The first real cold snap of the season has a way of finding problems. Your furnace sat quiet most of October, maybe ran a few short stretches on chilly mornings, and then one night in November the temperature drops into the 30s and the thing just won’t come on. The thermostat says heat. The vents say nothing.
We get a wave of these calls every year around Winder, Lawrenceville, and out toward Jefferson, usually the same week the first hard frost shows up. Before you call us, there are a few things worth checking yourself. Some of them take two minutes and cost nothing.
Check the simple stuff first
You’d be surprised how many “dead furnace” calls end with a tech swapping thermostat batteries. No shame in it. When there’s no heat and the house is getting cold, nobody thinks clearly.
- Thermostat batteries. If the screen is blank or dim, replace them. If it’s a smart thermostat, make sure it hasn’t lost power or Wi-Fi and reverted to some odd schedule.
- The breaker. Furnaces have their own circuit, and even gas furnaces need electricity for the blower and control board. Check the panel for a tripped breaker. If it trips again right after you reset it, stop there and call. Something is wrong.
- The furnace switch. There’s a switch on or near the furnace that looks exactly like a light switch. People bump it putting away Christmas decorations in the attic or basement. Make sure it’s on.
- The filter. A filter clogged with a summer’s worth of Georgia pollen and dust can overheat the furnace and shut it down on a safety limit. If you can’t remember when you changed it, change it.
- The condensate switch. High-efficiency furnaces drain water. If the drain clogs, a float switch cuts the furnace off to prevent an overflow. A full drain pan or a kinked line is a common culprit.
If none of that gets you heat, it’s time to bring us in.
When it’s past the DIY point
Ignition problems are the big one this time of year. A furnace that clicks, hums, or starts and then shuts back down within a minute usually has a failing igniter, a dirty flame sensor, or a pressure switch issue. None of those are homeowner fixes, and repeatedly cycling the system trying to force it on doesn’t help anything.
Same goes for any burning smell that doesn’t fade after the first few minutes of runtime, or anything that smells like gas. A faint dusty smell on first startup is normal. Gas smell is not — shut the system down, get out, and call your gas company before you call anyone else.
Our techs see the same handful of failures over and over once the weather turns, which is the one upside of a cold snap: we can usually diagnose these fast. We stock common igniters, flame sensors, capacitors, and control parts on the trucks so most repairs happen in one visit. Learn more about our heating repair services and what we work on — gas furnaces, heat pumps, and dual-fuel systems from every major brand.
No heat at 2 a.m. counts as an emergency
A house with no heat on a 28-degree night isn’t something to tough out until morning, especially with kids, older family members, or pipes along exterior walls. We run true 24/7 emergency service across our whole area, from Winder and Athens over to Lawrenceville and Snellville. Nights, weekends, Thanksgiving. A real person answers and a tech comes out.
If you’re in Gwinnett County, our Lawrenceville team page has more on what we do in your neighborhood.
The cheaper version of this story
Most November no-heat calls were preventable. The igniter that died tonight was weak in October; a tune-up would have caught it. If your furnace does come back to life after this scare, don’t just forget about it — November is prime furnace tune-up time in Georgia, and a checked-over furnace is a lot less likely to quit on the coldest night of the year.
Frequently asked questions
Why won’t my furnace turn on even though the thermostat is set to heat?
The most common causes are dead thermostat batteries, a tripped breaker, a flipped furnace power switch, a clogged filter that triggered a safety shutdown, or a tripped condensate float switch. If you’ve checked those and still have no heat, the problem is usually the igniter, flame sensor, or a pressure switch — repairs a technician should handle.
Is it safe to keep resetting my furnace to get it to run?
Once or twice to rule out a fluke is fine. Repeatedly resetting a furnace that keeps shutting itself down is not — the safety controls are cutting it off for a reason, and forcing more start attempts can turn a small repair into a bigger one. If it won’t stay running after a couple of tries, call a professional.
Do you charge extra for emergency heating repair at night or on weekends?
We offer true 24/7 emergency heating repair throughout Northeast Georgia and metro Atlanta. Call us at 678-203-6336 any time and we’ll give you straight answers about timing and cost before a tech heads your way — no surprises when the work is done.
No heat tonight? Don’t wait on it. Call us any time at 678-203-6336 or request an estimate online and we’ll get your heat back on.
