A System Reset Is Necessary A furnace not working after a power outage may need a reset, and most modern furnaces have a yellow or red reset button. You'll need to reset your furnace's breaker first. Next, homeowners with gas furnaces should turn off the pilot light and allow the gas to disperse.
You may have a faulty sensor, sticky motor, bad controller board, too many closed dampers, a blocked air return, incomplete combustion, cracked heat exchanger, blocked condensate line, etc etc. some of these things are life-critical situations. The blickenlights will tell you.
Regardless of the specific damage, there's a good chance a sudden winter power outage may cause some part of your furnace to malfunction. When you need a furnace repair or furnace maintenance in the Steger, Illinois or Crown Point, Indiana areas, Merts Heating & Air Conditioning has you covered.
Reset button—The furnace can also trip its reset button when there is a power outage. It's usually a red or yellow button located inside the blower compartment near the motor. When it's tripped it pops up. Push and hold the button for a few seconds.
Homeowners will want to maintain a furnace protocol in the event of a power outage. For example, do you have to relight furnace after power outage? Yes, if your pilot light goes out, you will want to shut off the gas line and wait for power.
Either way, restarting a furnace is a relatively simple task that takes no longer than 10 minutes to complete.
Modern furnaces have several safety mechanisms that ensure they work safely while warming your home during the chilly winter months. The reset button is one of the most important, popping out whenever a problem, like an interrupted gas supply, empty oil tank, or overheating, occurs.
Most residential furnaces have a red or yellow reset button that can restore their operations after a power outage. However, before you reset your furnace, you need to reset its circuit breaker. Simply go to your breaker box, switch the breaker off, wait 30 seconds, and turn it back on.
Shut off your system by hitting the isolation switch, wait 30 to 60 minutes and then turn it back on. This manual reboot fully disconnects your AC unit from power, allowing all electrical components to reset.
Be sure to wait for 30 minutes, as your air conditioning system will need some time to reset before you can turn it back on completely. Once the 30-minute mark has passed, you can go to your thermostat and turn your air conditioner back on from there.
Sometimes, power outages can change your thermostat's settings and switch the furnace from AUTO to ON. The ON setting forces the furnace to run continuously, causing the fan to produce cold air once it finishes a heating cycle.
Furnaces may seem more reliable than baseboard or other electric heating units during a blackout. You might think that since your furnace runs on gas or oil that you'll be fine if the power goes out. Sadly, this isn't entirely true. Your furnace still relies on electricity to power itself.
All you need to do is go over to your furnace and locate a reset button. It's typically red or yellow. If it's been tripped during an outage it will probably be raised. Make sure that you press this button down to make sure that the furnace is ready to run again.
Checking your thermostat is the best place to start. Make sure it's set to “heat” and that you've set the temperature higher than the current room temperature. If that doesn't resolve the problem, try switching your fan to “on” to force the furnace to start working.
Look on the exterior sides of your furnace for a light switch. Flip that switch to shut down power to the furnace's fan and motor. Some really old furnaces won't have a switch. If your furnace doesn't have a switch, simply ignore this step and move on to turning off the breaker.
Sometimes, a power outage can trigger the thermostat to shut down as well. Check your thermostat and ensure it's on and set to heat. You might need to restart it and adjust the temperature high enough to trigger it to turn the furnace on.
In most newer systems, the reset button is conveniently located near the blower motor, which makes it easy to spot and use when needed. In older systems, however, it may be more challenging to locate the reset button on your furnace, as it can sometimes be found underneath or behind the blower motor.
If nothing's happening when you're expecting the whir of a blower, check the circuit breaker and fuse. At your electrical panel, make sure all switches related to the HVAC system are on. Reset any tripped breakers and replace all blown fuses, and your furnace should kick back on.
Your gas furnace does not operate like a stove because it needs electricity to generate the heat necessary to warm your house. A gas furnace is ineffective during a power outage because it needs electricity to power the components that make it work.
Leave the breaker(s) off for at least 10 minutes while the system is off and “rebooting.” After 10 minutes have elapsed, go back to the breaker box and flip the HVAC breaker(s) back on.
If the utility power goes out, flip the double-pole switch to disconnect the permanent furnace circuit, and the run a cord from the portable generator to the inlet.