For boilers:
If you have a leaky boiler and a pet, don't put a pan under it, the twenty year old water, flush chemicals, and anti-freezing agents can make them sick or worse.
Got a cold room? noisy pipes? open your bleeder valve regularly, the air in your pipes is not a conductor.
For furnaces:
Check your filter lately? I know, stupid, but it can be so restricted that the machine's running perfect, and distributing no heat.
Cold room? I find a G.I. Joe fort in a kids room duct about once a month. Can't see in there? Use a compact to look around the corner.
Closing vents in rooms that are not in use (storage areas or spare bedrooms for example) can be a great way to save in the winter, but air conditioners are sized to our exact square footage so closing vents in the summer can cause the a/c to freeze up so be sure to open them back up in the cooling season.
For water heaters:
Put a bowl under your drain valve, let a little water in there, brown? connect a hose then run it into the toilet until its clear, do it again in a week, brown again? Time for a new anode rod.
This is my most common source of carbon monoxide, if any of your equipment is over 15 yrs old please get yourself a nice carbon monoxide detector, a decent one at a home depot is only going to run you around $30.00.
Install a dip tube (a pipe inside your water heater that takes the hot water from the bottom instead of the top) this keeps sediment from building up and minimizes recovery time as you're taking water from rite on top of the burner instead of 5 feet of water higher.
For humidifiers:
Calcium build up causing the filter to overextend the drain pan is the biggest cause for leaks, changing it annually will prevent that, and increase efficiency.
Up to a third of our conditioned air can be lost through this device in the summer , if you don't have a damper, block it off with a tupperware bowl in the duct during the summer months.
We ad an anti fungal agent to these as part of service as this unit creates an ideal environment for growing and distributing mold spores, ours comes from a supply house but you could try a couple drops of bleach in the supply tube at the beginning of the heating season.
For air conditioning:
Your condensing unit (outside) has down facing fins you may have to get down on your knees to see this, look up on all sides there should be little metal fins, the air has to get between these in order to dissipate heat, if not you pay to tote it back inside your house. If instead you see cottonwood or pet hair, check your local codes, if they allow hose this unit off as often as needed, spray water through the top center fins against the inside of the coil, do not use a pressure washer! Those fins are delicate, if that doesn't get it off it's melted on there, give us a call it's time to break out the nasty chemicals.
If you have trouble keeping your upstairs cool your a/c unit may be undersized, you can try closing your vents halfway on the lower level to force more air upstairs but if you start to see frost build up on your pipes you need to open them back up.
For fireplaces:
This is one of our most costly luxuries, How many times Ive heard "it just feels like there's a big open window somewhere down here" there is, wide open, with a single piece of glass as your insulation. Simple stuff, keep them clean, and cover them up when not in use, whoever finds a decorative way to do this is going to make a mint.
For electrical:
Got a receptacle that's always warm to the touch? Got a 70s house with aluminum wires like mine? What's it being used for? Got the whole house run off that one plug? Maybe that's your only problem. Try this, turn everything in the house off, no more hot receptacle (plug)? then try splitting up your load, move the ironing board to a different room than the coffee pot and curling iron. Still got a hot plug, or light? Get it checked out, heat with no amperage draw isn't possible, so that power's taking a shortcut, and if its not enough to trip a breaker it's a slow resistant short, heavy fire potential. Here's where you need an honest fella cause allot of guys try to play to peoples fears in this industry, so don't find your tech. on the internet, don't go with the cheapest, ask your friends and check licensing! just cause the company's in business doesn't mean they're reputable.
Buy a plug tester at the home depot for $6.00 they just plug in a receptacle and three little lights indicate proper of faulty wiring, and have a button to test if any receptacle that's supposed to be protected by a g.f.c.i. are, those are the receptacles close to water that have the test and reset buttons meant to protect us from shock through water short.
