Long-time readers of our blog have a pretty good idea how furnaces work; there’s some type of heating mechanism, usually using electricity or natural gas as a source of energy. That heat is then sent through the ducts via fan (technically known as a blower motor), and the house is heated until it reaches the proper temperature. The fan is an integral part of this setup, because without it the heat couldn’t be sent throughout the ducts with any kind of expediency. When a fan breaks down, your furnace will need to be repaired. To avoid mechanical breakdown, it can be useful to hire a furnace maintenance company to keep your furnace in great condition.
The fan in your furnace is for getting the heat from the furnace to the rest of your house; if your house isn’t being heated evenly, does it then make sense to install more fans? By doing so, will your house heat much more quickly? Some enterprising folks have taken this theory and run with it, creating “booster fans” which, ostensibly, allow airflow to get an extra boost in order to reach the hard-to-reach areas of your home. There are certainly uses for these fans, but, generally speaking, their use is found outside of the realm of HVAC airflow.
When a proficient technician installs a furnace in your home, they’re not just putting an appliance in your basement and calling it a day. They’re going to evaluate the ductwork, ensuring that it reaches all the areas it needs to in the home. They’re going to evaluate how much heating the furnace can supply, and how powerful the blower motor is. They’re going to weigh all of these factors against each other, and calculate exactly how powerful your furnace should be, and whether or not you need new ductwork.
When your ductwork isn’t distributing air throughout your house properly, or your furnace is undersized, you might dread the cost of reworking it; the reality, though, is that spending 200$ on a booster fan isn’t going to help things. An undersized furnace isn’t creating enough heat for the space it needs to warm, and when ducts simply don’t reach certain rooms, no amount of booster fans is going to help. The temptation to save money by buying a “cheaper solution” is ever-present, but if it doesn’t solve anything, you’re not really saving money.
Heating is the largest energy expense in the American home; given Canada’s climate, it stands to reason the same holds true for us. When you’re heating your home inefficiently, you’re throwing money out the window, so while the upfront costs of a properly installed HVAC system might be intimidating, it’s far better to pay that money and have an efficiently heated home than to leave your failing system in place. Booster fans do not solve the underlying problem; if your HVAC technician tells you new ductwork or a new furnace is needed, it’s because they sincerely believe that to be the case. Given their years of experience, it’s safe to trust them; use Manitoba Hydro rebates, find the right setup for you, and start saving on heating costs. For your HVAC repair in Winnipeg contact Provincial heating and cooling.