When should I turn on my furnace for the first time in Houston?

Every year, Houston homeowners perform the same strange ritual.

We spend six or seven months begging our air conditioners not to die.

Then one morning in November, we wake up freezing, shuffle over to the thermostat, flip the little switch from COOL to HEAT, and place complete faith in a piece of equipment we haven’t thought about since February.

Sometimes the plan works perfectly, and your family settles in for a nice, cozy slumber and wakes up protected from the frigid outdoor temps.

And sometimes the furnace responds with a smell, a sound, or a complete lack of enthusiasm, suggesting heating your home was not on your HVAC system’s dance card.

Houston may have one of the longest heating seasons in the country, but that doesn’t mean your heating system gets to skip its annual checkup. In fact, spending all of those months just sitting idle can make that first cold morning an especially inconvenient time to discover a problem.

Don’t Wait for the First Cold Front

Houston weather has a sense of humor.

We can spend an October afternoon in shorts and wake up the next morning wondering who left the freezer door open. That unpredictability is exactly why the first cold morning shouldn’t also be your furnace’s first test of the season.

Turn the heat on and check all of your furnace’s functions while the weather is still mild.

Set the thermostat several degrees above the current indoor temperature and listen for the heating system to start. Give it a few minutes to start producing warm air, then walk through the house and note what each vent is doing.

You’re not trying to perform an HVAC inspection yourself; you’re simply answering one useful question:

Does Everything Furnace-Related Appear to Be Working Normally?

Finding out the answer is “no” on a 70-degree afternoon is considerably less irritating than discovering it when the bedroom is 58 degrees.

Don’t Panic, That Burning Smell on the First Few Startups Can Be Normal

The first time you run your furnace after several months of inactivity, you may notice a dusty or slightly burning smell. Don’t immediately assume something is on fire.

Dust settles on heating components when the system isn’t in use. When the heat comes on for the first time, some of that accumulated material heats up and burns away, leaving behind a slight odor that should gradually disappear.

There’s an important difference, however, between “the furnace smells dusty for a little while” and “something electrical appears to be cooking.” A persistent burning odor, a melting-plastic smell, visible smoke, or anything that grows stronger rather than fades gradually deserves immediate attention.

Shut the system down and have it inspected.

Change the Air Filter

Yes.

The air filters again. Look, I promise that I’m more tired of writing about them than you are of reading them. What’s my proof? What are you reading RIGHT now?

We talk about filters constantly because your HVAC system keeps using them constantly. And since air filter maintenance is something we want our customers to be aware of, we feel the need to hammer the point home, at least once or twice a month.

But seriously, after 6 grueling months of another Houston cooling season, your existing filter may contain an impressive collection of dust, pollen, pet dander, maybe even a perfect replica of a Jackson Pollock masterpiece, and whatever else has spent the summer floating around your house.

Your heating system still needs to move air efficiently through the HVAC equipment and ductwork. Starting heating season with a clean filter helps maintain proper airflow and keeps accumulated debris from making the system work harder than necessary.

If the filter looks dirty, replace it. There will be no need to schedule a retirement party.

Make Sure the Vents Still Have Somewhere to Blow

Things move around the house.

Furniture gets rearranged. Rugs migrate. Storage boxes appear. Someone decides the perfect location for a giant decorative flower basket is directly in front of a return-air grille.

Walk through the house and make sure all supply registers and return vents aren’t blocked.

Closing or obstructing too many vents can interfere with proper airflow and create uncomfortable temperature differences between rooms. Return-air grilles are especially important because your HVAC system needs an unobstructed path to pull air back through the equipment.

Your furnace can’t heat air it can’t move.

And despite decades of technological advancement, it still hasn’t learned how to move the couch itself.

Houston Reality Check

Houston doesn’t need heat every day for four consecutive months.

That actually makes heating-system problems easier to ignore.

A furnace in Chicago that stops working in January becomes an immediate problem.

A Houston furnace that acts strangely in November might be turned off because tomorrow’s forecast calls for 76.

Then three weeks pass.

The next cold front arrives.

Nothing was fixed. And you’re wrapped in 7 seven blankets waiting for the guys from Nick’s Air Conditioning to arrive and hopefully fix the problem today. Our relatively short heating season isn’t a reason to ignore furnace maintenance. It’s one reason problems can remain unnoticed longer.

Test Your Thermostat Before You Blame the Furnace

Sometimes the heating system isn’t the problem.

The thermostat may be.

Before assuming a furnace failure, make sure the thermostat is set to HEAT and the desired temperature is above the current room temperature.

If it’s programmable or smart, this is also a good time to review the schedule.

The routine you used during summer may make absolutely no sense during cooler weather. School schedules, work hours, sleep temperatures, and the changing outdoor conditions can all affect when your home actually needs heating.

And check the batteries if your thermostat uses them.

Calling an HVAC technician because two AA batteries died is an expensive way to learn what the battery compartment looks like.

Listen to What Happens When the Heat Starts

Your heating system shouldn’t sound exactly like a library.

Motors start. Air begins moving. Equipment expands slightly as temperatures change.

You probably already know the normal soundtrack.

What matters are new sounds.

Rattling, grinding, squealing, repeated clicking, booming, or other unusual noises are worth investigating. They don’t automatically tell you which component has failed, and homeowners shouldn’t try to diagnose a heating system based on a sound they heard twice.

They tell you something simpler:

Something changed.

That’s enough reason to have the equipment inspected.

Don’t Forget Your Carbon Monoxide Detectors

If your home uses a gas furnace, carbon monoxide safety belongs on the fall checklist.

Carbon monoxide is colorless and odorless, which means you can’t depend on your senses to warn you about a problem.

Test the carbon monoxide detectors in your home according to the manufacturer’s instructions and replace batteries or aging detectors when necessary. Smoke detectors deserve the same attention.

A professional heating inspection can also evaluate combustion-related components and identify conditions that may affect safe furnace operation.

This isn’t the fun part of getting ready for heating season.

It’s probably the most important one.

The One Thing Homeowners Usually Get Wrong

A furnace doesn’t need to run very often to need maintenance.

Houston homeowners sometimes look at the relatively small number of heating days we experience and assume their furnace barely works.

But your furnace isn’t an entirely separate creature living in the attic waiting for January.

Much of your HVAC system is shared throughout the year.

The blower motor that moves heated air through your home has already spent months moving cooled air. Your ductwork just finished another summer of operation. The air filter has been working. Electrical components have accumulated operating time.

Cooling season and heating season aren’t two unrelated systems passing each other in the hallway.

They’re different jobs performed by equipment that often shares many of the same components.

Give the Furnace a Professional Checkup

Homeowners can handle filters, thermostats, vents, detectors, and that first test run.

The rest belongs to somebody trained to work on heating equipment.

A professional fall heating inspection can check system operation, electrical components, airflow, safety controls, the blower assembly, thermostat performance, and other components appropriate to your particular heating system.

For gas furnaces, the inspection also gives the technician an opportunity to evaluate combustion-related equipment for signs of problems.

The objective isn’t to invent a repair.

It’s to identify anything that could interfere with reliable or safe operation before Houston finally decides it’s winter.

Know When Your Furnace Is Telling You It’s Getting Old

Not every problem means you need a new heating system.

An isolated failed component on an otherwise reliable system may make perfect sense to repair.

Age changes the conversation.

If your heating system has become unreliable, needs increasingly frequent repairs, heats the home unevenly, makes unusual noises, or has reached the point where a major repair represents a significant portion of replacement cost, fall gives you time to consider your options.

That’s preferable to making the same decision during a cold snap because the furnace just quit.

Emergency weather has a remarkable ability to shorten the amount of careful financial analysis people are willing to perform.

Your Furnace Has Been Waiting Long Enough

Houston heating season may be short.

The first cold morning still feels plenty cold when the furnace doesn’t work.

Before that morning arrives, change the filter. Check the vents. Test the thermostat and carbon monoxide detectors. Turn the heat on and pay attention to what happens.

Then, if anything seems wrong, deal with it while the weather is still cooperating.

Your air conditioner spent the last several months getting the snot kicked out of it.

Your furnace has been sitting on the bench.

Fall is when we find out whether it’s actually ready to play.

If it’s been a while since your heating system was professionally inspected, the licensed HVAC technicians at Nick’s Air Conditioning can check its condition, identify developing problems, and make sure it’s ready before Houston’s first serious cold front arrives.

Free estimates are available for system replacements, our 90-day warranty backs every repair, and you can call (713) 913-3577 to schedule heating maintenance or service.

Frequently Asked Questions