Bob Mims Heating & Air Conditioning Blog : Posts Tagged ‘gas furnaces’

How to Keep Your Gas Furnace Running Safety

Monday, March 4th, 2024
Inside a gas furnace. Focus = the top of the middle flange. 12MP camera.

Your gas furnace is a vital component of your home’s heating system, providing warmth and comfort during the colder months. However, ensuring that your gas furnace operates safely is paramount to protecting your family and property. In this guide, we’ll explore essential maintenance tips, signs indicating you may need gas furnace repair, and DIY safety checks every homeowner should know.

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How a New Gas Furnace Can Make Heating Improvements

Monday, December 3rd, 2018

Furnace-standardThere are many advantages of installing a new gas furnace in your home. Today’s furnaces are more efficient than ever before, and efficiency matters. Here in Staten Island, the winters can get icy, so you’ll most definitely run your furnace regularly. Having an efficient furnace system means keeping your heating bills as low as possible.  

Natural gas is the fuel of choice for homeowners. Not only is it affordable, it’s clean, safe, and highly efficient. Installing a natural gas furnace in your home allows you to save money and go green. There are so many advantages of owning a natural gas furnace.

However, before you decide to purchase one, you need to first figure out if it is the best choice for your home. A qualified technician can help you make this decision. Bob Mims Heating & Air Conditioning is a Staten Island, NY, HVAC contractor that is ready to help you!

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Should I Install an Electric or Gas Furnace?

Monday, February 26th, 2018

big-blue-question-markFurnaces have a long history, and over that time they have run from a variety of energy sources. The earliest furnaces burned wood and coal. Today a furnace can run from oil, propane, and even condensed wood pellets. However, the most common energy sources are electricity and natural gas.

If you are thinking about having a furnace installed for your home, you’ll probably be making the choice between going gas or going electric. (You may have already had to deal with a similar decision regarding your kitchen oven and stove.)

Is there a best choice? No—because each home is different and each homeowner is different. We can break down some of the benefits and drawbacks of the two furnace types to help you start thinking about which one will meet your needs.

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The Danger of a Cracked Heat Exchanger in a Furnace

Monday, October 23rd, 2017

furnace-burnersIf we had to make a wager on the type of heater you use to warm up your house during our chilly New York winters, we’d always bet on a natural gas furnace. The odds are in our favor because these furnaces are the most popular in the country, and their popularity is higher in places with chilly winters. A natural gas furnace is a cost-effective method of supplying high levels of heat to a house, much more so than an electric furnace, and because most homes have ventilation systems in them, they are also more common than boilers.

Although a gas furnace isn’t a naturally dangerous appliance, any use of natural gas has the potential for toxic gas leaks and combustion dangers. With a gas furnace, the main concern is the development of cracks in the heat exchanger. A cracked exchanger calls for immediate heater repair in Staten Island, NY from our HVAC technicians. Leaving a cracked heat exchanger alone creates the potential for enormous safety hazards.

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Late Winter Heater Problems to Watch For

Monday, February 27th, 2017

cold-sweater-manMarch doesn’t mean winter comes to a sudden stop. After all, the season doesn’t even officially end until March 20th. If you’ve lived through a few winters here in New York, you know that bizarre storms can come sweeping through as late as April.

It’s important during this time of year to keep a close watch on potential repair troubles with your home heating system. All the steady work the heater has done since winter may start to catch up with it, leading to malfunctions and even a breakdown. No matter how close it is to spring and warmer weather, always move immediately to have your broken heater repaired. Our professionals are here to see that any trouble gets fixed, and fixed right.

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5 Reasons Your Furnace Is Tripping the Circuit Breaker

Monday, February 13th, 2017

big-blue-question-markIf you use a furnace in Staten Island, NY for winter heat (and chances are good that you do), one odd malfunction that you might run into is a circuit breaker that trips when the furnace is running. If this happens with your furnace, don’t keep resetting the breaker and trying to run the furnace again. A tripped breaker is the home’s electrical system protecting its circuits, and you shouldn’t ignore the warning the breaker is sending. There might be a simple reason for this occurrence that you can correct. But if you can’t find one, you need to contact HVAC repair professionals and let them find out the trouble and remedy it.

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How Gas Furnaces Have Changed to Become More Efficient

Monday, January 30th, 2017

gas-furnace-burners-combustion-chamberAt Bob Mims Heating & Air Conditioning, we’re always looking toward the future of heating and AC technology. Like any field, HVAC continues to advance with new developments, refinements, and innovations. Even comparing air conditioners and furnaces from only a decade ago shows how far the new equipment has advanced.

We’ll take the gas furnace as an example. After all, it’s the most common type of heating system in the country, and many Staten Island, NY homes have gas furnaces working through winter to provide them with warmth.

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Your Gas Furnace Still Needs Electricity!

Monday, January 9th, 2017

We’d like to clear up one of the major misunderstandings about furnaces that we still hear: a gas furnace will be able to supply a home with heat in case of a power outage. On the surface, this makes sense. A gas furnace uses the burning of natural gas to create the heat that then goes through the ventilation system. It’s like an old-fashioned stove this way: no need for electric power, just plain old heat from consuming another power source.

However, this is not true. If your gas furnace doesn’t have electrical power, it won’t run.

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What’s That Sound from My Furnace Mean?

Monday, January 2nd, 2017

It would be nice if the technology of furnaces included an A.I. (artificial intelligence) program that could immediately diagnose any malfunction when it first starts and then notify homeowners of what is wrong. But we don’t yet have these sorts of furnaces. So to know when there’s a problem, we have to watch for certain warning signs. One of the most common is odd sounds.

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Boilers vs. Furnaces: Which Is Better?

Monday, December 12th, 2016

When you are considering the new heating system options for a home, you have many different choices available. One of the big divides is between a furnace, which is a forced-air system, and a boiler, which is a radiant heating system. The type you choose will have a major effect on the house itself, since a furnace uses a ventilation network to distribute heat, and a boiler uses water pipes.

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