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danmalleck · Dec 21, 2006, 07:03 PM

Hi. I have a natural gas furnace that's about 7 years old, in a house I just bought this summer. Today I was noticing that it was pretty cold, so I turned up the furnace. It went on, but after a while I noticed that there was no air coming from the vents. I tried to turn it off and on again but there was no change. I'm not quite sure what's wrong, but it seems to me that it's a circulation problem. When I checked the furnace, I wasn't sure what I was looking for to see if it's working. There is no heat coming off it, but it's definitely doing something because it's humming along as normal. Does the switch I have to the furnace from my fuse box control the furnace power, or just the power of the fan? If I turn it off and then on again, will that mess up my pilot light and be risky? (I had some friends over and one of them may have turned that switch off, thinking it was a light switch--that is a possibility if that switch just controls the fan). As you can tell, I know little about my furnace... until now, I lived in blissful ignorance. Thanks for any help. Dan.

labman · Dec 21, 2006, 07:58 PM

As a new home owner, you need to remember that you are entitled to a house where things like the furnace works. Maybe the best thing is to call the Realtor that sold you the house tomorrow. As the sellers agent, the Realtor can work with the seller to send a technician out to fix it. If you get blown off, call the lawyer that you had at closing.

Don't worry about the pilot light. If it had one, it wouldn't go off if it lost power. The switch supplies power to the furnace controls as well as the blower. If you have central air, the outside unit will be on a separate breaker.

If you browse through heating and cooling, you will see such problems often are cause by dirty or bad sensors.

danmalleck · Dec 21, 2006, 10:19 PM

Thanks. I opened the door to the furnace to see if the pilot light was on and the furnace turned itself off (some sort of safety switch). When I put the door back on, the whole thing fired up and then, soon afterwards, the burners were burning and the heat was coming out. It was odd, but I felt like I had some kind of magic touch... cheers. Dan

rickdb1 · Dec 22, 2006, 01:20 PM

Not uncommon for it to work after the power was cut to it, as was done when you removed and replaced the door. This problem will no doubt resurface shortly. Most likely after the furnace shuts down and tries to restart. Several things can cause the problem ( Circuit board likely). Best to have it looked at to make sure it's operating properly...