Waking up to an ice cold house in the middle of the night is a reality that no one wants to face. You jump out of bed to check the thermostat but to no avail, your furnace does not kick on. Heat emergencies like this usually happen at the most inconvenient times like extreme cold situations or during winter storms when your system is running on all cylinders to keep out the Wisconsin cold.
What is the first thing you should you do when your heating system won’t start?
Well, the one thing you shouldn’t do is panic—after all, HJ Faust has emergency no-heat service available 24/7/365.
Once you call HJ Faust, you can start working on your plan to keep warm until a technician can get out to you and your family. We have some helpful tips on how to cozy up in order to stay comfortable for the time being.
1. Seal out the cold
Figure out which room you want to get comfortable in! It helps if the room is small and has most of what you will need in it. You can put all your comfort items in one place and then shut all the other doors. If your room of choice does not have doors, you can have up blankets, sheets and towels to help seal off the room and keep heat in with you. Make sure your room does not have high or vaulted ceilings since heat will drift up in those rooms. Additionally, if you are in a room with hardwood or tile, it would be best to drag in a few rugs from other parts of the house. This will keep the floor warmer and you won’t feel the chill of the cold coming up through the floor. By keeping the whole family in one room, body heat can help warm up the room.
2. Put your chef’s hat on
Bake some tasty sweets in the oven or put a pot of soup on the stove. Your oven and range generate a lot of heat. The lovely smell of a hot meal will be sure to warm hearts throughout the home. You can cook and heat at the same time, but using the oven solely as a heater is dangerous and should be avoided.
3. Using lights to help heat
Do you have some older incandescent bulbs lying around? Use those to heat the room. They generate a lot more heat that other lights such as LED. Another option is to try candles. The flames can actually produce heat in the room. Of course, never leave them unattended. Candles are also a cheap alternative to purchasing bulbs or space heaters.
4. Cozy up
Bundle up in comfort! Make sure you are wearing a fitted underlayer under your insulating outer layer, You can use tights, leggings and long underwear as your underlayers and coats and sweatshirts and your insulating outer layer. Make sure you are taking care of your extremities since those tend to get cold the fastest by putting on warm socks, hat, a scarf, glove and slippers. Once you’re all bundled up, grab a snuggle buddy and put on your favorite movie and snacks and curl up with your family or pet under a nice thick blanket.
5. Grab those electrical heat devices.
Space heaters, heating pads and heated blankets provide a good source of heat in a small space. However, don’t leave your space heater unattended and don’t fall asleep on the electric pads and blankets. This can be dangerous for everyone in the family. If you don’t have a heating pad, you can make one by using a warm water bottle or brick wrapped in a blankets to keep warm. Be sure to wrap these tightly however and make sure they are not too hot in order to stay safe.
While a no one wants to have a heat emergency, HJ Faust is here to support you no matter the time, day or night. One way to prevent furnace outages is to prepare your system for winter by making sure your furnace is serviced regularly. If you don’t want to remember to do schedule, join our Annual Maintenance Program and take the worry off your shoulders! An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure—and the furnace repair bill.
