How to troubleshoot a furnace with no heat in Regina, SK

Don’t call your repair person just yet! There are a couple of things that you can do yourself to troubleshoot your furnace, and hopefully avoid a pricy house call. These are the first steps a qualified service person in Regina, SK would take while troubleshooting a furnace that is providing no heat, assuming your thermostat:

• Has power to it.
• Is turned to “Heat”.
• Is set high enough to call for heat.

When troubleshooting a furnace, always check the furnace switch and the circuit breakers. Your furnace requires electricity to operate and sometimes it’s as simple as somebody confusing the furnace switch at the top of the stairs or doorway for a light switch. This is a very common reason for no heat calls in the Regina, SK area.  

Your furnace will run inefficiently or even shut itself down (as a safety feature) if the filter is too restricted. If this is the case, it has not been replaced as often as it should have! This is a common cause for no heat calls in the Regina, SK area. When troubleshooting a furnace, always check your filter.

If your furnace is newer it likely doesn’t have a pilot light, in which case you may move on to the next step. If gas or propane flow to the pilot light is interrupted, the pilot light can go out and will need to be relit. This video will explain:

Go outside and make sure your gas meter has not been shut off. Sometimes when there’s no heat it‘s because the gas company in Saskatchewan has shut off the valve at the meter. You may also check your gas valve inside your house by the furnace. The direction of the valve should be in the same direction as the pipe. If the valve is perpendicular to the pipe, the gas is turned OFF. 

An air conditioning system is designed to remove heat from your house. If your furnace fan is not properly blowing your inside air through the evaporator coil, then the required heat exchange cannot take place and the refrigerant that should be removing heat from your home is not. Over time, rather than absorbing heat, the refrigerant will continue to drop in temperature and your air conditioner may freeze up.

When there is less refrigerant in your air conditioning system it is still being forced to expand the same amount, and more expansion results in a cooler temperature. As the air conditioner’s evaporator coil drops below the freezing point, the moisture in the air inevitably freezes as it comes into contact with the coil, causing it to ice up.

These issues may also make your air conditioning system freeze up:

• a kink in a refrigerant line
• a blower fan that is not running or is out of balance
• If you are running your air conditioner when the outside air is below 14 degrees Celsius 
• a clogged filter dryer

This is a very common cause for restricted air flow which inhibits your air conditioner. We recommend that you run your furnace fan continuously (thermostat “fan-on”), and that you should use a high quality furnace filter and replace it monthly. If your furnace filter gets clogged, the air flow restriction can cause your air conditioning system’s temperature to drop below optimal levels, causing it to freeze up. 

A dirty evaporator coil can cause airflow restriction, dropping the temperature and causing your air conditioning system to freeze up. This is often also the cause of several other problems with your air conditioner.

• Make sure all of your supply-air registers are open and that your return-air grilles are not blocked off by a couch or bed, for example.
• Since any restriction in air flow can cause your air conditioner to freeze up, make sure that you inspect your ductwork for leaky, squished or disconnected portions
• Check for dirty ductwork that may be blocking air flow.