When your furnace is short cycling, there can be a number of different causes. When a furnace just keeps shorting cycling, you will want to figure out the cause and repair the problem. When a furnace short cycles this indicates the furnace is overheating and shutting down to prevent further damages. If you have never discovered and corrected the problem, you can be driving your furnace into the ground. To avoid costly repair or worse, a total furnace replacement, Air Supply Heating & Air Conditioning would like to share some of the common reasons why your furnace is short cycling.
What Happens if You Don’t Clean or Change Your Air Filter?
One of the first questions you must ask yourself when your furnace is short cycling is “when was the last time you changed your air filter?” When neglecting to change out your air filters, they can become so dirty, they will restrict all air flow. When the air flow becomes restricted it causes stress and overheating of the furnace. The filters play a big role in the overall health of your heating system. Make sure to check and change out your air filters once a month.
How Do You Find Air Leaks in a Room?
At times a furnace will overheat because it is working too much. An overworked furnace is often the result of poor insulation, or in other cases, air leaks inside the home. The two common places for air leaks are the doors and windows. There comes a time when the windows and door frames need to be resealed, and the weather stripping replaced. It is important to keep the inside of the home insulated to keep your warm air in and the cold air out. To prevent stressing and overworking your furnace, inspect and repair leaky doors and windows each year.
Parts Can Fail on a Furnace
A furnace can short cycle when it is experiencing component failures. Most often a furnace will short cycle when there is a problem with the furnace’s blower, the flue and the flame sensor. If the blower motor is not working properly, the heat exchanger will not be able to move the warm air and will begin to overheat. When high levels of heat are detected the furnace will turn off to protect the heat exchanger. If the flue is blocked the fumes and gases will build up. The furnace’s limit switch will cause the heating system to shut off, again causing short cycling problems. The flue needs to be cleaned out to ensure proper ventilation. The flame sensor is the furnace’s safety system and can prevent the furnace from starting up if the ignition system doesn’t produce a flame.
What Happens if My Furnace is Undersized or Oversized?
An HVAC system is designed to heat or cool a certain amount of interior space. Often homeowners will try to save money and buy a smaller unit, or they want a bigger unit assuming they will get a more efficient HVAC system. Both are very wrong conceptions. A smaller unit will run longer and more often which adds a ton of stress on your smaller unit. Overheating will occur when your unit is too small. A unit that is too large will have short cycling symptoms as well. They will produce so much hot air that the unit will only need to run for a shorter period of time. This may sound like you are saving but you are not. The furnace will need to do another cycle very close behind the last heating cycle. This is because the hot air does not have the time it needs to properly spread throughout the home which leads to very hot spots inside the home while other areas stay cold.
Forced Air Furnace Heating Diagnosis, Repair, Replacement & More in Summerlin, North LV, Henderson, Centennial, Enterprise, Lone Mountain Village, Paradise, Sunrise Manor, Spring Valley, Aliante, Desert Shores, Eldorado, Peccole Ranch, Silverado Ranch, Tuscany Village, Whitney, Winchester & Las Vegas Nevada
Some short cycling problems can be easily corrected. If your furnace has some of these more challenging problems, contact Air Supply Heating & Air Conditioning today.