A furnace is designed to generate hot air, then push it through your ducts with a blower to gradually warm your house. It’s a very effective system—working in conjunction with the same ducts that your air conditioner uses—and it can be run very inexpensively to keep your Westlake, OH home warm during the winter. But as with any major system in your home, you need to keep a careful eye on it to cut any significant problems off at the pass. In particular, you need to watch out for hot air that becomes trapped in your furnace for one reason or another. It may not sound like much, but it can have a devastating effect on your system as a whole.
What Causes It
Hot air becomes trapped either when there’s something blocking the flow out of your furnace, or the force pushing it isn’t sufficiently strong. The former situation can arise from clogs in the air passages, dirty filters that slow down the flow of air or even something innocuous like closing your vents while the heating system runs. The latter can be caused by a loss of power to the fan motor, a bent or broken fan blade or similar electrical issues.
Problems It Creates
When the heated air can’t leave the system, it means your furnace will have to work harder to warm your home: raising your bills accordingly and increasing stress on individual components within the system. Even worse, the increased heat can cause individual components to overheat: catastrophically in some cases, such as when a heat exchanger cracks. Modern furnaces will shut down when they sense such a possibility, which prevents unnecessary damage to your system. But you’ll still need to get the problem corrected before your furnace will function again.
Call the pros at Westland Heating and Air Conditioning to handle any problems with your furnace!
