What’s the Lifespan of a Typical Furnace

As spring becomes summer, it is usually the case that the home’s furnace is powered down and left for a few months. However, that doesn’t mean it should be forgotten about. It could be that failing to determine the life expectancy of your heater may lead to it being obsolete by the winter. The last thing anyone needs is to have to purchase a new HVAC system for the holidays.

Is There a lifespan For a Typical Furnace?

A typical furnace has a lifespan of 20 years. However, it’s not quite as simple as that. The typical furnace doesn’t really exist, and so the life expectancy of one type can be vastly different from the lifespan of another. There’s plenty of other factors to consider with the average lifespan of your water heater like asking yourself if there is regular maintenance being scheduled? Is it a new furnace or an older furnace? Is it part of the home’s overall HVAC system, or is it separate from the likes of your air conditioner unit? How is it powered? Does it use less energy via electricity or is it a typical gas furnace?

With so many questions surrounding this one appliance in your home, it’s easy to see how determining the life expectancy of your furnace is not quite so straightforward. The combination of components that go into this vital part of your home’s HVAC system is wide-ranging and varied. You can determine a pretty good guesstimate of how long you expect yours to last by accounting for a couple of constants.

The Home’s HVAC System and its Importance.

The home’s HVAC system consists of all of the various components of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units within. It’s a circulatory system of which one component generally relies on the other two, despite being able to function separately. On input by the homeowner via the thermostat, the furnace heats up the water, which is then transported through pipes into radiators and taps around the property.

The radiators warm the indoor air, which is kept clean and cycled by the ventilation. This also gets rid of any possible dangerous fumes if there is a gas leak, so it’s important that they are kept clear. The air is kept dry and cool by way of the air conditioning units, which also help to keep the indoor air quality clean. Some air conditioners have additional heat pumps that work to warm the indoor air as well, taking the reliance off the home’s heating system to do the job.

The point of the HVAC system working together is to ensure that the home’s environment is temperate (i.e. not too cold or warm) and clean—just devoid of any air that can cause health issues and allergies. It’s known that humidity is a breeding ground for viruses and harmful bacteria, but did you know that it is possibly linked to the spread of Covid-19 as well?

Though humidity in the home can happen, it is usually linked to a fault in the air conditioner not filtering out the moisture of the air, or blocked vents. Moreover, high humidity is linked to a crack, and thus a leak, in one of the pipes, meaning that moisture is getting into the air. That moisture is heated with the air and becomes humidity, which is not ventilated out of the home properly. The damage includes mold on walls, health issues in family members, and a significant drain on the wallet.

How does this affect the service life of my furnace?

The impact on your furnace is simple—it has to work harder to heat the air and water together. This additional usage puts a strain on its components, leading to a shorter lifespan, even with proper maintenance. A furnace should be regularly maintained, but its usage is usually confined to the colder months. Extra moisture in the air leads to cold spots in the home, leading to more reliance on the heating system. During the colder months, the furnace is worked more, and if there are problems with the HVAC system then it will be overworked and outrun its proper maintenance windows.

You can perform regular maintenance yourself, but if you encounter problems, call a technician straight away. The longevity of your furnace, new or old, is dependent on many things. However, proper maintenance on a regular basis will guarantee a long life, no matter what the age of your furnace is now.