With the cold weather hitting soon, it's a good idea to make sure your furnace is in tip top condition. You don't want to put off fixing a problem and then end up in a freezing cold house. That is uncomfortable and will create an emergency heating situation where you'll have to hire a HVAC contractor to come in on a moments notice, which will be expensive. So, if your furnace is exhibiting any of the following problems, you should bring in a heating repair tech, rather than wait until your furnace breaks down.

Your Heater Does Not Adequately Warm Your House

If you're heater doesn't adequately warm your home, no matter how high you set the thermostat, then your furnace might be malfunctioning. Instead of just turning the thermostat up to a hundred degrees to get the room tolerably warm, have a specialist see if the filters are clogged. Often times a dirty filter or clogged filers can cause a furnace to overheat. This, in turn, causes the furnace to switch off prematurely. If this happens often enough, the furnace can become damaged. So, it's not enough to clean out the filter, since you need an expert to determine why the filters are getting so dirty and figure out a solution.

The Pilot Light Keeps Going Out

This can be quite a problem. If you constantly have to relight the pilot, then you might either have a dirty or broken pilot light or a bad gas supply line. These are delicate items and you need to be very careful about working on them yourself. You don't want to mess around with the gas supply line. So, if you relight the pilot light once and it goes out soon afterwards, contact an HVAC professional to assess the situation. It might be as simple as cleaning out a dirty fixture.

The Pilot Light Is Blue

If the flame on the light is blue, instead of yellow, then it means that carbon monoxide is being burned. This is a potentially deadly situation. If the furnace is creating carbon monoxide and it drifts upstairs to your family bedrooms, you really are in trouble. So, bring in a professional to handle this issue immediately. It might be a case where there is too much moisture in the air, but it could also be the case that a toxic fume is being generated.

Your Heating Bill Is More Expensive Than It Should Be

If you are paying more to heat your house than you were last year, and you have accounted for the changing price of fuel, then it might be that you need to get a new furnace. The furnace might be old and worn down and expanding too much energy to produce heat. Seals and gaskets might be worn down and let heat escape. Bring in a professional to determine if the entire unit needs to be replaced or if the faulty parts can be replaced and the furnace itself can be salvaged.