Southern Utah is known for its winter sports because of the amount of snowfall throughout the winter months. It’s not uncommon to see temperatures reach negative numbers – and that’s when you’ll depend on the heat inside of your home or business.
Warmth is a necessity to stay comfortable. Unfortunately, if your furnace stops working, you could be miserable for hours, days, or even weeks until it gets repaired.
There are things that you can do to stay warm – and things that you can do to address why your heat went out. The sooner you act, the faster you can get warm. There’s no reason to let the temperatures drop by 20 degrees before you start to think about warmth.
Call a Professional
A furnace isn’t going to magically start working once it has shown that it has failed. There may be several reasons why it stopped working – corrosion, damaged wiring, or a failed blower. Whatever the problem is, you will want a professional heating repair company to make the diagnosis and repair.
Don’t try to do a DIY fix as these seldom work out well. You could risk starting a fire or even getting electrocuted, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Further, you could damage more of the furnace, resulting in a more expensive repair.
Schedule Maintenance
It’s much better to be proactive than reactive. While you don’t always get to control when your furnace breaks, there are a few things that you can do.
Be sure that you’re being responsible for keeping your ducts clean and your filters changed with the necessary frequency.
It’s also a good idea to schedule maintenance at least once a year. A trained professional can perform maintenance to tighten and inspect controls, clean and lubricate the moving parts, and run a system check. A professional can identify issues with parts and systems so that you can get a repair before it ever has a chance to fail on you.
Imagine if you could take care of problems before the point of failure. Then, you’d never have to huddle up inside of your home or office because the heat would always be working for you.
Consider Getting a New Furnace
If it feels like you face a day of cold in southern Utah at least once a year because of your furnace breaking, it might be time to face the facts. Your furnace may be old. It may have too many things wrong with it. If the repairs don’t hold up for as long as they used to, it might be time to invest in a new system.
While a new furnace may not be an investment you want to make, it may be the only sensible way to address the cold weather. Especially if you are constantly making repairs, it becomes more cost-effective to buy a new unit – and it can save you money on your energy bills, too.
Tips to Stay Warm Until It Gets Fixed
What happens when it’s going to take a few hours until the technician gets out? More importantly, what happens when it could take a few days to get the necessary part? You still have to stay warm, even if the heat is out.
There are a few tips to help you along the way.
- Dress in layers (scarves, gloves, jackets)
- Light a fire in your fireplace if you have one
- Use a space heater
- Insulate against the outside air by placing blankets in front of doors and windows
- Start cooking or baking to generate additional heat
- Make some hot cocoa
The important thing is to get creative so that you generate enough warmth to remain comfortable (and safe).
You may even want to find a snuggle buddy or set up a sleepover for the family to help you get through the night more comfortably until your furnace can be repaired.
Just as there are things that you should do, there are also things you shouldn’t do.
Be sure that you are cautious about what you use to generate heat. Never start your car in a garage as a way to get warm as it can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, even if it’s for “just a few minutes.”
Also, avoid burning various items in any interior space. Flames can get away from you and various embers can fly away without you noticing. You don’t want to burn down your home or business simply because your heat went out.
