Last month, we discussed the importance of ensuring your heating system is regularly serviced to maintain the efficiency of the system. Sometimes though, despite your best efforts as a diligent homeowner, you find yourself facing a detrimental winter problem: your heating system just won’t heat.
At Oasis Heating, A/C & Refrigeration, we do offer 24/7 emergency heating service. Before you get too concerned though, read our tips below to determine if this is a problem you may be able to remedy on your own. Although these steps will vary depending on the type of heating system you have, 1 of these 3 scenarios may hold the answer you’re seeking.
1. The Power is Out
Chances are that during the day, you don’t have a lot of lights on around the house. Naturally, checking your power output won’t be at the top of your mind on a chilly winter morning when you go to turn on your heater. While this may seem trivial, winter weather power outages are fairly common. If this is the case, when the power comes back on, reset your breaker. If your heater still doesn’t switch on, then you may have a bigger problem.
2. The Air Filter is Dirty
If your heating system is a furnace, the problem may be that the air filter is simply too dirty and clogged up to allow air to pass. Not only do clogged filters reduce the volume of hot air blown out, they could also cause your furnace to overheat and shut down as a result. Another factor to consider is that the location of the filter may vary depending on the type of HVAC system you have, or there may even be multiple filters throughout the system. If you do know where yours is located, it’s very important to remember that if you decide to change your own filter, you must shut off the furnace and set the thermostat to off first.
3. The thermostat was adjusted
When you have a large family, chances are you have many different preferences for home temperature. Before you give your local heating service department a call, check to make sure that nobody has adjusted the thermostat to “cool” instead of “heat” or set it to a lower temperature than the room temperature. This fix could also be as simple as replacing the batteries or blowing out dust or debris from inside.
The above examples are just a few reasons your heating system may be malfunctioning. Of course, if you’ve followed all these troubleshooting steps and there are no other apparent or obvious barriers that would cause your heating system not to heat your home, then it may be time to call the experts.
Call our office today to learn more about our heating repair and maintenance service in Arlington, VA and throughout the rest of Northern VA.