Professional Fall Heating Tune-up in Chapel Hill, NC

Probably not, and here's what that means for your home and your wallet. The average furnace or heat pump sits idle for six to seven months between its last heating cycle in March and its first real test in November. During that downtime, components degrade in ways that aren't visible until the system runs under load. Capacitors weaken. Igniter elements develop micro-cracks. Contactors pit and corrode. Refrigerant slowly leaks from aging fittings. None of this shows up until you need heat and the system either can't deliver or delivers it poorly.

A fall tune-up finds these problems in September or October, when the fix is scheduled and affordable, instead of in December, when it's an emergency and expensive.

The Carbon Monoxide Check You Can't Skip

Every winter, North Carolina sees carbon monoxide incidents from cracked heat exchangers and failed venting in gas furnaces. CO is odorless and invisible. A cracked heat exchanger can leak combustion gases — including carbon monoxide — directly into your home's air supply. The furnace runs, the house warms up, and the family breathes poison without knowing it.

Our fall tune-up includes a combustion analysis that measures CO levels in the furnace flue. If levels are elevated, we inspect the heat exchanger with a camera and check all venting connections. This single test is the most important safety check in the entire tune-up. If you do nothing else before winter, do this.

The Triangle's first freeze typically arrives between late October and mid-November. That first cold night is when every furnace in Wake County fires up for the first time in months. If yours has a cracked heat exchanger, that's when CO starts entering your living space.

What Our Techs Check: The Full Fall Checklist

Gas Furnace Inspection

1. Combustion analysis and CO testing at the flue
2. Heat exchanger visual and camera inspection
3. Burner cleaning and flame pattern check
4. Igniter inspection (hot surface or spark)
5. Flame sensor cleaning — the #1 cause of nuisance shutdowns
6. Gas pressure measurement at the manifold
7. Blower motor amp draw and operation
8. Capacitor testing
9. All safety controls: high-limit switch, pressure switch, rollout switch
10. Thermostat operation and calibration
11. Air filter replacement
12. Flue pipe and venting inspection
13. Return and supply airflow check

Heat Pump Heating Inspection

1. Refrigerant charge measurement
2. Reversing valve operation — confirms it switches to heating mode
3. Defrost control board and cycle testing
4. Auxiliary/emergency heat strip verification
5. Outdoor coil cleaning
6. Indoor coil inspection
7. Blower motor and capacitor testing
8. Contactor inspection
9. Thermostat operation in heating mode
10. Air filter replacement
11. Electrical connection tightening
12. Drain line check (heat pumps produce condensate even in heating mode)

The September-October Scheduling Window

We push September and October scheduling for practical reasons. During these months, our techs aren't juggling emergency calls. Your tune-up gets unhurried, thorough attention. If we find something that needs repair, parts are readily available and we can usually schedule the follow-up within days.

By November, everything changes. Emergency calls dominate the schedule. Parts suppliers run low on high-demand items like igniters and control boards. A tune-up that reveals a needed repair might mean waiting a week for the part and another week for the return visit. Meanwhile, you're running a system with a known issue through the coldest months.

What Homeowners Miss on DIY Checks

Some homeowners change their filter and call it done. That's better than nothing, but a filter change catches maybe 5% of what a professional tune-up covers. Here's what you can't check yourself:

You can't measure combustion gas levels without an analyzer. You can't test refrigerant charge without gauges. You can't measure amp draw without a clamp meter. You can't see inside a heat exchanger without a scope. You can't verify gas pressure without a manometer. These aren't upsell items — they're the actual diagnostic tools that identify problems before they become failures or safety hazards.

Real Numbers: What a Tune-Up Saves

A Department of Energy study found that unmaintained heating systems lose about 5% efficiency per year. In the Triangle, where heating runs four to five months, that efficiency loss shows up directly on your Duke Energy or Dominion Energy bill.

Example: A heat pump rated at 10 HSPF (heating seasonal performance factor) running at only 8.5 HSPF due to low refrigerant and a dirty coil costs roughly $25-35 more per month during heating season. Over a winter, that's $100-175 in wasted energy. The tune-up pays for itself in a single season.

Equipment lifespan matters too. Industry data shows maintained systems last 15-20 years while neglected systems average 10-12 years. A premature replacement costs $5,000-12,000. Annual tune-ups at $49 each total under $1,000 over a system's lifetime.

$49 Fall Tune-Up

Our fall heating tune-up is $49 and covers everything listed above for either system type. We'll make sure your furnace or heat pump is safe, efficient, and ready before the first freeze. If everything checks out clean, you'll know it. If something needs attention, you'll know that too — with a clear explanation and a written quote, no pressure. Schedule in September or October for same-day availability in most cases.