Are you due to upgrade or replace your current furnace? If so, you might want to take a step back and look at the big picture as opposed to immediately moving forward with installation. This could be an opportunity to change the location of the furnace within your home or building. But how do you know if you need to find a new location for your new furnace? Here are some tips to keep in mind to keep your home or building safe and ensure ease of use for your furnace in the future.

Don't Be Cramped

Is your current furnace in a spot that makes maintenance a bit of a pain? If you don't have a ton of room to move around when servicing your current furnace, you may want to find a more open space or location where you or your maintenance workers will be able to move around freely while working on whatever needs to be fixed or replaced. Once the furnace installation is complete, ensure that no one is stacking boxes or other items anywhere near the furnace and recreating your original problem of not having enough free space.

Make Sure You Have Good Ventilation

One thing that moving the furnace into a more wide open space will do for you is allow better ventilation than you might currently have. You don't want your furnace's airflow to be restricted in any way. Good ventilation is key to maintaining a safe environment throughout the furnace room and protecting yourself or any workers who may enter that area.

Keep Away From Combustible Materials

It's already been noted that you should keep obstructions or anything that might leave the furnace looking cramped far away from it. But it's worth specifically calling out any type of combustible materials in particular. If it's something that could easily catch fire when exposed to heat, flame, or smoke, you should not be putting it anywhere near the furnace at all. Even just putting it there "for a few minutes" may end up being a few minutes too long. Put signage up in the furnace room if needed to ensure no one puts anything potentially dangerous or hazardous anywhere near it.

Keep the Noise Down

If your furnace is located in a room that you may be using for another purpose, you may want to position the furnace to ensure you don't have to deal with too much noise when it is in operation. You may want to consider putting additional insulation around the area.

Contact a professional to learn more about furnace installation.