How old is your furnace or boiler? What to know about your heat before January
Most homeowners can tell you the year they bought the house. Far fewer can tell you the year the boiler went in.
That's fine in October. It matters in January, when the heat quits on the coldest night of the year and the first question from the repair company is what you have and how old it is.
Here's what's worth knowing about your heating system before the real cold arrives.
1. What kind of heat you have
In an older Fairfield County colonial that's been added on to over the years, there may be more than one answer. A boiler with radiators or baseboard in the original house, a furnace or heat pump for the addition, maybe a separate system for the finished attic.
Walk down to the basement and look. Note whether each system burns oil, natural gas or propane, or runs on electricity, and which part of the house it heats. Write it down.
2. How old it is
Look for the data plate on the side of the unit. It lists the manufacturer, model and serial number, and sometimes the date it was made. If there's no date, the serial number often encodes one, and the manufacturer or your service company can read it for you.
Why it matters: the Department of Energy suggests considering a replacement when a heating system is more than 15 years old, when a repair would cost more than half the price of a new one, or when the system is very inefficient.
Age alone isn't a reason to rip anything out. But a 20-year-old boiler is one you want to plan for, so you're not picking a replacement in a hurry in February.
3. When it was last serviced
NFPA recommends having heating equipment and chimneys cleaned and inspected every year by a qualified professional. That's licensed work, and it's the visit that catches a cracked part or a blocked flue before it becomes a no-heat call.
If there's a service tag on the unit, check the date. If there isn't, assume it's due and book it. Ask the technician to write down anything they'd watch next year.
4. Where the oil tank is, if you have one
If your house heats with oil, know whether your tank sits in the basement, outside or underground, roughly how old it is, and who delivers.
This matters for two reasons. First, running out of oil in a cold snap means no heat. Second, CT DEEP says residential owners are generally responsible for cleaning up a leak from their own heating oil tank, and not every homeowners policy covers it. Ask your insurance agent what yours says.
If you ever remove or replace a tank, keep the paperwork. DEEP notes that buyers usually want proof the tank didn't leak.
5. Carbon monoxide alarms
Anything that burns fuel can produce carbon monoxide. NFPA recommends CO alarms outside each sleeping area and on every level of the house, tested monthly.
If a CO alarm sounds, or you smell gas, get everyone out of the house and call 911 or the gas utility from outside. Don't try to find the source yourself.
6. The filter
If you have a forced-air furnace, the filter is the one part you can handle yourself. Change it on the schedule printed on the filter or in the manual. The size is printed on the edge.
Put it all on one page
System type, fuel, age, model and serial number, last service date, who services it, who delivers the oil, where the tank is. One page, kept somewhere you can find it in the dark with your phone flashlight.
Keeping that kind of record is part of what My House Guardian does in Fairfield, Westport and Greenwich. One person who knows your house schedules the licensed pros to service the systems and keeps track of what was done, so the answers are ready when you need them.