Natural gas furnaces need adequate space and airflow to heat properly.

Your furnace can overheat if it doesn’t have enough space. It also makes it challenging for our technicians to perform furnace repair.

Annual furnace maintenance is crucial to keep your system working trouble-free. A regularly serviced furnace may run more efficiently, which could lower your energy bills.

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

Maintenance often helps us discover troubles before they become expensive. This could help reduce future repair costs and possibly prolong the life of your system.

So how much room should your furnace really have?

How Much Space Does My Furnace Need?

If you’re remodeling your basement or closing off your furnace room, you should take a look at manufacturer directions and Hendersonville ordinances for clearance rules.

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

You also need to make sure the area has plentiful 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 pulls combustion air from the nearby area. If there’s insufficient air, unsafe gas fumes and deadly carbon monoxide could leak into your home.

If your furnace is positioned in a tiny room with a gas water heater, you may need to put in supplemental openings. This could include 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 system uses one pipe as an exhaust vent and the other to add air.

Keep Combustible Materials Separate 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, put your litter box somewhere else. Cat urine contains ammonia, which could corrode your furnace’s heat exchanger. Plus, the furnace could spread the smelly odors around your home.

You should also routinely vacuum around your furnace to stop dust from building up.

Related: Is it Time for Furnace Service or Replacement?

Request Expert Furnace Service

Whether you need furnace replacement or routine maintenance in Hendersonville, Superior Comfort Systems can expertly meet your needs. Our highly trained technicians can fix any heating equipment model or brand.

Call us at 828-202-7025 or use our online scheduler to request an appointment now.