Natural gas furnaces need adequate space and airflow to run correctly.

Your furnace can shut down if it doesn’t have enough clearance. It also makes it hard for our professionals to accomplish furnace repair.

Routine furnace maintenance is crucial to keep your unit working well. A regularly serviced furnace may run more efficiently, which could reduce your energy bills.

Related: How Does Furnace Maintenance Impact the Energy Efficiency of Your Home?

Maintenance often helps us discover problems before they start. This could help lessen future repair costs and possibly extend the life of your unit.

So how much room should your equipment really have?

How Much Space Does My Furnace Need?

If you’re remodeling your basement or sealing off your furnace room, you should take a look at manufacturer directions and Lexington statutes for clearance guidelines.

As a general recommendation, your heater should be 30 inches away from furnace room walls on all sides. This lets our service experts to conveniently work on it.

You also need to ensure the area has enough airflow and ventilation, especially if you have an aging furnace with a metal flue.

Related: Furnace Service or Furnace Replacement: What to Consider

This kind of furnace needs combustion air from the surrounding area. If there’s not enough air, unsafe gas fumes and deadly carbon monoxide could leak into your home.

If your furnace is placed in a little room with a gas water heater, you may need to put in more openings. This could consist of a fully louvered door or vents in the walls.

You don’t need to consider airflow and ventilation as much if you have a newer, high-efficiency furnace with PVC piping. Your unit uses one pipe as an exhaust vent and the other to pull in air.

Keep Combustible Materials Away from Your Furnace

Although furnace rooms are often also used for laundry and storage space, you should keep yours free of items that could be fire hazards.

This includes:

  • Clotheslines
  • Cleaning or laundry products
  • Gasoline, paint or paint thinner
  • Rags and papers
  • Wood scraps and sawdust
  • Used filters

If you have a cat, place your litter box in another room. Cat urine contains ammonia, which could corrode your furnace’s heat exchanger. Plus, the furnace could move the stinky odors throughout your home.

You should also routinely clean by your furnace to prevent dust from developing.

Related: Is it Time for Furnace Service or Replacement?

Request Expert Furnace Service

Whether you need furnace replacement or routine maintenance in Lexington, James Heating & A/C, Inc can expertly take care of your needs. Our highly trained technicians can repair any furnace model or brand.

Call us at 336-853-6070 or use our online scheduler to get an appointment today.