Prepping your home for winter weather

ST. LOUIS — We know every winter, temperatures outside cool down, but inside your home, it’s heating up!

To make sure your furnace functions properly through the colder winter months, 5 On Your Side spoke to a technician at Vogel Heating and Cooling. The most important thing to remember is to keep those air filters clean. 

Rick Barge, a Vogel technician, says clogged air filters are the number one reason for house visits.

“A blocked up filter, means you’re going to be breathing the contaminants, another reason to keep your air filters clean, is it does starve the furnace for air. So you’re choking the system down," says Barge.

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So, how often are you supposed to change your filter?

"One-inch filters, should at least be checked once a month and changed as needed. The thicker filters, they’re able to go a little bit longer. We recommend checking those every six months, maybe changing them once a year.”

How do you properly change the air filter?

“The arrow always points towards the furnace, you gotta go with the airflow.”

What about a furnace tune-up?

"When we do a tune-up, we make sure the furnace is running at peak performance. We want to make sure your gas pressure is tuned upright, up to specs. We want to make sure the temperature that it’s putting out is within specs."

Why does it seem like in the winter months, more problems arise?

“When temperatures get really cold, a lot of problems will start to show their face. When it’s mild out, a lot of problems don’t show up right away."

And when that furnace kicks on, remember they do put out carbon monoxide.

“So furnaces yes, they do produce carbon monoxide and how could somebody detect that? Unfortunately, they can’t unless they have the right tools."

READ: Did you know that carbon monoxide is the leading cause of injuries sent to the emergency room every year?

Speaking of tools, folks at Vogel has plenty of them. Barge explains, "We use a combustion analyzer, a monometer, a multi-meter, and a temperature rise in the heating cycle, that’s the difference between the return temperature and the supply temperature."

One last piece of advice Barge offers is on space heaters. "We certainly don’t recommend them and the other thing we recommend, never leave them unattended," he adds. "Do your best to not go to sleep with them on."