Is It Bad to Turn Your Furnace On and Off?

Can turning your furnace off harm your heating system? Let us help you maintain your furnace at Fast Air Repair! Call today at 352-290-7968.

Homeowners have many reasons to wonder, "Is it bad to turn your furnace on and off?" Our technicians at Fast Air Repair, the furnace repair experts in Ocala, FL, see what happens when residents in our community turn their furnaces off when they don't have to. We don't want any of our customers to be in the unenviable position of having to call us for repair service in the middle of winter after they turned off their furnace.

If you want to save money on your heating bills or need to turn off your furnace temporarily, consider the consequences and protect your heating system from collateral damage. 

How Your Furnace Turns On and Off Normally

When you ask, "is it bad to turn your furnace on and off?", do you really mean, "is it bad to start and stop the combustion process in a gas furnace?" The answer is no. In fact, your furnace should turn on and off many times in the course of a day.

When your gas furnace is in operation, sensors continuously transmit information about the temperature of your home to the thermostat, which stops the furnace when your home’s air temperature reaches the desired temperature. Once the furnace is off for a short while, the house temperature will fall again, and the thermostat will turn the furnace on again.

Your furnace’s duty cycle describes how long it stays on before turning off and how soon it turns on again. A typical furnace could be on for fifteen minutes at a time and off for between five or ten minutes, meaning that it will cycle between two or three times in an hour. 

This cyclical process will not damage the furnace other than normal wear and tear, as the heat causes metal elements to expand or contract. Engineers design the combustion chamber to withstand the process.

However, if the furnace is off for a long time and becomes cold, you turning on the heat and setting the temperature to a high level could cause the temperature inside the furnace to increase rapidly, putting physical stress on the combustion chamber, pipes, and valves.

Situations When Homeowners Turn Off Their Furnaces for Longer Periods

When customers ask us, "Is it bad to turn your furnace on and off?" we often ask them why they want to turn off their furnace. The answer to the second question helps us to recommend actions that allow our customers to achieve the outcome they want safely. Someone might want to turn their furnace off for various reasons, including:

• They work or go to school during the day and want to save on energy costs.
• They are leaving for a vacation and do not want to spend money heating an empty house.
• They own a seasonal business or winter property that they shutter during the summer.
• Their furnace is not behaving properly, and they don't want to risk damage to their home or put their family at risk.
• The homeowner suspects a gas leak.
• They need to cut power to the furnace to carry out electrical work.

Knowing how to respond to each of these situations could keep you from having to turn the furnace off and protect your home in the rare cases when you cannot use your furnace.

Will Turning the Furnace Off Save Money?

Remedies are available for each of these situations. If the motivation is to save money, turning off the furnace is not the right way to achieve your goal. The damage you could cause to your home might outweigh the financial savings. Letting your home go without heat on cold days could result in the following problems.

• Frozen and burst pipes.
• Increased wear on metal structures in the house due to contraction and expansion
• Health consequences for residents of the house.
• Increased energy expenditure when you have to heat a cold house back up again.

It might make economic sense to turn off the furnace for a winter home or rental property during the summer. However, it is important to winterize the property so that extreme cold does not cause damage if your furnace isn’t turned on before the first cold front. Be aware of problems that could arise from temperature changes when you restart your furnace.

Instead of turning your furnace off, turn the thermostat down to a comparatively low temperature such as 60 degrees. This will keep the home warm enough to reduce the risk of frozen pipes and make it easier to bring the temperature back to a comfortable level once you return home.

Programmable thermostats and smartphone apps allow you to set a schedule for your heating and air conditioning. They provide a great opportunity for residents and business owners to shave money off their heating bills without having to take time out of their days to monitor and adjust the temperature.

Another tip that could save you money in the future is to install radiant floor heating. Heat naturally rises, so introducing heat to the home from the floor allows you to improve energy efficiency. You won't have to hunt around for your slippers each morning or crank up the heat to save yourself from walking on cold floors in the morning.

What If You Turn Your Furnace Off in an Emergency?

Is it bad to turn your furnace on and off in an emergency? If your furnace is making loud noises, you smell gas, or your heat vents are emitting soot or fumes, your furnace might not be operating safely. In these conditions, it is prudent to turn off the furnace while you wait for emergency furnace repair. 

If you need to turn off the furnace, set the thermostat to off or cool mode. If it is safe to do so, check the furnace to ensure that the pilot light is off.

If you are turning your furnace off because you smell gas, be sure to open the windows in your house to let the gas escape. Go to a safe location such as a neighbor's house to wait for the utility company to send a technician.

What Happens When You Turn Your Furnace On Again?

Turning your furnace off can set the stage for rust and corrosion. The flue pipe in your heating system conveys hot gases from the combustion chamber and the ductwork carries heated air to the rooms of your home. Moisture in the pipes and ductwork can condense out of the air and turn to water or ice. When you turn the furnace on again, the ice will melt, possibly causing leakage, water damage, and corrosion.

If your pipes froze when the furnace was off, an ice dam might obstruct your pipes in one or more places. The ice could cause the pipes to break either when it forms or when you try to run water through the pipes. Obstructed drain pipes could cause toilets and kitchen sinks to back up. 



Avoid Furnace Problems with Maintenance by Fast Air Repair

At Fast Air Repair, we work hard not only to fix heating and cooling problems but to prevent problems from occurring through preventative maintenance. If you found our blog post "Is it bad to turn your furnace on and off?" helpful, learn more about fixing your furnace and other timely topics on our blog. Call us at 352-290-7968 to schedule regular maintenance for your furnace, heat pump, or HVAC system today.