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Why Your Electric Furnace Isn’t Turning On

heating-elementMany homes in our area don’t have access to a natural gas line and must rely on electricity to power most of their home appliances. For all-electric houses, an electric furnace is the most common option for winter warmth. Electric furnaces don’t have the same high heating capacity or speed as their natural gas-powered cousins, but they have advantages such as lower installation costs, longer service lives, and no worries about gas combustion or gas leaks.

If your reliable electric furnace and suddenly turned unreliable, not coming on when you need it to, you may need to call us for furnace repair in Lilburn, GA. Although electric furnaces don’t have the same potential safety hazards as gas furnaces, they still need the work of professionals to fix them. 

Below are some of the reasons your electric furnace may be failing to turn on.

Tripped circuit breaker

The first time your electric furnace fails to come on, we recommend you check the electrical panel for the home. The furnace places a large demand on your home’s electrical system, and this at times may cause a circuit overload that will trip the breaker. Switch any tripped breakers and see if the furnace will run. If the problems with tripped breakers persist, don’t try to just “live with it.” The furnace likely has an electrical short and needs professional attention.

Failed sequencer

The sequence is the component in an electric furnace that staggers turning on the various heating elements. This helps to prevent the furnace from overloading the circuit when all the heating elements turn on at once. If the sequencer fails, it may end up sending no electricity to any of the heating elements. Technicians will usually have to replace the sequencer to fix this. 

Faulty blower fan

Your furnace may be generating heat through the heating elements, but there’s no air moving over the heating elements and into the house. The heat isn’t going anywhere! The likely cause of this is the blower fan motor has burnt out, although the blower fan assembly could also be misaligned. You can’t make repairs to the blower yourself, so call our technicians to repair it. 

Failed heating elements

The furnace uses a series of heating elements containing electric coils to provide heat to the air. Individual heating elements can burn out. In this case, you may still receive heating from your furnace, but not enough heating. 

Control board problems

The control board is the central switching station for the furnace that monitors the various components to keep them working in proper order. The control board can suffer from a variety of electrical problems such as loose connections and dirty relays. Any of these could cause the furnace to fail to turn on at all. 

If you can’t find a simple cause for the furnace’s failure (such as a tripped breaker or clogged filter), then reach out to our technicians for fast and effective solutions. 

At Snellville Heating, Air and Plumbing, Your Comfort Is OUR Business. Call us when you need furnace repair and leave the hard work to our team.

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