Helpful homeowners tips and tricks

Bird screens on vent terminations:

As much as you want to or think that it is a good idea, unfortunately it is bad practice to put screens on the exterior vent pipes. Your hi-efficiency furnace creates condensation and by putting a screen to keep birds and chipmunks out, only provides a place for water to collect, freeze and block the outlet preventing the furnace from operating. It can lead to an unnecessary service call and in some cases actually void manufacturers warranty. It is an inhabitable environment and most creatures do not want to go in there. Having said that it does happen from time to time but it is less likely to happen with todays appliances and more likely to freeze up the exhaust if you install some sort of apparatus.

Continuous fan operation:

Depending on your furnace or air handler, it may be relatively inexpensive to run the furnace fan continuously. In the less temperature extreme times of the year it is nice to just rely on your circulator blower to bring up some cool air from the basement and mix with the warmer air in the upstairs to create a more even and uniform temperature around the home. There is one time in particular that you do not want to run your fan. Referring of course to times of home renovations or construction, and especially when sanding drywall. During these times a lot of dust and debris is floating in the air, drywall dust is a very fine dust that can be hard to get rid of. By having the fan on you are not only blowing the dust around and not letting it settle making it easier to collect, more importantly all that dust is being drawn into the ductwork via the cold air return system. It will prematurely clog up your air filter and if you do not have adequate filtration it will end up in the furnace.