As winter approaches, now is the ideal time to ensure that your heating system is ready for use in the coming months. The best way to ensure that your system is primed is to schedule your annual maintenance. While the prospect of paying out money when your system is working may seem silly, there are three reasons why it’s actually a very good idea. 
You Can Perform Preventative Maintenance:
While you may have used your heating on colder days during spring or fall, during winter the system will be under increased strain from stretches of almost daily use. Scheduling annual maintenance allows you to check that ducts are clean, vents are unobstructed and filters are all replaced. Even basic maintenance will help increase the efficiency of your system. You may even find that you can prolong the lifespan of your system. Preventative maintenance can reduce the risk of breakdown and ensure that your heating is working properly. After all, you don’t want to wait until the coldest day of the year to find out there is a problem.
Minimize Inconvenience:
The chances are that if a worn component is going to fail it will happen over winter. Since the system is being used more frequently, any wear and tear will occur even faster. This probability means that you are likely to find that when the system does breakdown, it will be on a cold day or cold night. A breakdown in fall is bad enough, but there is nothing more inconvenient than it happening on a colder winter day, and we do get those even here in LA. It is likely that heating professionals will be at their busiest, and you may need to wait hours or even days without heat before it can be repaired. The repair could be delayed even further if a part needs to be specially ordered. Detecting a potential issue with an inspection in the fall provides the opportunity for the repairs to be completed before the weather turns truly cold (by SoCal standards of course.)
You Can Save Money:
While spending money on servicing and maintenance to save money may seem counter intuitive, it is actually very sensible. Emergency call out charges can be very expensive, especially if the breakdown occurs on a holiday or Sunday. A certified technician will be able to check for any minor faults or issues and correct them before they can develop into a major problem. This proactive action may even allow you to spend money on smaller parts rather than a big repair bill. Some minor issues can have a cascading effect when they eventually fail, so you could find that instead of replacing a washer or valve in the Fall, you need to pay for a new motor or pump in the Winter. Unfortunately, wear and tear is inevitable in a system that is designed to last up to fifteen years. Scheduling regular servicing and maintenance can mitigate this by replacing worn out components promptly before they can trigger a breakdown or major problem. Regular servicing can also ensure that your system is operating at optimum efficiency, meaning you can also save money on your energy bills.