects away from the outside unit. Once it is cleared, cover it up.
Check your ducts to make sure there is nothing blocking them. Look for signs of damage, like moisture damage, rust, water stains, cracks, or an excessive amount of dust or pet hair.
These can be cleaned but you may want to leave them to the professionals. Floor vents can be checked but if they are higher up, you shouldn’t attempt to clean them by yourself.
Early in the fall, turn your heater on, just to give it a check. You should know right away if something is wrong. There may be a noise, a bad smell, or no reaction, at all.
It will give you a better idea about the state of your HVAC and whether you are going to need a service call. If there seems to be an issue, shut it off again, and call for professional HVAC maintenance.
Ideally, you should have the HVAC system inspected in the spring and the fall. It’s the best way to prevent getting caught with a major problem during a heatwave or a cold snap.
A professional will know what to look for and be able to prevent the issues from getting much worse.
Call us today at Beebe Heating and Air Conditioning. Regardless of the cooling or heating services you need, we provide each customer with a 100% guarantee for the HVAC work we do. We will always strive to do the best job possible and back up this claim with an iron-clad guarantee.
Fall HVAC maintenance will keep your system working when you need it the most. Don’t get caught paying for costly repairs in the middle of winter.
Heating and cooling tips for our homes not only keep us more comfortable, but they also help our system run better and make it easier to manage our energy bills.
We depend on our HVAC system to make sure we are warm or cool so it’s vital we take care of it. If you do your part, then you won’t need costly repairs and the heating and cooling system will work when you need it to.
The more you know about heating and cooling tips, and what tasks you can do yourself, and what you need to leave to the professionals, the better and longer your HVAC system will work at its peak.
It’s important to keep all areas of your heating and cooling system clean. The outside unit of your air conditioner needs to be free of items and debris. Make sure there are no leaves, bikes, clothing, or anything else blocking the vents and airflow.
The same for your furnace. Don’t leave boxes, toys, crafts, or anything else stacked in front of it. Make sure the area around the furnace is kept clear of dust, pet hair, or rodents.
HVAC systems have filters that trap dust and other small particles from the air. These filters need to be either cleaned or replaced regularly during the busy season.
They make sure your air is cleaner and they also cut back on certain allergens. When the filters are clean, the unit doesn’t need to work as hard and that will ultimately save you money on your energy bill and maintenance and repairs.
When you change your filters, check your vents. They can also get a build-up of dust, pet hair, and other particles. You can remove the register and either vacuum the space or wipe it with a damp cloth.
If you are not comfortable with this, you can hire a professional to do it for you. Clean vents and filters allow the system to work better, keep the air you breathe cleaner, and won’t overwork the HVAC system.
Having your HVAC unit inspected at least twice a year is one of the best heating and cooling tips available. Even if you think the system is fine, a professional can make sure everything is as it should be.
Cleaning, repairs, and regular maintenance can also be done during your inspection. Professionals can spot potential problems before they become actual problems and end up costing you a lot of money.
If your thermostat has seen better days, consider getting your system upgraded. Programmable thermostats allow you to preset the temperature you want, even when you are not there.
You can set the heating or cooling to come on just before you get home, to help save money. You can also set it with your mobile device or override the settings you set up.
Another important heating and cooling tip is what red flags to watch out for. Odd thumping or strange noises, bad odors or a burning smell, leaks, humidity, or if your unit takes too long to respond.
If you have problems with your HVAC system, any questions, or just need a consultation, please give us a call here at Beebe Heating and Air Conditioning. Our trained professionals can help you with repairs, advice, an upgrade, or anything else that you may need.