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When you call for heating and cooling help, it’s not uncommon to see your technician taking notes while merely looking at equipment. And yes, visual checks can be a starting point, but when it comes to ensuring the health of your HVAC system, it’s almost always necessary to go further. Here’s how a combustion analysis goes beyond the standard visual check to discover the true status of your heating system. 

What is a Combustion Analysis? 

A combustion analysis is a series of tests that are performed to measure the efficiency of your gas furnace; it can also bring important safety considerations to light. By measuring the Oxygen (O2), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and Carbon Monoxide (CO) levels in your HVAC system, we can determine where there are deficiencies, let you know how you can lower utility costs, mitigate safety issues, and give you a road map for future maintenance. 

picture of a gas furnace combustion analysis

Could It Be a Combustion Problem? 

If you’ve got a persistent HVAC problem, it’s likely that this isn’t the first time you’ve had to make a service call. But it’s possible that a previous maintenance visit – or visits, for that matter – didn’t give you the answers that you needed. A combustion analysis goes in-depth to help diagnose the hairline cracks or leaks that are impacting the efficiency and safety of your system. Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to you?  

The space isn’t heating properly. If locations from essential community spaces to classrooms don’t seem to be heating properly, whether that’s manifesting in uneven distribution of air or what feels like too much or too little of the desired conditions, it could be an issue with your O2/CO2 levels. A combustion analysis can give you more insight into why this is happening, and how urgent the issue at hand is. 

It’s too drafty. If your building only seems to give you the chilly half of what you’d expect from a full-service HVAC system, and draws comments and concerns from occupants, then it could be time for a combustion analysis. An underlying issue with a gas furnace can be smoked out with a combustion analyzer that will take the internal temperature from the flue pipe, and make sure everything is within recommended limits. 

Utility bills are too high. This means the gas furnace isn’t operating efficiently. This could be happening for a number of reasons and combustion analysis can help rule some of them out. Sometimes, it may even help us figure out that it’s not the system, but rather system controls that need to be reprogrammed.

a testo combustion analyzer and the combustion analysis test results

How Can I Be Sure That My Building is Safe? 

Once you complete the combustion analysis, you’ll know if there are any issues related to over-firing, under-firing, smoke spots, condensation and heightened risk for leaks. Your HVAC maintenance team will also take factors like ambient air temperature and stack temperature into consideration, and look for high flame temperatures and effective air-fuel mixing as signals of a healthy heating system.

Are you concerned that your service visits have resulted in visual checks with little to no proof of what work was done, and why conclusions were made? We’ve seen this happen all too often. Give us a call or contact us to see if you qualify for a no-cost site visit.

SERVING VA, MD, & DC

Trimark Mechanical

Commercial HVAC, plumbing, and electrical services in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

SERVING VA, MD, & DC

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6231 Leesburg Pike Suite #100A Falls Church, VA 22044

+ 1 703 8914600

info@trimarkmechanical.com

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