COLUMBUS, Ohio — As cold temperatures continue across central Ohio, homes and businesses continue to run into heating-related problems.
Jacob Stephenson, a service technician for Atlas Butler, said a majority of service calls they’ve received over the past week have been customers having problems with their furnace.
"The biggest thing is 'not working' calls and that's typically the furnace isn't keeping up,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson said it's been a busy week for Atlas Butler workers as the temperatures have dipped into the single digits. He said the biggest issue they see with furnaces not working has to do with dirty air filters that need to be replaced.
"Especially for homeowners, that's something they can do easily is pull out that air filter for the furnace and see how it's looking,” Stephenson said.
There are some things Stephenson said people can do to try to avoid the furnace from having issues. He said yearly maintenance and upkeep goes a long way.
He said it also helps to keep the thermostat at a temperature a few degrees lower than it's normally set.
"Because when it's colder overnight, your furnace is just not gonna keep up at that threshold that you're used to,” Stephenson said.
If your furnace does stop working, he said you should first try turning off the power for it at the breaker and turning it back on to see if it happens again.
"If it does, they should definitely call in, even if it’s a minor airflow issue. Just get everything looked at because it could be a bigger underlying problem,” Stephenson said.
He added a good rule of thumb is to call and have your provider check it out because even if it seems like a simple fix there can sometimes be underlying issues.
"Either bad motors, crack in the heat exchanger, you know, bad gas/carbon monoxide in the air that can be actually a health issue,” Stephenson said.