Keep your furnace vents free of snow and ice
Prevent your heating system from stalling; keep your furnace vents clear of snow in the winter.
As cold and snowy weather approached Ontario at FurnaceRentToOwn we advice customers to keep their chimneys and furnace vents clear of snow and ice to prevent from carbon monoxide poisoning and to keep the heat on. Utilities are also asking homeowner to keep their gas and electric meters clear of snow as build up of snow around meters could cause them to malfunction.
Whether your home is heated with gas or oil your heating system has exhaust pipe. High efficiency furnaces also have air intake pipe. Both exhaust and air intake pipes are outside of your home and older systems will have the exhausts go up a chimney. Chimneys reduce the possibility of exhausts being blocked by ice or snow but newer high efficiency systems that have furnace vents on the side of the houses are at risk of debris and snow build up.
With large amount of snow that fell over the past few days specifically in the north parts of the city, we noticed increased number of service calls due to furnace vents being blocked by snow and heating systems stalling and shutting off. If air intake pipe is blocked the system will shut down and can only be reset once the blockage is removed. If the exhaust pipe is blocked by snow the issue can be more serious including carbon monoxide poisoning. For this reason it is vitally important to keep you furnace vents clear of any blockage at all times. Also all homeowners should make sure they have properly functioning carbon monoxide detectors in their homes.
If your heating system stopped working after a snowy day check your furnace vents for any blockage. If the vents are blocked remove all the snow built up and try restarting your furnace. If this doesn’t get your heating system back up call your heating and cooling expert FurnaceRentToOwn for a service at 647-547-1868 or submit your request online.
