Heating and cooling questions from Tiffin-area homes.

Leave the house right away and take everyone with you. Do not flip light switches, use the thermostat, start a car in an attached garage or do anything that could make a spark. Once you are outside and away from the house, call your gas utility’s emergency line or 911.

Do not go back in until the utility or fire department says it is safe. After the leak is found and shut off, a qualified technician can repair the line or appliance and relight equipment.

Get everyone out of the house into fresh air, then call 911 from outside. Do not stay inside to look for the cause.

Carbon monoxide has no smell, so trust the alarm. Furnaces, boilers, water heaters, gas fireplaces, generators and cars in attached garages are common sources. Once the fire department clears the house, have every fuel-burning appliance inspected before you use it again.

Call for service, then keep the house as warm as you safely can: close off unused rooms, keep doors shut, and let faucets on outside walls drip so pipes are less likely to freeze. Never heat the house with a gas oven, a stove top, a grill or a camp heater meant for outdoors.

Space heaters should be listed for indoor use, plugged straight into a wall outlet (not an extension cord), and kept well away from bedding, curtains and furniture. Check that the thermostat has batteries and is set to heat, and that the furnace switch and breaker are on. Beyond that, leave the furnace to a technician.

No. If a furnace locks out more than once, it is telling you something is wrong. Repeated resets on a gas furnace can be unsafe, so stop and call for service.

Lockouts often come from a dirty flame sensor, a blocked vent or intake, a failing igniter or a pressure switch problem. A technician can find which one safely.

Replace smoke alarms about every 10 years and carbon monoxide alarms every 5 to 10 years, following the date and instructions on the alarm. Test them monthly.

Put a CO alarm on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas, especially in a house with a gas furnace, boiler, water heater or attached garage.

Repair usually makes sense when the furnace is under about 15 years old, the repair is modest and the heat exchanger is sound. Replacement makes more sense when it is older, needs a major part, keeps breaking down or has a cracked heat exchanger.

A good rule of thumb: if a repair costs a large share of a new furnace and the unit is near the end of its life, put the money toward replacement. We will tell you plainly which way we would go in your house, and every new installation starts with a free quote.

A well-kept gas furnace commonly lasts around 15 to 20 years, and a central air conditioner or heat pump around 12 to 15 years.

Long, cold winters put real hours on a furnace here, and humid summers do the same to air conditioning. Annual maintenance, clean filters and a correctly sized system all add years.

Not always, but it is often worth it. The furnace or air handler and the AC coil work as a matched system, and newer air conditioners use different refrigerants and coils than older ones.

If one is new and the other is young and healthy, replacing only the failed piece can make sense. If both are aging, replacing them together usually costs less than two separate jobs and gives you a system designed to work as one.

Sometimes, but it gets harder every year. R-22 production in the United States ended in 2020, so only recovered and reclaimed supply remains, and it is expensive.

A small repair that does not involve refrigerant may still be worth doing. A leak or a failed compressor on an R-22 system is usually the point to plan a replacement.

Under EPA rules, new residential central air conditioners and heat pumps are moving away from R-410A to refrigerants with a lower global-warming potential, such as R-454B and R-32. That transition began with equipment made in 2025.

These newer refrigerants are classed A2L (mildly flammable) and need matched coils, equipment and installation practices. Existing R-410A systems can still be serviced. Ask what refrigerant a quoted system uses.

They are efficiency ratings. SEER2 measures cooling efficiency for air conditioners and heat pumps, HSPF2 measures a heat pump’s heating efficiency, and AFUE is the percentage of fuel a furnace or boiler turns into heat.

Higher numbers use less energy. A 96% AFUE furnace turns 96 cents of every fuel dollar into heat. In a cold Ohio climate, furnace AFUE and heat pump HSPF2 usually matter more to your bills than the very top SEER2 rating.

Yes, with the right equipment. Modern cold-climate heat pumps keep heating well below freezing, and in northwest Ohio most are paired with a gas furnace or electric backup for the coldest nights.

A dual-fuel system lets the heat pump handle spring, fall and milder winter days, then switches to the furnace when it gets very cold. Whether that saves money depends on your electric and gas or propane prices and on the house.

A dual-fuel system pairs an electric heat pump with a gas or propane furnace. The heat pump heats and cools most of the year, and the furnace takes over in deep cold.

It is a common choice when an air conditioner and furnace both need replacing, especially in homes on propane, where the heat pump can cut how much fuel you buy.

Yes. Ductless mini-splits are made for exactly that. Small indoor heads mount on the wall or ceiling, and a thin line set runs to an outdoor unit, so you keep your boiler for heat and add cooling without tearing into plaster for ducts.

Mini-splits are heat pumps too, so they can also take the chill off in spring and fall. High-velocity small-duct systems are another option in some houses.

Have it serviced once a year by a qualified technician, before the heating season. Between visits, keep the area around the boiler clear, and call if you see leaks, hear banging or the pressure gauge reads far from normal.

Do not drain, refill or adjust a boiler’s controls yourself. Radiant floors and radiators are long-lived when the boiler, pump and expansion tank are looked after.

For many homeowners, yes. Radiant floors heat quietly and evenly from the ground up, with warm floors and no blowing air, which makes them a favorite for bathrooms, basements, additions and new builds.

They usually run off a boiler or high-efficiency water heater, and they are easiest to install during a remodel or new construction, when the floor is open.

Once a year for each: the furnace in the fall before the first cold snap, and the air conditioner or heat pump in the spring. A heat pump that runs all year benefits from two visits.

A tune-up checks safety controls, burners and flame, the heat exchanger, electrical connections, refrigerant performance, drains and airflow, and it is the best time to catch a small problem before it becomes a no-heat call.

Check it monthly and change it when it looks dirty: about every 1 to 3 months for a standard 1-inch filter, and every 6 to 12 months for a thicker 4- or 5-inch media filter.

Change it more often with pets, during construction or when the system runs hard in winter and summer. A clogged filter strains the blower and can make a furnace overheat and shut down.

Cold outdoor air holds very little moisture, and heating it makes indoor air drier still. In Ohio winters, indoor humidity can drop low enough to cause static, dry skin and gaps in wood floors.

A whole-house humidifier on the furnace can help, but keep winter humidity moderate (often around 30 to 40 percent) so it does not condense on cold windows. Air leaks also bring in dry outdoor air, so sealing helps too.

An air conditioner that is oversized, has low airflow or runs very short cycles can cool the house without running long enough to pull out moisture.

Correct sizing, a properly set blower speed, clean coils and a good drain all help. In basements, a dehumidifier is often the best fix.

Yes. Hard water is common in northwest Ohio, and it leaves scale in water heaters, fixtures and appliances. A softener or filtration system sized for the house protects them and improves the water.

Homes on private wells often need different treatment than city water, so it is worth testing the water first. Filtration systems are one of the plumbing services Allegiance Mechanical offers.

Usually it is airflow: a room at the end of a long duct run, a missing or blocked return, leaky or crushed ducts, or a room over a garage or under the roof that loses heat faster.

Fixes range from balancing dampers and sealing ducts to adding a supply or return run, or adding a mini-split for a room the ducts were never designed to reach.

A smart or programmable thermostat can save fuel by turning the heat down when you are asleep or away, and it lets you adjust from your phone. It has to be compatible with your equipment.

Heat pumps, dual-fuel systems, boilers and multi-stage furnaces each need the right thermostat and wiring. Some smart thermostats also need a common (C) wire. Ask before you buy if you are unsure.

Sometimes. A heat pump, central air conditioner, backup heat strips, an electric water heater or a generator can push an older panel or a small service past what it can safely handle.

A load calculation tells you for sure. Because Allegiance Mechanical also replaces service entrance panels and meter bases, the electrical side can be handled with the HVAC work. Panel and service work is never a do-it-yourself job.

For many homes around Tiffin, yes. Ice storms and summer wind cause outages, and when the power goes out, so do the furnace blower, the sump pump and, on a rural property, the well pump.

A standby generator starts automatically and runs on natural gas or propane. It must be sized to the house and installed with a transfer switch so it never back-feeds the utility lines, which can hurt line workers. Never run a portable generator indoors or in a garage.

No. Even a gas furnace or boiler needs electricity for its controls, igniter and blower or pump, so it stops when the power does.

Do not try to wire a generator into the furnace or the house yourself. A properly installed transfer switch or standby generator is the safe way to keep heat on during an outage.

Often, yes. Many Ohio cities and counties require a mechanical permit to replace a furnace, air conditioner, boiler or water heater, and electrical and plumbing work have their own permits. Requirements depend on where the house is.

Your city or county building department sets the rules for your address. A contractor who pulls the permits for you is a good sign.

The Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board (OCILB), part of the Ohio Department of Commerce, licenses HVAC, hydronics, refrigeration, plumbing and electrical contractors for commercial work. For residential work, many cities and counties require local contractor registration.

You can look up a contractor license on the State of Ohio’s eLicense site, and ask your building department whether a contractor is registered locally. Ask any company for its license and registration numbers.

Look for a local company with a long track record, the right state license or local registration for the work, insurance, and clear written quotes. Ask how they size equipment, who pulls permits and what the warranty covers.

Check the Better Business Bureau and reviews, and be wary of anyone who quotes a new system over the phone without looking at the house. Allegiance Mechanical has been in business since 2013 and has been BBB Accredited since 2014, with an A+ rating.

By a load calculation, not by matching the old unit. The size depends on the home’s square footage, insulation, windows, air leakage, orientation and ductwork.

Oversized equipment short-cycles, wastes energy and, for air conditioning, leaves the house clammy. Undersized equipment runs constantly and struggles on the coldest and hottest days.

Yes. Allegiance Mechanical offers financing with real-time approval for HVAC, electrical and plumbing work.

Call 567-207-5984 and ask about current financing options when you request your free quote.

Yes. Allegiance Mechanical was formerly known as Cheap “R” Services LLC. The company has been serving Tiffin since 2013 and changed its name when it opened its new location at 1182 E US Highway 224.

The phone number is the same: 567-207-5984.

Yes. Allegiance Mechanical serves both residential and commercial customers with HVAC, plumbing, electrical, generator and drain cleaning services.

Call 567-207-5984 to talk through a commercial project or service call.