Is Your Furnace Not Heating as It Should?

There are few things more frustrating on a cold winter day than discovering your furnace is malfunctioning. It may seem to be blowing warm air instead of hot, or it may be blowing cold – either way, you need to determine what is wrong and fix the problem to stay warm.

Reasons Why Your Furnace Is Not Working

Your heating system could be malfunctioning for a variety of reasons, some that you can fix yourself and some that you cannot. Take a look at the following to find a culprit:

• Circuit breaker – You could have thrown the breaker that the furnace is plugged into. It needs electricity to run the fan that pushes the hot air through your house and possibly for the ignition as well. If something else in the house pulled too much power over the same circuit the breaker may have thrown.
• Thermostat issues – There are several problems that may originate at the thermostat. The temperature could be set too low, the switch could be set to off or to fan instead of heat, or the contacts could be dirty if it’s an older style thermostat. The thermostat could also be broken or malfunctioning in another way, but it will probably take a technician to determine this.
• Pilot light is out – This is a common cause for furnace problems in older models with pilot lights. You may need to relight the pilot light. If it happens frequently, you should contact a service professional.
• Electronic ignition issues – Furnaces can experience hot surface ignition problems or intermittent pilot light problems, depending on the model. While it’s possible to find guides online for troubleshooting these systems, for most people it is a good idea to just bring in an expert. Unless you have electrical experience, the troubleshooting process can be confusing and potentially dangerous.

The Service Call Solution

While there are a few things you can do to troubleshoot your furnace, the easiest solution is to call Paschal Heat, Air & Geothermal. We can get your furnace up and running again in short order.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Springdale, Arkansas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).  For more information about furnaces and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock