JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Area heating, ventilation and air condition (HVAC) and plumbing companies have been working non-stop since the frigid weather settled into the Tri-Cities area.
The owner of Phil’s Heating and Air, Phil Allen, has been responding to calls with his workers, helping them keep up with customer demands. Allen said a lot of home issues during cold weather come from a lack of heater maintenance.
“A lot of people will have electrical issues with their electric heat, on their heat pump, and they won’t know it, and we can usually find that during preventative maintenance time,” said Allen. “It would be ideal to get that done a couple times a year. It would help out with reducing service calls for people.”
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Allen said the best time to do maintenance checks are once before winter and again before summer.
“And people really need to make sure that they’re changing their filters all year round,” said Allen. “Keeping an eye on them, otherwise, they’re going to be paying a lot more for a power bill because it makes a system work harder.”
Tommie’s Plumbing has had a steady stream of calls since the Arctic blast hit the area. Lead tech, Chris Turner advised allowing hot water to drip from faucets as a precaution.
“The reason why I say hot, is because as soon as you draw hot water from your water heater, cold water is being dropped into the tank,” said Turner. “So, not only is cold water being ran, but also hot. So, that means all the pipes have actually got water movement which will prevent freezing.”
Other measures that can be done to prevent pipes from bursting include covering outside hose spigots and making sure crawl spaces are covered, trapping heat.
“Any unheated area in your home that has water pipes, you want to make sure that the pipes are well insulated,” said Turner. “For one, you have thermal loss, which you’re going to spend more money heating your pipes up by running water.”
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