How your Furnace and Air Conditioner work together to keep you Comfortable?

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How your Furnace and Air Conditioner work together to keep you Comfortable?

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Furnaces are used to generate heat and spread it throughout your home.

 A furnace is connected to a duct system that will distribute heated air to the various rooms of your home, which is crucial during the colder months of the year.

The heating process begins when the thermostat senses the temperature in your house dropping a little below its set point.

The thermostat then sends a signal to the furnace to initiate the sequence of operation needed to bring on the heat source.

Heat can be produced by means of energy from multiple sources, such as electric heat, natural gas, propane gas or fuel oil.

Electric furnaces heat up like large toasters, while oil and gas furnaces employ the use of electrically signaled control valves to produce flames.

 Once the furnace heats up for a short time the furnace blower kicks in to circulate heated air throughout the rooms of your home.

When the thermostat is satisfied that the temperature it senses has slightly exceeded its set point it cuts off the signal to your furnace and the heating cycle comes to an end shutting off the burners or electric elements, leaving only the furnace blower fan running for a little longer to push any heat remaining in the duct system.

 During the summer when the temperature in your home rises above the air conditioning set point it sends a signal bringing on both the air conditioner and the furnace blower.

The outdoor AC unit houses a compressor which pumps refrigerant to an evaporator coil located inside near the furnace.

Proper functioning of your central air conditioner depends upon the correct indoor air flow provided by the furnace, and correct air flow through the AC condenser coil in order to keep the compressor running properly.

 To ensure that your furnace is running optimally, regular annual maintenance is recommended in order to minimize the chance that your system will break down during a heat wave in the summer, or during a winter cold spell.

Sometimes it is difficult to diagnose the reasons why your furnace or air conditioner is not working.

The best way to figure out the problem is by first looking over the entire system for any obvious installation related issues.

After all, you can buy the best equipment but if it’s not installed correctly the result can be unreliable or inefficient operation.

Proper setup, known as commissioning, is very important in a complete and thorough installation so that your furnace and air conditioner are operating as they were designed to.

 During the summer months, your furnace fan and electronic controls are used almost as much as they are in the winter.

If the furnace blower motor stops working this can result in the air conditioning coil freezing up which can damage your furnace.

Most of today’s gas furnaces contain electronic controls and do not like to get wet so when a frozen coil above the furnace starts to thaw and drip water onto the electronics the circuit board will usually short out and will need to be replaced.

A skilled technician will properly diagnose any issues with your air conditioning system such as improper air flow, incorrect refrigerant charge or any other common issues that are found on a service call.

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