What Should You Consider Before Leaving for Winter Vacation?

Before you leave the cold of a Middletown winter for a trip of any length, take some time to perform vacation maintenance for your furnace. Besides helping your furnace run more efficiently, you’ll have a sense of security leaving your home behind. Home plumbing is vulnerable to freezing in the winter and the cost of leaving your heating system on is small compared to fixing frozen pipes and the damage they cause.

• Replace the air filter if it’s dirty before you go. An overly dirty filter could cause your system to turn off if the airflow slows too much, leaving your home cold until someone checks your house.
• Have your heating system professionally maintained before you go. It will run more reliably and efficiently. The HVAC professional will go through it carefully, cleaning and adjusting it, and correcting any issues that could cause problems.

  If you haven’t had your ductwork checked for leaks in a while, put it on the list for the HVAC technician to perform during vacation maintenance. Problems with ductwork can occur at any time, and when your home isn’t occupied, there’s no one to notice that heat isn’t reaching a specific area. Besides preventing a serious problem while you’re away, tight ducts save energy and improve air quality year-round.

• Leave the name and phone number for your HVAC contractor in a prominent place for your house sitter in case of an emergency.
• Shortly before you leave, walk through the house and make sure all the windows are tightly locked and the supply registers aren’t blocked.
• Lower the temperature setting at the thermostat to a minimum four or more degrees lower than you normally keep indoor temperatures at night. You may want to open cabinet doors beneath the kitchen and bathroom sinks to keep the water pipes warmer.

These vacation maintenance tips will lower heating costs while you’re away and prevent any unforeseen breakdowns. The pros at C.R. Wolfe Heating & Air Conditioning can help you with these important tasks. We provide trusted HVAC services for Middletown homeowners.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Middletown, New York about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about vacation maintenance and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 845-367-4482.

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