Your thermostat controls your heater. On its own, your furnace or heat pump doesn’t detect the temperature in the room. If it did, your house would always have a weird temperature because the devices are away from the center of your home. If you look at where your thermostat is, you’ll see how it’s mostly central to the rest of your home.
That’s because it needs to detect the most common temperature in the home so it knows whether or not it needs to send a signal to the heater or not. It simply sends an on or off signal, the heater responds, then waits for further instruction. So how do you know if you need heater repair or if it’s the thermostat? Let’s help you find out.
Feel the Airflow From Your Vents
The first and most immediate way to tell is to look at your thermostat, ensure it’s in heating mode, and then put your hand over any vent in your home. If you feel air coming through, but it’s not warm at all (just sort of room temperature), the heater is likely having problems.
Even when your heater only kicks on to change a degree or two, it pushes out extremely warm air to raise the temperature as quickly as possible. The goal is a short runtime to achieve the desired temperature, so if the air isn’t very warm when it comes from the vents, that’s a big sign that there’s a problem.
There’s Warm Air, But the Heater Isn’t Staying On
You can feel warm air coming out of the vents, but the house isn’t heating up enough. There are two possible problems here:
- The thermostat is miscalibrated. This means it’s reading the air temperature incorrectly, so while the heater is receiving an on signal, it’s receiving an off signal too soon. The thermostat thinks it’s hotter than it is, but you feel the difference. The thermostat can be recalibrated in most cases and this will fix the issue.
- Your heater is short-cycling. This can happen with heat pumps and electric furnaces, but it’s also not impossible for it to happen in combustion-based furnaces if they overheat and trip the safety.
The Thermostat Straight Up Doesn’t Work
Some thermostats are hardwired into your home, but not all of them. Some have internal batteries that are designed to last for years, but most people don’t know when the most recent one was put in.
This is thankfully a DIY-friendly solution. All you have to do is safely remove the thermostat from the wall slot, replace the battery, and give it a shot. If it still doesn’t work, you can call us to help.
We’ll Check for You
Something’s obviously not right with the heating in your home. We’ll come in, diagnose the issue–whether it’s the thermostat or the heater–and fix it in a jiffy. We’ve seen a thing or two, and we’re ready to help you out as soon as possible. All it takes is a phone call or using our contact form.
Contact us today for heating service or to fix that thermostat. Service Area Tagline: Your HVAC experts in Flatwoods, KY