Did you know that you could be overworking your furnace without knowing? Here are some of the ways you might be going wrong on it:

You go for a long time without replacing the air filters

When was the last time you replaced the air filters? If it has been over three months, you are overworking your appliance, and it’s a matter of time before the appliance stalls.

According to furnace repair service providers, when you go for a long time without cleaning your air filters, you block airflow through the system, which makes the appliance work harder than it should.

When limited air gets into the system, the blower fan works extremely hard to suck in air through the dirty and clogged filters. Due to the overworking, some of the parts begin wearing down. In severe situations, the furnace overheats and shuts off.

To avoid this, make it a habit to clean your air filters at least once every three months. If you suffer from allergies or excessively use your appliance, clean the filters once every month. If the filters are too dirty, replace them with new, highly rated-units.

You keep adjusting the temperatures.

When it’s cold, you want to be as comfortable as possible. Many homeowners try to achieve perfect temperatures by adjusting their temperatures whenever they notice the cold air increasing or decreasing.

As much as you might be trying to be as comfortable as possible, you should note that when you keep adjusting the temperatures, you make the furnace work harder than usual as it tries to gain its bearings.

Manually turning the thermostat also leads to increased wearing out of the components.

Instead of turning the furnace up or down, set the thermostat at a standard setting and let it run there. This way, the furnace will run in its usual cycles, and you won’t wear out the different parts.

It will even be better to invest in a programmable thermostat that allows you to set your desired temperatures at different times of the day. For example, during the day, when you aren’t in the house, you can set the furnace to function at a lower setting as you don’t need a warm house, but put it to run at slightly higher temperatures during the night.

You allow cold air into the house.

The furnace is meant to warm the cold air. This means that when you keep allowing cold air in the house, the furnace is constantly working, which isn’t healthy.

The right way to go about it is to be cautious of the amount of cold air you allow inside the house. A good rule of thumb is to keep the windows and doors closed at all times during the night. Even when you go outside, limit the open door time.

If your walls are leaking and can’t keep the warm air inside, consider adding another layer of insulation and, at the same time, close any gaps present using weather stripping.

You block the vents

It’s not only dirty filters that can prevent the furnace from running efficiently—but blocked vents can also be culprits.

Some homeowners have the impression that by blocking the vents to the unoccupied rooms, they save energy, but this isn’t the case. Studies show that furnaces are designed to heat a house evenly, and when you close off an area that is supposed to heat, it tends to overheat and even short cycle.

To keep your furnace in top working condition, open all the vents in your house regardless of whether you use them.

How do you know your furnace is being overworked?

There are several ways you can tell whether you are overworking your furnace. One of the ways is your electricity bills. If your bills have dramatically gone up, that might be a sign that you are overworking your appliance.

Another sign is if your appliance is breaking down more often. It’s okay to hire furnace service Long  Island providers now and then, but it shouldn’t be too often. If you have to hire a repair professional every month, you are most likely overworking your unit, and you should replace it.