Heating and Air Conditioning Maintenance Helps Keep Your Home Safe

When considering maintenance and upkeep for your home in Atlanta, heating and air conditioning should certainly be a priority item. And, just as with any other safety related maintenance issue, those having to do with your heating and air conditioning are just as important. There are a few health and safety issues relating to air conditioning, but it's really heating repair that most comes to mind when issues of safety are concerned.

When discussing heating or air conditioning, you should know that there are certain things in common to both systems. The motors that run the compressors and air handling fans are normally very reliable, but with continued use and damage from events like lightning strikes, they can become vulnerable to shorting out electrically. This can happen in one of two ways; the insulation on the winding inside the motor can deteriorate and cause the windings to short with each other, or the windings can short to the casing of the motor itself.

In the first case, the motor will most likely overheat. Sometimes there is a manual reset button on the motor, but if it is reset and the motor still overheats it may mean there is an internal short. The case where a motor winding shorts to the case of the motor is very dangerous because it can cause the equipment to become electrified. In both cases, there are safety systems built into your heating and air conditioning, and you should by no means attempt to bypass them. The likely result will be that the system just will not turn on, or it may cause the electrical breaker to the equipment to trip off. In any case, a qualified heating and air conditioning technician should be able to easily identify the fault and effect a safe repair.

Natural gas and propane fueled heaters have their own set of safety concerns. The gas itself has a chemical added to it to make it smell. If you ever smell the characteristic pungent aroma of gas, there could be a leak in the gas piping to your heating equipment, or it might not be igniting properly due to a malfunction. If you perceive the strong smell of gas, you should naturally vacate the premises and call the gas company immediately. However, if you ever detect even a faint smell, it could indicate a problem requiring heating repair.

Another threat is not noticeable at all-this comes from carbon monoxide (CO) gas. CO forms from the incomplete combustion of gas and can be vented into your home by malfunctioning equipment. You should have a checkup of your gas heating system every year by a qualified service technician to make sure you don't have a problem before turning on your heater for the first time. And, if your home uses gas fueled heat, you should also have CO detectors installed to protect you from this invisible threat.