Technicians Busy Making Furnace Service Calls As Temperatures Drop

Heating companies are already busy making sure your furnaces are ready to go for the first cold weather of the season.

Colder weather is on the way, so schedules for heating and air technicians are filling up. They're at local homes all throughout the weekend, on call making sure the furnaces are ready to go once that cold air arrives.

Air Assurance Technician Tony Newcomb on Sunday worked on Mike Lester's furnace, making sure everything runs smoothly when temps begin to dip.

"These units are highly technical, so we want a professional company to come out and check it to make sure its running effectively and efficiently and to ensure the safety of my family," Lester said.

Newcomb will be busy all next week making maintenance calls.

When he goes into a home, he does more than just checking to see that the furnace works properly.

Technicians also check to see if homeowners are using and testing their Carbon Monoxide detectors.

“It should be tested all the time, along with your smoke detector,” Air Assurance President and owner Mike Rampey said. “Make sure your smoke detector has got a new battery in it; make sure your carbon monoxide has a new battery in it."

Many problems or blockages with furnace systems can cause deadly fumes to pour into the air system.

“It is known as a silent killer, so without having those detectors you're just taking it in," Newcomb said.

Newcomb urges homeowners keep the area around your furnace clean and free from clutter.

“We have people that put paint cans in here, exposed, open, those got fumes, those are very flammable,” he said. “So if you at least have a licensed technician come out check everything out, you know it's not going to have the 'what can go wrong, will go wrong' in the middle of the night during your sleep."

Service calls to furnace can run you $49 after a rebate provided by Oklahoma Natural Gas.

Technicians recommend you get your air system checked twice a year, but if you can only do it once, do it when it's time to run your furnace for the first time.

The service calls typically last an hour, and one of the things they do is check your air filters. Just by switching out a dirty air filter can help your system run more efficiently.