Did you come home to a house that is a bit colder than it should be, only to discover that the furnace isn't working? If so, you're likely wondering what can be done to fix it as soon as possible. While you may need an HVAC technician to get to the bottom of what's wrong, there are three simple things you can do to troubleshoot your HVAC system.
Check The Thermostat
The very first thing you should do is check the thermostat. If you have other people in your home, especially kids, you may have a simple issue with the thermostat not being set correctly. Start by verifying that the thermostat is in heat mode, rather than off or cool mode. Someone in your home may have felt too hot the previous day and simply turned the whole system off, as obvious as it may be.
You'll also want to check the temperature settings as well since those could have changed without you knowing it. Verify all of the schedule settings to make sure that there was simply not an odd setting programmed to turn the furnace off because the house was already hot enough.
Check The Power
The next thing to do is check to see if the furnace is getting power, and the best way to do that is to go to the thermostat and turn the fan on. There are typical settings for on and auto, with the automatic setting only turning the fan on when the furnace is running. However, the on setting is going to turn the fan on and let the air circulate if the furnace is running or not. Turn the fan on and then head over to your furnace and listen. Does it sound like the fan is running, or is nothing moving inside? If you don't hear anything, then you know that you have a problem with the furnace not receiving power.
Check The Reset Button
Many furnaces made these days have safety functions that are designed to shut down the furnace if it senses a problem. This could be from getting too hot, sensing a gas leak, or something of that nature. Look for the reset button and see if it is lit, which means that the unit shut down due to a safety reason. Try pressing the reset button and see if the furnace turns back on. If so, then there is some safety reason that the furnace shut down, and it is worth bringing in an HVAC technician to investigate why it happened.
Contact a local HVAC contractor to learn more about your furnace.
Share11 December 2020
While sitting in my living room on a hot summer day, I could feel the heat coming through the ceiling out of my attic and making the house warm up more than it should. I crawled up into the attic one evening to find out that the roof vents weren't working any longer because they were clogged with all sorts of debris. Did you know that when this happens, your home's temperature can rise to very uncomfortable levels? Did you know that your home could actually be damaged if the attic isn't well vented? This blog will show you all about attic ventilation.