If you own a home in NYC, then you know first-hand how brutal winters in New York City can be. You also know how cold it can get at night during fall and spring. Undoubtedly, you cannot survive in NYC without a dependable furnace. Therefore, you must know when it's time to replace your furnace to keep your home reliably heated throughout the cold seasons.

The following signs will tell you that it's time to replace your furnace.

Your Furnace Is More Than a Decade Old

Typically, most furnaces are designed to have a service life of between 15 and 20 years. When your furnace repeatedly fails to heat your home even after several repairs, it may be a sign of wear and tear. Particularly if your furnace has served you for more than ten years, it's a good sign that you need to replace it. The lifespan of your furnace can be longer or shorter depending on the quality of installation and how well you maintain it.

You Are Experiencing Humidity Problems in Your Home

If you observe that the air in your home is excessively dry in the winter and too humid during summer, your furnace may be to blame. Having humidity problems in your home is a health hazard. Frequent exposure to dry air can trigger respiratory ailments. In extreme cases, you or other family members living in your NYC home can get asthma, bronchitis, or catch a common cold.

To avoid jeopardizing your health, you should replace your furnace immediately you start having humidity problems in your home. A functional furnace improves indoor air quality. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the typical American spends 93% of their life indoors.

This means that quality air in your home will enhance your health and increase your life expectancy. As it stands, the average service life of an American is 78 years. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, a child born in 2015 has an expected lifespan of 78.8 years. For a female child, life expectancy is 81.2 years, while that of a male child is 76.5 years. Significant differences also correlate with regions of the U.S., income, and other factors that include the capacity to retain quality indoor air in a home in all seasons. That's why it's of the utmost importance to replace your furnace whenever you have humidity problems in your home.

Your Furnace Keeps Leaking Even After Multiple Repairs

Sometimes water may leak from your furnace because of excess condensation, blocked drainage, wrong flue size on your standard-efficiency furnace, or when the whole-house humidifier leaks into the furnace. This causes puddles to form under the furnace and spread to the floor over time, exposing you to fall accidents. It's estimated that 22% of slip accidents cause people to miss work for more than 31 days.

While a leaking furnace may still heat your home, it will eventually break down if you don't have it fixed by a professional HVAC technician. However, if the problem persists after multiple repairs, it's a sign that you should replace your furnace right away.

You Hear Loud Unusual Noises From the Furnace

Unusual loud noises from your furnace may mean that there are some loose parts in the unit, or cracks and leaks have developed in your furnace. Mostly, these problems are triggered by wear and tear or poor maintenance. If the noises persist even after one or two repairs, you should consider replacing your furnace.

You want to keep your NYC home sufficiently heated in all seasons. This means that you must keep your furnace operating optimally. If your furnace is more than ten years old and doesn't heat your home well, you should consider installing a new unit. It's more cost-effective to replace an old and problematic furnace than to have it repaired.