Hopefully, you’ll never run into this problem at all! Ideally, you’ll have kept up on your annual maintenance appointments for your furnace to ensure that it works efficiently, effectively, and—perhaps most importantly—reliably. When well maintained, a furnace can last about 10-15 years. Beyond that point, it’s time to consider replacement, especially if the system is showing excessive signs of wear and tear or just not working like it used to.
But no matter the age of your furnace, if it fails on you in the middle of a fall or winter day, you’re going to be pretty miserable, right? Well, what if that doesn’t have to be the case? When you’re heater fails, the first thing you should do is call our team for repairs. Then, while you wait for our techs to arrive, you can work to keep yourself and your household warm by:
Sealing Up Drafty Windows and Doors
Do you have caulking on hand? This is perfect!
Pick the smallest room in your living space, or the room that has the lowest ceiling, and hunker down in it with your family or housemates. Make sure the windows to that room have caulking to keep the drafts out.
Even if you don’t have caulking immediately available, there are still steps you can take to at least temporarily “seal up” drafts. Grab some pillows, blankets, towels, etc., and use those to block off your windows and doorways.
Moving Your Body
This one can seem like a silly idea, but it’s also a fun way to warm your body and get your mind off your heating troubles for awhile. This tip works particularly well if you are a family with small children! You already know that you can work up quite the sweat by just chasing your kiddos around and managing your household. You may as well make it fun!
Put away those breakables, push the furniture against the wall, put on some upbeat music, and throw yourself a little dance party.
Cooking
It bears mentioning in this post that we would never recommend using your oven or stovetop to keep your home warm in place of a furnace or heating system if you’re not cooking. It’s too easy to forget about it and potentially expose your home to fire hazards.
But, actually cooking or baking is a great way to naturally heat your home! Consider baking some holiday cookies, making a hot stew, or even just ensuring that your mealtime plans involve something that requires slow cooking.
Using Incandescent Lights
So, this isn’t the most energy-efficient tip we’ve shared—apologies. LED lighting has understandably become increasingly popular, and for good reason.
However, if your goal is to stay warm for a few hours while you wait for your heating repair technicians to show up and you have incandescent lightbulbs on hand, then this may just do the trick for you. They throw off a lot more heat than LED lighting and may help you stay warmer than you would otherwise.
When it comes to your heating in Centralia, WA, look no further than Sunset Air when you need repairs or other services. Contact us today!
