Most modern-day furnaces have a bunch of different safety mechanisms to ensure that they run properly. For instance, the heat exchanger keeps the system from accidentally allowing carbon monoxide and other fumes to enter the breathable space of your home. Other components, like the electrical ignition, make sure that the system is in charge of whether or not a flame gets lit, so it doesn’t accidentally run for longer than it needs to.
But here’s a question: how does your furnace know if the gas inside of it is being burned? After all, can’t it accidentally leak gas through a burner system that’s not functioning correctly? And, as we all know, gas is expensive. Well, there’s a component that helps regulate this process and keeps your home from encountering a dangerous gas leak. It’s the flame sensor, and this blog post will be dedicated to describing what this component does, and why you might need it fixed with furnace repair in Lake City, FL!
Introducing the Flame Sensor
The flame sensor, or in some cases the heat sensor, is a component that exists in your gas furnace to monitor the heat coming from the burners. It can basically tell if the gas is being burned inside of your furnace, and how hot it’s getting.
This is handy for two reasons.
- First, if your flame sensor detects a flame when there shouldn’t be any gas coming into the system, then it will shut down.
- Second, if it detects gas coming through the system but there is no flame, then it will shut down.
Basically, if anything is happening out of the ordinary in the process of burning fuel for heat, then the flame sensor will detect this and shut the system down. This is to protect your home from any dangerous situations or fire hazards that could come from a furnace that’s just cycling through gas without burning it.
This Component Requires Special Attention
When you sign up for a maintenance appointment, one of the first things a technician will do is unscrew the casing of your furnace and clean the flame sensor.
The flame sensor is a metallic rod that creates an electrical current to “test” the presence of a flame burning inside the system. If that rod is damaged or dirty, then it will fail to do its job properly and you might get into an unsafe situation.
We’d recommend customers first invest in yearly maintenance to ensure this component is cleaned and kept in good shape so you can have peace of mind.
It Might Be Time for Repairs
Do you constantly smell the scent of gas coming from your furnace? While it could be any number of issues, one of them could be a malfunction with the flame sensor. Get in touch with one of our professionals and tell us how bad the smell is. We can pinpoint the problem, diagnose it properly, and make sure that your furnace has a functioning flame sensor to protect your home.
Luckily, this component isn’t too expensive to replace, but any work like this should be done by a trained professional.
Contact North Central Florida Air Conditioning to have your furnace fixed. Improving Lives by Improving Homes!
