Maintaining Your Home Heating Oil System

Posted by Steven Zweig on September 3, 2009 at 9:09 am

A typical home heating system. (image: chads.org.uk)

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Like your car or truck, your home heating system requires regular maintenance to function its best. Keeping your furnace (forced air system) or boiler (water or steam systems) in good working order will save you money, reduce pollution, and increase your comfort. Fortunately, home heating systems are more like cars from the 1960s or 70s than like modern cars—equipment on which the owner can perform much of the maintenance, if so inclined.

Of course, not all repairs or maintenance are things the average homeowner can do; some require a trained technician or contractor. Below, we’ll get into maintenance you should be able to do, maintenance your oil contractor should do, and maintenance that both or either of you could do, depending on how handy you are.

But first, a quick overview of your heating system.

HOME OIL HEATING SYSTEMS IN BRIEF

Whether your system is a forced air furnace or a hydronic boiler, there are basically five parts to them:

• A control system, which tells the system when to turn on or off. The thermostat is a key component of this.
• A fuel source—your oil tank.
• A combustion (or burning) system, where precisely measured amounts of fuel oil and air are brought together and ignited, to produce heat.
• An exhaust system, which takes away the waste or by-products of combustion. The exhaust stack, flue, or chimney is the centerpiece of this.
• A heat distribution system, which moves the heat produced by burning oil throughout your house. If you have a forced air system, this is the ducts which take hot air from the furnace to your home’s living spaces. If you have a hydronic system, this consists of water pipes plus some combination of radiators, baseboards, and/or radiant floor heating.