Purl's Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Blog: Posts Tagged ‘furnace replacement’

The Improvements of Getting a New Furnace Installed

Thursday, March 4th, 2021

furnace-burners-CUIf you use an old gas furnace for your household heating in Madera, CA, have you started to consider getting a replacement? We recommend replacing any aging heating system before it starts to go into a decline. It’s not a good idea to let a furnace run and run until it fails. This is not only inconvenient (nobody wants to have to scramble to replace a dead furnace in the middle of winter), it also means the furnace will waste more and more energy during its final downward spiral.

There are other reasons to go ahead and replace an aging furnace while it’s still (outwardly) working okay. Newer furnaces contain several improvements that can help you enjoy better performance and energy efficiency with your home heating than ever before.

Below are several ways modern furnaces conserve energy. Not all furnaces have these same additions: ask our technicians about the different options available.

Continue Reading

Cracked Heat Exchanger: Do I Need a New Furnace?

Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018

natural-gas-burnerWe’ve written before about the importance of having your furnace’s heat exchanger regularly checked by a professional. This is a part of our routine preventive maintenance program, the Ultimate Service Agreement, and it’s a vital inspection to make sure that a furnace operates as safely as possible. What our technicians look for when they examine a heat exchanger is signs of cracks along it or corrosion that can lead to those cracks. A cracked heat exchanger can allow toxic combustion gases to escape into the airflow moving into the rooms around a house—a dangerous situation!

Furnace owners often feel nervous when they learn their furnace may pose a safety risk. This leads to the question whether they should have the furnace repaired—which means replacing the heat exchanger—or instead have a new gas furnace installed.

Continue Reading

Is It Too Late to Have a New Furnace Installed?

Tuesday, November 15th, 2016

Now that it’s November, the temperatures in the Central Valley are dropping down into the 50s, with some occasional swings up into the 60s and 70s. But the climate is definitely tilting toward the winter, which will be here before we know it.

Will the winter be here too soon for you to replace that old furnace in your home? If you have serious doubts about how your furnace will perform during the winter because of its age (older than 15 or 20 years) or because it experienced numerous problems during the previous winter, you might think that it’s a bit late in the season to make a major change. So maybe… maybe the furnace will be fine for another winter?

Continue Reading

Is It Time to Have a New Furnace Installed?

Monday, October 19th, 2015

It’s October, and although we’re still experiencing warmer weather (mixed with rain), the cooling-off period is not far away. Before we know it, winter will arrive and settle in for its regular stay. Now is a good time to consider making any necessary major changes to the heating system that serves your home. You don’t want to try to arrange for the installation of a new furnace during the coldest period of winter, after all!

If you have a furnace in your home that has served for more than 15 or 20 years, it may be time to retire it and have a new furnace installed. The job isn’t as difficult as you imagine, especially when you call on experienced HVAC professionals like the ones at Purl’s Sheet Metal.

Some questions to ask about your current furnace

To help you think about whether your furnace is ready for replacement, ask yourself a few of these questions:

  • How old is the furnace? Check when the furnace was installed. Most gas furnaces have a life expectancy between 15 and 20 years, and electric furnaces a bit longer than this. If you have a system that is over 20 years old, then it’s probably time to have it replaced—even if it shows no outward signs of failing or performance issues. It’s better to get ahead of the problem. And with 20 years of service, the furnace has already returned your original investment in it a few times over.
  • Have winter energy bills been rising? Take a look over your energy bills for the past few winters and see if there is a pattern of increasing costs. If you cannot account for a noticeable rise because of greater use of the system, then the issue is probably a furnace that is declining. If the furnace has received regular maintenance and still shows this loss of efficiency, then it is too old to continue to work effectively.
  • How often does the furnace need repair work? A furnace should need few repairs during its first few years of service (provided it has routine inspections and tune-ups). After that, it might need a repair every few years. When it needs repairs once or twice a year, or if the repair total to keep it running annually exceeds $500, then you are spending too much on fixing it and should instead put the money toward a replacement.

Purl’s Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning offers heating replacement in Fresno, CA and throughout the Central Valley.

Continue Reading