Here, the heat sits unused for most of the year. Then a cold front blows in, everyone turns it on the same night, and the phones start ringing. A little prep in October saves you from being one of those calls.
Turn it on before you need it
Pick a mild afternoon and switch the thermostat to Heat. Set it a few degrees above the room temperature and let it run 15 to 20 minutes. If something's wrong, you'll find out while it's still 60 degrees outside, not 30.
Why does it smell the first time?
Dust settles on the burners or heat strips over the summer. The first time the heat runs, that dust burns off. A dusty, slightly burning smell for the first 15 to 30 minutes is normal and should fade.
What's not normal:
- A smell like rotten eggs (gas). Leave the house and call the gas company.
- An electrical or melting-plastic smell. Turn the system off and call.
- A burning smell that doesn't go away after the first run.
If you have a gas furnace
- Make sure you have working carbon monoxide detectors near the bedrooms. Test them.
- Have the flue checked. We once found one pulled apart in a New Orleans attic, venting exhaust into the house.
- If the furnace lights and then shuts off after a few seconds, it's often a dirty flame sensor. That's a quick fix.
If you have a heat pump
- Heat pump air feels warm, not hot. That's normal.
- On cold, damp mornings, the outdoor unit may steam and go quiet for a few minutes. That's the defrost cycle, and it's normal too.
- If the emergency heat light comes on by itself and stays on, the heat pump may have stopped heating. Call us, because running on strips alone costs a lot more.
- A solid block of ice that won't clear is not normal.
Change the filter
Start the season with a clean filter. It's the cheapest maintenance there is.
Get a tune-up
A tune-up catches the parts that fail on cold nights: igniters, flame sensors, capacitors, heat strips. Through February 28, we're running a Beat the Cold special on furnace and heat pump tune-ups.