My sister struggled with her old furnace before she found a lasting solution.
- Every time I would visit her in winter, she would attempt to switch it on only to fail.
When her eldest son tried it, the furnace would take too long to turn on. This had been going on for a while. Having a background in HVAC systems, I knew that this was a problem. Under normal circumstances, the furnace should turn on immediately when it is switched on. My sister’s furnace was taking too long to heat her space, indicating something off. My first suspicion was that the circuit breaker was always off every time they tried to switch on the furnace. However, one look at the breaker box confirmed that everything was alright in there. My second guess was to check the thermostat. There was a high probability that it was malfunctioning and the settings were too low. It turns out that I was right. The thermostat setting was too low, and the furnace was struggling to kick in immediately since it registered the low temperatures. I adjusted the thermostat set to a higher temperature, and it was easier for them to start the furnace now. However, I noticed that the thermostat was not the best for their heating system and advised on an upgrade. I also asked my sister to keep an eye on the fuel levels, always check the pilot light and ignition for faults, and consider clogged filters. Besides the thermostat, a furnace is likely to fail when it is clogged, or the other elements are faulty. A simple annual finetune session can fix such issues..