During the winter heating season, the health and function of your home’s furnace is obviously vital to your comfort. If you’re experiencing furnace difficulties, you probably are wondering whether it is ultimately more sensible to repair or replace your furnace. There are many factors that will decide upon which option is best for you. Your Louisville area HVAC professional can help you assess your needs and your broken HVAC system to determine whether furnace repair or replacement is the appropriate short- and long-term answer for your Louisville home.
When Repair Is Best
More often than not, furnace troubles can be easily diagnosed and repaired by a ACE-certified, HVAC professional. If your furnace is new—i.e., less than ten years old — odds are highly likely that any issues it has can be solved through repair. Additionally, if your furnace is still heating your Louisville area home efficiently (your HVAC professional can help you confirm this), then it is still likely and more affordable to repair it. Usually, as long as you are not seeing a trending increase in your heating bills with constant usage and your home is not having issues with uneven heating, your furnace is functioning efficiently. Our recommendation about furnace repairs is that if the repairs you need are less than one-third of the cost of a new heating system and your furnace is in the first half of its expected lifetime, repair is likely your best choice. Don’t forget that even if you are experiencing a drop in heating efficiency, there are other avenues you can explore before considering replacing your furnace. Talk to your HVAC service advisor about upgrading your thermostat or checking the integrity of your Louisville home’s ductwork to see if he thinks these HVAC products could boost the efficiency of your furnace. Talk to Becht/Givens Service Experts about scheduling regular furnace maintenance, which will add years of quality service from your furnace and help you avoid further repairs or drops in efficiency.
When Replacement Is Best
At times, repair will not be able to affordably resolve your issues. The anticipated lifetime of most furnaces is 15-20 years; after this point, the heating system will begin to fail more and more often. Accordingly, if your furnace is already at least 15 years old, it is time to think about replacement. Regardless of the age of your furnace, if you’ve been calling your HVAC service provider for repairs too often, this could also be a sign that it’s time to consider replacement. Although repairs may seem like a basic fix, if they aren’t keeping your furnace functioning for years at a time, these frequent smaller charges ultimately cost you more money. There are several things that may determine whether replacement is best for you including the quality of your original furnace installation and the capacity of your furnace. Installation means everything in terms of furnace effectiveness. In addition, your furnace may be struggling if it’s not sized according to specs for your Louisville home size or heating needs. If your furnace isn’t sized or installed properly, you might want to buy the correct unit versus trying to get the wrong unit to perform beyond it’s capacity.
If you have questions about whether repair or replacement of your Louisville home’s heating system is right for you, contact Becht/Givens Service Experts today.