The short answer
A gas furnace and a central air conditioner should each have a professional check once a year, booked just before the season it has to work through: the furnace in early fall and the air conditioner in spring. In between, check the furnace filter regularly, because the same filter and blower serve both systems.
That is the same advice Natural Resources Canada gives: it recommends hiring a licensed and insured contractor to do annual pre-season check-ups, with cooling maintenance planned in the spring and the heating check-up in the fall. The rest of this guide turns that into a schedule for a Chestermere home.
If your air conditioner has not been looked at in a while, our air conditioner maintenance in Chestermere page explains how we handle the visit.
Why once a year, and why before the season
A furnace in Chestermere runs for most of the year. It starts in early fall, works hard through the coldest weeks and keeps cycling into spring. An air conditioner has a much shorter season, but it sits outside under snow and ice for months before it is asked to work on the first hot day.
Booking each system before its season does three things:
- It finds problems while the system is idle. A cracked part or weak component is much easier to deal with in September than on the first cold night.
- It catches the effects of the off-season. Debris, ice damage and nesting animals affect an outdoor AC unit. Dust and a dirty filter build up in the furnace over summer, when the blower may have been running for cooling.
- It avoids the rush. The first cold snap and the first heat wave are when most heating and cooling companies get busiest. A visit booked ahead fits your schedule instead of the weather's.
The Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada makes the same point for heating. It recommends an annual visit from a licensed heating technician, scheduled before you turn the heat back on.
A year-round schedule for a Chestermere home
Here is a simple calendar for a home with a gas furnace and central air:
| When | What to do | Who |
|---|---|---|
| September to early October | Furnace check-up before regular heating starts | Licensed technician |
| Monthly through winter | Check the furnace filter; keep outdoor intake and exhaust vents clear of snow and frost | Homeowner |
| Late fall | Clear leaves and debris from around the outdoor AC unit once cooling is done | Homeowner |
| April to May | Air conditioner check-up before the first warm stretch | Licensed technician |
| Monthly through summer | Check the filter; keep plants and debris back from the outdoor unit | Homeowner |
If you only book one visit a year, make it the furnace check in the fall. A furnace failure in a Chestermere January is a safety and comfort problem. An air conditioner failure in July is uncomfortable but rarely urgent.
How often to check the furnace filter
The filter is the one piece of maintenance every homeowner can do, and it matters for both systems, because the furnace blower moves the air for your air conditioner too.
Natural Resources Canada advises you to inspect, clean or change filters regularly, checking your owner's manual or the manufacturer's guidance for how often, and warns that a dirty filter can increase energy costs and damage your system. HRAI lists replacing filters seasonally as work homeowners can take on themselves.
In practice, how often depends on the filter and the house:
- Thin 1-inch filters fill up fastest and need the most frequent checks.
- Thicker media filters are made to last longer between changes.
- Pets, renovations and construction dust shorten the life of any filter. Many of Chestermere's newer communities still have building work nearby, which adds dust.
The simplest habit is to look at the filter once a month while the system is running a lot, and replace it when it looks grey and loaded, or at the interval the manufacturer gives, whichever comes first.
What each visit should cover
A maintenance visit should be more than a filter change. Natural Resources Canada lists the work a contractor should do:
- Heating: check all gas connections, gas pressure, burner combustion and the heat exchanger.
- Cooling: clean the evaporator and condenser coils, check the refrigerant level and adjust it if necessary, and clean and adjust the blower components.
HRAI's heating checklist adds a carbon monoxide safety test, checks of the chimney and flue, the thermostat and safety controls, the ignition or pilot system, and the blower.
For the furnace side in detail, our post on what a furnace tune-up includes walks through each step. For the air conditioner, a spring visit is also when a technician checks how the unit came through the winter.
What you can do between visits
Most of the work belongs with a licensed technician, but a few things are yours:
- Check and change the filter as above.
- Keep the outdoor AC unit clear of leaves, grass clippings and stored items, with a couple of feet of space around it.
- Keep the furnace's outdoor intake and exhaust pipes clear of snow and frost after storms. On high-efficiency furnaces, a blocked vent can shut the furnace down.
- Test your carbon monoxide alarms and replace their batteries on the schedule the manufacturer gives.
- Keep the area around the furnace clear. A utility room used for storage makes it harder to spot a problem early.
Our guide to preparing your air conditioner for winter covers the fall shutdown steps for the outdoor unit.
Signs you should not wait for the yearly visit
A yearly schedule is the minimum. Call sooner if you notice:
- New noises from the furnace or the outdoor unit
- Short cycling, where the system turns on and off more often than usual
- Rooms that heat or cool unevenly when they did not before
- A furnace that runs but blows cool air, or an air conditioner that runs but does not cool
- Water around the furnace or the indoor coil
- Higher energy bills with no change in how you use the system
If your carbon monoxide alarm sounds, leave the home and call 911 or your gas utility from outside before anything else.
Booking furnace and AC maintenance in Chestermere
The timing that works best for most Chestermere homes is a furnace visit in September or early October and an air conditioner visit in April or May. If you missed the fall window this year, it is still worth having the furnace checked now rather than waiting until something goes wrong mid-winter.
Infinite Heating is a licensed and insured HVAC team that has served Chestermere and nearby communities since 2022. Learn more about air conditioner maintenance in Chestermere and furnace maintenance in Chestermere, or contact us to book a visit before the season starts.
This general information does not replace an on-site assessment by a qualified professional or the manufacturer's instructions for your equipment.
