If you own a furnace, it is important to get proper maintenance to ensure it runs properly to keep your home heated well. You may not know, however, that maintenance is also important to prevent health problems for you and your family. To help you understand, here are three ways your furnace can make you sick and your home less comfortable if it goes without maintenance.
Cause Humidity Problems
If you do not maintain your furnace properly, the humidity inside your home may become much higher. This can cause issues with your health as well as with your home. For example, high humidity levels can cause headaches, sore throats, itchy eyes, dry skin, and more. This is especially true for people that already have respiratory problems.
High humidity levels can also cause mold and mildew to grow inside your home. For example, humidity causes dampness, such as in the bathroom, and mold needs dampness to grow. High humidity levels can also cause woodwork to warp and swell, leading to structural damage to your home.
Cause Indoor Pollution Problems
If you do not keep your furnace and ductwork clean, pollutants, such as pollen and dust, will come out of the air vents every time the furnace runs. These pollutants then get in the air inside your home. These pollutants can cause the same types of symptoms as high humidity levels. If someone in your home has allergies, their symptoms may become much worse if they are allergic to any of these pollutants.
More pollutants may also mean an increase in how often you need to clean your home. This is because these pollutants, especially dust, will build up on your furniture and walls, causing you to need to dust more than you otherwise would.
Cause Carbon Monoxide Problems
Without proper maintenance, the heat exchange can become damaged. For example, the heat exchange is put through a lot of work as it expands and contracts each time the furnace runs. This means the heat exchange can get cracks over time. If this happens, dangerous carbon monoxide escapes through the cracks.
Carbon monoxide is odorless, which means you would never know if your home had high levels of this poisonous gas. Just as there are smoke alarms, there are also carbon monoxide alarms. The alarm will go off if there is carbon monoxide gas inside your home.
Contact a company that provides furnace services to come to your home and maintain your furnace for you.
Share13 February 2019
After my sister moved into my house with me, she started complaining about the temperature. I had never really thought about it before, or maybe I was just used to it, but my house was pretty cold. She told me that she didn't think the furnace was working properly, so I started checking things out on my own. Sure enough, my furnace seemed to be having some serious problems. I started looking for a replacement, and I was able to find a great furnace for much less than what I initially thought I would need to spend. I wanted to make this blog for anyone out there who might need to shop for a new HVAC system. Check out these great articles for information you might need.
