Picture this: You wake up one January morning and jump out of bed to start your day, your bare feet make contact with the hard wood floors and BRR!! You jump back into bed under the warm blankets. You grab your phone and check the weather app, 32 degrees! Talk about sweater weather. You open up your thermostat app and connect via wifi to turn on the heater. You decide to take a hot shower to ease the shock of the cold morning wake up call. After you've showered and warmed up, you walk over to your coffee pot and realize the house hasn't warmed up at all. Now what? Living in Southern California's pleasant year-round weather can often times lead us to overlook the care and maintenance of our furnaces. Here are some things to look for before calling the professionals for help.
Check Your Thermostat's Fan Settings
The thermostat's fan settings may be set to 'on'. If this is the case, then the blower is running consistently 24/7. The blower is the part of the furnace that circulates air throughout your home and if it is constantly running, this may be the reason you are feeling that cold air and lack of heating throughout your home. To correct this issue, make sure your thermostat's fan setting is set to 'auto'. Setting it to 'auto' rather than 'on' will ensure the blower will only run when the furnace is heating which will help circulate the hot air and warm up your home in no time.
Check Your Air Filter
If your furnace's air filter is too dirty it will block airflow over the furnace's heat exchanger which will cause the furnace to overheat. If your furnace overheats, it can trip a high limit switch and that will cause the furnace's burners to shut off to prevent the heat exchanger from cracking. To help this issue, turn off the furnace at the thermostat and check the furnace filter. It may just be a matter of switching out the dirty filter to a new, clean one. It is recommended to change your filters at least every 2-3 months, depending on the usage. Sometimes the furnace may be located in your attic which can be a hassle to get to, other times you may not know how to change the filter, if this is the case, feel free to reach out to TOTAL 1 AC & HEATING for self-help HVAC tips.