What To Do When Your Heater Won’t Start

Cooler nights are slowly arriving here in Grafton County – and before long the days will start to cool down, too.

Once they do, you’ll be relying more and more on your home heating system. But what happens if your furnace or boiler won’t answer the call one day this fall or winter?

Well, the one thing you shouldn’t do is panic – after all, Pemi River Fuels has expert emergency heating service in NH to get your equipment back on track in no time.

But before you contact us for a service call, it’s a good idea to do a little heating system troubleshooting– the problem might be something you can handle yourself without paying for a service visit.

Troubleshooting Tips Before Calling

Here are four things you should do before you contact us for emergency heating service:

• Check your fuel levels – If your heating system won’t start, check your fuel levels to make sure you have enough to safely run your equipment. If you have less than a quarter of a tank of propane gas or heating oil, contact us for a delivery right away. Another option? Let us worry about your propane and heating oil deliveries by signing up for Automatic Delivery.
• Check emergency and power switches – You’ve probably seen that red “start” switch on your furnace before but not known what it is. An emergency switch is part of a safety system in your furnace that’s designed to shut your system down if it thinks the burner flame has gone out. Sometimes your heating system is wrong, however, and a simple flip of the emergency switch will have you back in business. Check all power switches associated with your heating system, too.
• Try the reset button, but only once – Somewhere on the heater itself there should be a button clearly labeled “RESET”. Turn your thermostat up to at least five degrees more than the current room temperature and press this button, but only do it once: doing it more than once could flood your heating equipment with oil. If you have oil in your tank, the emergency switch is on, and there are no issues with the heater, it should turn right back on; if it doesn’t, you will need professional heating system service.
• Check your circuit breaker – A breaker will “trip” if too much power is surging through the circuit it controls; this helps to prevent electrical fires. Most of the time a simple flip of the circuit breaker switch will restore power; do that and check your heater again. If it still doesn’t work, contact us for service.

Stay warm and safe this heating season with help from Pemi River Fuels. Contact us today for expert heating system service and reliable heating oil and propane deliveries anywhere in our New Hampshire service area.