Whether you crank up the air conditioning in the dog days of summer or turn up the furnace in the bitter cold of winter, everyone loves the ability to control their home heating and cooling system.

Air conditioning is used in the United States more than all other nations combined. Eighty four percent of all homes in the United States have some sort of air conditioning. When it comes to energy use, heating and cooling account for 48% of the energy use in a typical home.

But turning up the heat on the furnace cranking the air conditioning comes with a cost. The U.S. Department of Energy says that anywhere from 25 to 40% of the energy used in the heating and cooling of a home is wasted. The energy is wasted do in part to contaminants in the HVAC system, causing it to work harder.

What that in mind, here are five reasons you need to schedule an inspection appointment with furnace maintenance services:

• Better efficiency: As hard as the air conditioning and furnace systems work in your house, you may think they’re going to go on forever. The reality is they are not. Neglecting to have furnace maintenance services check on your furnace can leads to a build-up of dirt, dust and particles, not to mention parts wearing down if that accumulation gets too bad.
  An inspection allows furnace maintenance services to clean your furnace and improve its efficiency. Like any machine, it function best when its got functional parts and is clean.
• Monitoring carbon monoxide: If the heat exchanger ever cracks on your furnace, it can have some potentially deadly consequences. A cracked heat exchanger means there’s potentially for carbon monoxide to leak into your home. Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless, so there’s no way of knowing when it seeps into your home.
  An inspection by furnace maintenance services can prevent a potential disaster. As an added layer of protection, install carbon monoxide detectors in your home. With a properly cleaned and properly working furnace and detectors, you’ll afford your home and your family all the protection it needs.
• Replacing parts: During the bitter cold of winter, you’re probably going to run your furnace every day. While it may appear to working just fine, if you’ve got an older furnace, you could be living on borrowed time. Putting off an inspection when you’ve got worn down parts means your furnace is working extra hard and is in danger of shutting down at any time.
  Furnace maintenance services can make sure all your parts are up to date and replace any worn-out ones. A qualified furnace technician will know exactly what to look for, how to clean each part and how each of the furnace’s parts should be functioning.
• Keeping your furnace alive: Perhaps the greatest benefit of furnace maintenance services is that they can prolong the life of your furnace overall. If you live in the mountains, in the Midwest or in the Northeast, you know that winters are harsh. The last thing you want during a particularly harsh winter is for your furnace to stop working. When that happens, not only are you left in the cold, you could also be in for a major repair.
  Furnaces tend to last anywhere from 15-18 years and having annual inspections on yours will ensure that you get as much life out of it as possible. Having inspections done and doing a little preventative maintenance keeps all the parts in your furnace functioning at their best and ensures you won’t be left in the cold during the winter.
• Cleaner air: Another important aspect of furnace inspections is that technicians can clean and replace your furnace’s air filters. Filters can very easily be filled up with dust and debris and not replacing them can result in dirty air getting recirculated into your home.

Regardless of how old your furnace is, an annual inspection is of vital importance. Having one done keeps your furnace functioning at optimum levels, improves the air quality of your home and ensures you don’t have any issues with deadly gases like carbon monoxide.