Many homes in the Winchester, MA area use forced-air furnaces to provide heat in the winter. It’s a simple and effective means of keeping warm, but like any system, it needs to be maintained and you need to be on the lookout for signs of trouble. Among other symptoms, reduced air flow from your vents signals an issue that needs to be treated quickly in order to prevent serious damage to your system.
What Causes Airflow Issues
Low air flow is fairly easy to spot: simply feel the air coming out of the vents, and note if it’s slower than it normally would be. It’s typcically caused by one of two basic things:
- Something blocking the flow of air. This nay be caused by a clogged filter or some manner of damage to the ducts themselves such as a leak or major blockage.
- Something affecting the force pushing the air. That usually means trouble with the fan motor, a problem with the fan belt, or perhaps even damage to the fan blades themselves.
Why Low Airflow Is a Problem
The most obvious problem caused by low air flow is that it reduces the effectiveness of your heating system. You are forced to run the heater for longer periods of time which drives up your monthly bills accordingly. But there’s more to it than that. A slowdown of the airflow usually means that hot air remains trapped in your furnace, and will damage important components if the situation is unaddressed. The good news is that modern furnaces have safety features that will automatically shut down before that happens, but that still leaves you with a non-functioning furnace until the airflow issue is fixed.
Never attempt to fix a furnace airflow problem yourself. Instead, turn the system off and call the pros at Cooling Unlimited, Inc. today!
