No heat? Check these five, then call.
About one no-heat call in five is something you can fix in a minute. The other four need us, and we answer all winter.
Five checks.
- 01
The thermostat
Set to heat, set above room temperature, and the batteries aren’t dead. Smart thermostats lose power when the furnace does.
- 02
The furnace switch
There’s a light-switch-style switch on or near the furnace. It gets turned off by accident more than you’d think.
- 03
The filter
A filter clogged solid can trip the furnace’s high-limit switch. Swap it and give it twenty minutes.
- 04
The vent pipes outside
High-efficiency furnaces vent through two white plastic pipes on the side of the house. Snow or ice blocking them shuts the furnace off.
- 05
The breaker
Reset it once. If it trips again, leave it off and call.
Call right away if
- Your carbon monoxide alarm is sounding. Get out first, then call 911.
- You smell gas. Leave and call CenterPoint Energy from outside.
- It’s below zero and the house is losing more than a few degrees an hour.
- You have pipes on exterior walls or in an unheated space.
While you wait
Open cabinet doors under sinks on outside walls, let a faucet drip at the far end of the house, close off rooms you don’t need, and use space heaters carefully, plugged straight into the wall.
Still cold? Call the no-heat line.
Answered all hours, November to March.
The cold-climate heating site, built in seven days.
Sixteen pages: a live outdoor-temperature ladder, an honest cold-climate heat pump page that says when to keep the furnace, and a no-heat line that leads every page from November to March.