What to Do if Your Heater Goes Down in the Wintertime

Losing your furnace in the winter can be a disastrous and even dangerous event if you aren’t prepared. Not only do winter temperatures pose obvious health issues, but freezing cold can also damage the house itself. If temperatures drop too low, interior pipes can freeze and burst, leading to leaks and expensive repairs. The good news is that with a little preparation and the right plan, you can get through a furnace or heater outage without too many problems.

Have a Stock of Warm Blankets and Clothing

If your house loses heat, it’s important you have enough adequate blankets and clothing to keep yourself warm until the heat gets turned back on. This also includes having hats and gloves to wear inside and extra bedding.

Keep a Space Heater or Alternative Heater

It is always a good idea to have some backup space heaters in your house. These units are typically inexpensive and portable. They may not be enough to heat an entire house, but they can be placed in smaller rooms and used to keep everyone warm until the heat comes back on.

Use the Oven and Stove

Ovens and stoves can be surprisingly good sources of heat. Although they aren’t going to be as efficient as your home’s central heating system, they may be enough to keep the house at a livable temperature and prevent pipes from freezing. Simply turn on the oven and leave the door open. Some modern ovens have a shutdown feature that will turn the oven off if the door is left open too long. In this case, just use the stove-top burners.

The heat produced by the stove or oven can last longer if you heat water with it. Water absorbs heat and releases it slowly, so if you are going to run the stove burners, heat a pot of water at the same time. Boiling water will also increase humidity, and humidity helps lock in heat. This is also a great time to get a little extra baking done.

Cover Windows and Turn on Ceiling Fans

Windows are notorious for bleeding the heat out of any home. If you are trying to conserve as much heat as possible, then windows should be covered by either blinds or blankets. It is also important to keep what heat is available down where you want it. Turn on ceiling fans on winter mode to keep the hot air circulating through the house instead of just hanging around at ceiling level.

Use Fire

If your house is equipped with a wood-burning stove, then now is a great time to use it. Just be sure that your chimney has been inspected during the current season. This is especially important if you don’t use your wood stove very much. A clogged chimney may cause smoke to back-draft into the house, or it may start a dangerous chimney fire.

If you don’t have a wood stove, then you can still make use of candles. A few large candles can produce more heat than most people realize, and they may be enough to keep the house at a habitable temperature.

If your furnace goes out this season, don’t panic. Just contact a heating professional like Seliga Heating and Cooling immediately, and in the meantime, there are plenty of ways to get heat into your home and keep it there long enough to get the furnace repaired.