Furnace Repair - What to Do While Waiting

Unless you are fortunate enough to hire a furnace repair specialist who will drop everything and come out to your house right away, there may be some downtime between the time your heating goes out and when you get it fixed. If you are really unfortunate, that time period could be a week or more. Now, you can avoid some of this downtime by hiring someone known for their dependability and quick service, but sometimes even the best contractors can't fix your heating right away. If parts need to be ordered, it could take some time. Here are some things you can do while waiting.

Find Ways to Keep Yourself Warm

This is an excellent time to find other ways to keep yourself warm. Remember, it wasn't until relatively recently in our history that we were able to depend on electrical energy to keep us comfortable in the cold winter months. That thought may be of little consolation when you're shivering in front of the TV, but it does show that there are things you can do. If you own a fireplace, this is certainly an excellent time to make use of it. Purchase a space heater to compensate for your lack of central heat. There's no reason you should just tough it out with coats and blankets until the furnace repair contractor gets the job done.

Get Your Paperwork in Order

Your furnace repair specialist may have several questions about your particular model. The more information you can give them, the quicker they can get on with the business of fixing it. If you have any paperwork relating to your purchase, gather it together so he can peruse it if need be. If you have a warranty, find the paperwork so that you can file an accurate claim. If the company you've hired has already performed this work in the past and you're not interested in paying for it again, make sure you have your receipt from the last time.

Research Troubleshooting

Though you'll be relying on your furnace repair company to do the work, it doesn't hurt to do your own research into what could be causing the problem. Use your model number and some specific keywords to get accurate results from a search engine. While this may not give you the exact answer you need, that's not so important since you won't be fixing it yourself. It will still give you an idea of what to expect from the company and it will give you some information to discuss with them.