With highs in the single digits, and nights dipping down into the negative teens, next week is when furnaces will get a true test of their current health. In temperatures that hover around freezing, furnaces can often “limp” along with issues but still often keep a house reasonably warm. They might short cycle, or miss cycles entirely; but eventually fire up and heat the house. These cold periods—like the one coming—are a true test of their fortitude though; where 1 missed cycle could mean a house drops 5 degrees fairly quickly.
If you’re in a situation where your furnace quits on a super cold day, here’s a few things you can do:
—Call for service right away. I’m fully supportive of people trying to work on their own equipment, but at least call a furnace technician and get on the list to get the furnace repaired. You don’t want to try to repair the furnace yourself and then at the last minute when you can’t figure it out, you have to frantically call for anyone who could be available. Call a company, reserve a spot, and then work on the furnace… if you fix it you can always cancel the appointment!
—Have a secondary source of heat. I tell people all the time that in the climate we live in, having a back up source of heat is critical. This could be a fireplace in the house, or space heaters or something. Anything that can try to get you through a rough patch.
—If all else fails, use the oven. If you don’t have a space heater or something when your heat fails, you can use your oven to temporarily bridge the gap. Just turn the oven on, and leave the door open a bit. NOTE: be very cautious of this if you have young children or pets that could get into the oven! Especially cats… they’re always interested in warm areas.
There are also some preventative things you can do now, that might help you avoid an uncomfortably cold day:
—Change batteries in your thermostat. Thermostats are probably the number 1 failure of a heating system. At the very least, change the batteries in it if it has batteries. If it's super old, it might be nice to put a new thermostat in while the temperatures are still tolerable.
—Change your furnace filter! Furnaces will overheat and shut off if they can’t get adequate air flow. The furnace filter is there to prevent the furnace from plugging up with dust, but it must be kept clean to avoid extra air resistance. I tell everyone to at least check it once a month. Especially if there are shedding animals in the house. If the filter looks good, then maybe you can go one more month. But please please PLEASE at least check it once a month. Also, more frequent changes with cheaper filters is better than buying a filter that’s rated for 1 whole year and never gets changed. If you’re getting a filter that’s 1 inch wide, get something that costs $3-$5 per filter… you don’t need to get some ridiculously expensive filter that you hesitate to replace because you spent so much money on it.
—Clean your flame sensor. This is a pretty easy maintenance item homeowners can do, and it contributes to many furnace failures. We typically do this for customers when we do furnace tune ups, and its a very easy preventative measure to ensure things go ok.
—Clean your Condensate Trap. This is the last recommendation on the list. High efficiency furnaces produce water called condensate. This water goes through what we call a “Trap”… this could look like a little box, or it could be as simple as a pipe that dips down, and back up. These traps get plugged up with gunk, and need to be cleaned out…. A furnace guy would say once a year, but I’d say once every 5 years would even help. We often see this pipe back up and then get into the exhaust motor, and that’s not good!
Simple precautions and furnace maintenance items can go a long way to prevent unfortunate heating emergencies. But if you do find yourself in need of help, we are your local furnace repair expert! Give us a call if you need help, or if you’d just like to discuss what you can do to help improve your furnace’s performance.
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