Air circulation in winter can become a real challenge for homeowners as the need for closed windows and comfortable temperatures take precedence over circulating clean air through your home throughout the day. When the temperature outside has dropped dramatically, or when you’re just looking to keep things inside at a warm level you can enjoy, the workload on your furnace increases. At Ellis Air Conditioning and Heating in Dallas, TX, our team of experienced HVAC technicians has been working with residents throughout the DFW Metroplex for years on a wide variety of concerns.
When it comes to having your furnace run more often than you’re used to, many homeowners worry when they hear the fan running all day, every day. Actually, this is not always a bad thing and does not always indicate that something is wrong with your heating and cooling system.
Under What Conditions Would My Furnace Fan Run Continuously?
Usually, the stove fan in your home will run continuously because of your thermostat settings. Most thermostats have two fan settings: “Automatic” and “Active”. The “Automatic” setting means that your system turns on the fan when hot air needs to be circulated, and “On” forces the fan to run without interruption. However, a furnace fan that does not stop operation can also be a by-product of a broken circuit breaker that might need to be replaced manually.
If you’re concerned about the condition of your furnace, or if you feel as if the fan for the furnace is running throughout the day for no apparent reason even though you’ve checked the settings, the first thing to do is have it looked at. By getting support from an experienced technician, any potential problems with your system can be found as quickly as possible so that they won’t be even more expensive to repair down the road.
Is There Any Benefit to Running the Fan All the Time?
It’s not immediately a bad thing to have your furnace fan at home active all the time. You don’t need to worry about the fan getting damaged or wearing out quickly if you decide to leave it on. This is designed to work continuously in the first place.
Keeping your fan going can be a good way to ensure better air circulation throughout the house, which can be very useful in larger homes. This will get rid of cold spots that might appear during certain parts of the year more effectively. If you have installed an air purifier, running your furnace fan continuously will always produce cleaner air, which is very important for people with allergies or asthma sufferers.
So Why Wouldn’t I Keep the Fan Running All the Time Anyway?
If you decide that you’d like to keep your furnace fan going at all times of the day and night, you will use more energy, which means that your utility bills are going to be higher overall at the end of the day. If you have any ducts that are near the outside of your house, the air passing through these ducts can become cold more easily than you might expect. As a result, the fan is going to emit cooler air.
The important thing to keep in mind is that while the fan on the furnace is on at all times, the actual functionality of the furnace to heat air is not always going to be active. This means that the air passing through your system could end up being colder than you expect, and might even force your furnace to activate more often than it normally would.
Ask Ellis Air Conditioning and Heating in Dallas, Texas For Support
If your furnace is making strange noises, or if you’re worried about how often the fan has been running on your system, then take action sooner instead of waiting for things to become even more complicated to repair. Be sure to contact our team right away so we can get started helping you with your concerns.