Does your house not reach your desired temperature fast enough? If you find that you change your thermostat settings throughout the day to save on utilities, but your furnace just doesn’t seem to respond fast enough, what should you do? The solution is not to turn your thermostat higher, as your furnace won’t heat faster but will only end up overshooting your temperature. Instead, follow the steps below to actually address how quickly your home heats up.

Is This a New Problem?

When your home suddenly seems to be colder more often, and your furnace seems to be struggling to keep up all of a sudden, it is likely that you have some kind of HVAC problem. It could be that your furnace’s efficiency is struggling due to neglect or because it needs repairs. The culprit could simply be an over-full filter, or it could be as serious as an issue with your heating element. Either way, an HVAC technician can take a look at the furnace and the whole system and figure out what kind of inefficiency or issue is slowing down your heat.

You should look at the solutions we offer below if your home has always had a problem of heating up slowly and your HVAC technician doesn’t think there is an issue with your furnace.

Change Your Air Duct Layout

When you have a forced-air system, the heat that your furnace generates is carried through your home in the air ducts. The design of those air ducts can mean that the air gets to your living space quickly or slowly. The slower or more complicated the ducting system is, the more heat the air loses along its journey. This can result in your home heating up really slowly and being inconsistent temperatures and energy inefficient as well.

Sometimes poor HVAC layouts are the results of older buildings that aren’t well designed for forced air systems, renovations that were made without much thought as to the impact of the HVAC system, or just poor design or installation. An HVAC technician can assess your ducting system, tell you if and how the system can be fixed, and then adjust it for you.

Improve Air Flow

Along with adjusting the design of your air ducts, there are many other things that your HVAC technician can do to improve the air flow in your home and thereby help the heat from the furnace get to you faster. Cleaning the air ducts, changing the HVAC filters, and improving the fan that runs your central air system are all good options.

Use Mini-Split Technology

Sometimes the design of your home or your need for heat just aren’t compatible with forced air systems. You can use mini-split technology or other heating systems that deliver heat faster or more directly to where you’re hanging out in the home. Again, an HVAC technician can help you assess if some other form of heating would help your home get up to temperature faster.