It often seems like a furnace will not break down until the weather hits a low point during the winter. While this is coincidental at times, it is something that is not so unexpected at other times. If you are currently going through an outage during a cold spell, you can get repairs quickly if you contact a company that offers emergency heating services, but here are several important things to know about why your furnace might not currently be working.

Cold Days Make Furnaces Run Harder

The first thing to understand is that your furnace a big job to do, and the job your furnace has gets harder as it gets colder. It is not so hard for a furnace to heat a home when the weather is in the 40s or 50s, but it gets a lot harder for a furnace to work when the temperature drops down below freezing, and it is even harder when the temperature drops much lower than this.

As the weather drops, your furnace must run longer and harder to keep up with the temperature demands of the thermostat. Because of this, your furnace has a much bigger chance of failing during times of really cold weather, and this is simply because the cold weather places a lot of extra pressure on the system. While it might seem coincidental that your furnace always goes out on the coldest day of the year, it might not really be that coincidental at all.

Lack of Maintenance Can Increase the Chances of the Furnace Going Out

The other thing to consider is that if you do not perform the right types of maintenance on the system, it will also have a greater chance of going out when it gets really cold outside. A furnace is like a car in a sense. When you maintain a car, it will typically have fewer problems. When you maintain a furnace, it too, will typically have fewer problems.

You can maintain the system by replacing the air filter from time to time and by getting an annual tune-up on it before winter sets in.

What to Do If You Have an Outage

If you currently do not have heat due to your furnace not working, you should plug in a few space heaters to keep warm and avoid opening doors or windows. Next, contact an HVAC company that offers emergency heating repairs to get a technician to your house quickly.