Why Your Home Can Be Cold While the Furnace Is On
Many homeowners get frustrated when their homes fail to heat up with their furnaces running. Unfortunately, several issues can lead to such malfunctions. Below are some of the most common issues that can trigger the problem.
Cracked Heat Exchanger
Your furnace's heat exchanger is a series of tubes that heat up and exchange their heat with the air that flows over them. The heat exchanger ensures that your indoor air warm without the air coming into direct contact with the burners.
Unfortunately, the heat exchanger can crack, for example, due to overheating or aging. The crack will flood the combustion process with more air than usual. The burners can even produce a yellowish flame instead of the usual blue flames. The inefficient combustion will produce less heat than usual.
Burner Problems
Furnace burners combust fuel to release heat that warms up the air in your house. Burner malfunctions will result in low heat production, which leads to inadequate heating. Here are a few examples of such malfunctions:
- Clogged burners: Debris can clog the burners and reduce the volume of fuel the burners can combust.
- Damaged burners: Physical damage to the burners can also constrict fuel supply and trigger burner inefficiency.
- Gas leaks: Furnace burners have safety features that keep the burners off if there is a gas leak.
Anything that keeps the burners from producing any or full heat can lead to heating inefficiency.
Leaking or Blocked Ductwork
Supply ductwork transport heated air to different parts of the house. An interruption of the transportation process will result in the affected rooms remaining cooler than they should be. An example is if the ductwork has disconnections, cracks, or holes. The openings will allow heated air to escape instead of reaching the targeted rooms. Such leakages are common with old heating systems that have suffered years of wear and tear.
Another example is blockages in the ductwork. Foreign materials in the duct system, collapsed sections of the ductwork, and closed dampers can all block the flow of air through the duct system. The result will be the same as that of leaky air ducts: reduced heating in affected rooms.
Solve your heating problem as soon as possible. For one, if you don't know what is causing the problem, it can even lead to more extensive issues down the line if you don't intervene immediately. Contact services like IMS Heating & Air Inc to help you figure out what is wrong with your furnace, and fix it.