When it comes to heating our homes, filtering the air to keep it cleaner, and dealing with moisture, homeowners have several ways to handle them. It depends on the size of your home as to what systems and equipment are the best options. It’s not always efficient to replace one system for another right away; sometimes, it’s financially economical to wait until near the end of the life of one system before going in a different direction.
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Let’s look at some heating, air filtration and other humidifier solutions that might work.
Old Gas Furnaces vs Newer Models
Learning how a gas furnace works is often surprising for homeowners who don’t really know much about them. There are many sections and areas within a furnace system that perform specific functions. Not all these parts continue to work well over the years and eventually when too many regular problems occur, it’s time to consider replacing the furnace with a modern model that will operate virtually trouble-free.
Furnaces work on a thermostat that triggers it to activate when the temperature falls to a set level. The air temperature is moderated based on how often the furnace turns on and stays active. While an older furnace may become a bit sluggish when it comes to activation, newer models can be remotely controlled and hit their marks.
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The burners power the furnace. Sometimes they fail to function or misfire. With older models, you just get the sense that the home is not getting as warm as quickly as it used to. However, with newer furnaces, indicators confirm when a burner should be active but has malfunctioned. Given that furnaces tend to run on gas, new models have various safety processes fitted including sensors and auto-shut off systems to protect from accidental gas leakage.
Air Filtration Systems
Air filtration systems can come as part of an HVAC system, as a whole house setup or can operate only in a single room.
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Air cleaners that only work in a single room don’t deal with pollutants that hang in the air and circulate throughout the home. They do have filters that clean the air that runs through the single-unit system, but that only improves air quality in that vicinity and only to a small degree. It’s a useful solution for people who notice that one room suffers from a musty smell or contaminants which make air less pleasant to breathe in. This tends to be more of a problem with older homes.
A whole-home air filtration system aims to provide clean air throughout the home. The idea is to actively filter out bad odours, miscellaneous airborne particles brought in from the outside, and any lingering bacteria or germs too. The better whole house systems can remove 95 percent or more of the dust, pollen and particles hanging unseen in the air affecting breathability.
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Air filtration becomes particularly attractive to homeowners either when they’re living in an older property that naturally has more dust and other particles affecting air quality or when someone in the home suffers from breathing difficulties due to medical issues. This can include tuberculosis, lung illness or lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma. With asthma, it tends to affect children more than adults, but it’s equally as serious.
Dealing with Humidity or a Lack Thereof
Humidity is often a problem. A home might have the right balance, or it can have too much humidity or too little.
When a home has too much humidity, it’s possible that the furnace’s filters are clogged up, making the heating less effective. Using fans or air-conditioning helps to move humid air around so it can find ways to escape. Opening a window now and again isn’t a bad idea either if it’s more humid indoors than outdoors.
With a home that’s lacking in humidity and is constantly too dry, a humidifier adds moisture to the air to make it more pleasant. Humidifiers can work in a single room or the whole house. Also, frugal ideas like distributing cups or bowls of water to let the water evaporate naturally on warmer, drier days works surprisingly well too.
When it comes to air quality, moisture in the air and heat levels isn’t something we think about until it becomes a noticeable problem. That could be a furnace that starts to smell strangely indicating one issue or another or your mouth always feeling dry on the weekend when people tend to stay home longer. Dealing with these types of issues isn’t hard to do but will end up making your home feel less peaceful than it otherwise would do. We always want to be comfortable where we live. Finding the right balance is important, whether that’s from a calmer mind or just being happier in our surroundings. It all contributes and influences our level of happiness.
Thanks to Action Furnace for collaborating with us on this post!
