Safety first, before anything else
- Do you smell gas? If yes: leave the house now, do not flip any switches, and call the gas company or 911 from outside.
- Is a carbon monoxide alarm going off? If yes: everyone out, and call 911.
- Is anyone in the home elderly, very young or unwell? That moves the call up the schedule.
- How cold is it inside, and how cold will it get tonight?
Quick checks the homeowner can safely do
- Is the thermostat set to heat, and set above the current room temperature?
- Does the thermostat screen come on? If not, it may just need batteries.
- Is the switch near the furnace, the one that looks like a light switch, turned on?
- Has a breaker tripped on the electrical panel?
- When was the filter last changed? A badly clogged filter can shut some systems down.
What the tech needs to know
- The type of system: gas furnace, heat pump, boiler or electric.
- The brand and age, or a photo of the label on the unit.
- What it is doing: not turning on at all, running but blowing cold, or starting and then shutting off.
- Any error codes or blinking lights on the unit or the thermostat.
How it sounds on the phone
Before anything else, do you smell gas anywhere in the house, or is a carbon monoxide alarm going off?
What kind of system do you have?
Can you check that the thermostat is set to heat and a few degrees above the room? Sometimes that is all it is, and I would rather save you the visit.
Someone will have to come out and look.
The checks did not fix it, so I am getting a tech to you, and they will know it is a gas furnace that starts and then shuts off.
Someone will call you back.
The three ways this goes wrong
- Starting with the model number. The safety questions come first, every time.
- Skipping the quick checks. A thermostat on the wrong setting is a visit nobody needed.
- Having homeowners open panels or relight anything. The phone checks stop at switches and settings.
A no-heat call is safety, then the easy checks, then the details. Ask in that order, and the urgent calls go out fast, the simple ones get fixed on the phone, and the tech arrives ready.
I answer the phones for HVAC contractors, and I ask the safety questions first on every no-heat call. callbobai.com