7 Things to Check When the Furnace Is Not Working
When your furnace is working well, you won’t even notice it. You probably don’t think about your furnace for months or even years at a time. When the furnace is not working, however, it suddenly becomes the most important appliance in your home.
Keeping your home warm throughout the winter is very important to not only your comfort, but also your health. If your furnace has suddenly stopped working, it will have probably done so at the worst possible time. You will probably need to call in a professional to fix your furnace.
Until you can contact a professional furnace repair service, there are a few things to check when the furnace is not working. Here is how you investigate what could be wrong with your furnace:
1. Check your furnace thermostat
This is the first thing to check when the furnace is not working. Check if there is anything that you can do to get the temperature of your home back up to a comfortable level. Of course, you need to make sure that your thermostat is on and set to heat your home.
If you are not the only person in your home, it is possible that some changes have been made to the settings without your knowledge. Also if your thermostat power supply has been recently interrupted through a power cut or other circumstances, it might need to be reset. If it is battery powered, you might need to replace the battery.
Once you have made both of these checks, you need to then take a look at the inside of the thermostat. There might be some dust or dirt that is interfering with the operation of the thermostat.
Another thing to check when your furnace is not working would be the clock on the thermostat. If the time is wrong then the programmable features will heat up your house at the wrong time.
2. Check if your furnace is producing any heat
Now that you are confident that the problem is not with the thermostat, you can take a look at then you need to take your focus to the furnace itself. A great place to start here is the breakers of your home. Make sure that they have not been tripped or blown. If no power is being delivered to the furnace it might not be able to work.
3. Check if the furnace is only producing a little bit of heat
If your furnace isn’t producing heat like it used to, then you should take a look at the filter. These need to be replaced once in a while so that they don’t become clogged. If your filter is clogged then your furnace will be working extra hard to provide heat but it won’t be reaching most of your home, which can damage the furnace and run up a higher than usual utility bill.
Checking your clogged filter is an essential part of furnace maintenance, and even though you can do it yourself it is wise that you contact a professional and have them help you out. Not only will your furnace be able to warm your home much more efficiently, but you will also be improving the quality of the air in your home.
4. Check the furnace itself
If your furnace is not working, then one of the things you should check is the furnace unit itself. There is usually a safety switch on the furnace that can need to be in the correct position so that the furnace can operate. This can be triggered when the furnace panel is removed so that the furnace is not running when it is being serviced.
5. Check if there are any items surrounding your furnace
Basements are the perfect place to store anything and everything that you don’t need regular and easy access to. However, this can often lead to a cluttered basement and it is not a good idea to place items close to, or touching your furnace. This could cause a panel to become loose and trigger the safety switch.
Having items placed around your furnace can also be a fire hazard and you should make sure that you keep this area clean.
6. Check the burner flame on the furnace
If the burner flame is not lit, then this is the cause of your problem. It is ideal that you call a professional to help you with this as the problem could be caused by any number of issues. If you attempt to fix this yourself you might find that you could damage the furnace or turn it into a very dangerous fire hazard.
7. Check ongoing problems with the furnace
If you are able to resolve the furnace problem by yourself, then great! However, if you notice that your furnace keeps having problems, it might be time to look into some professional maintenance. You should also think about having a new furnace installed.
