No Furnace, no problem!

My furnace died.

I woke up at 2am to the smell of burning. My heart pounding, I leaped out of bed to find the source of the smell, wondering why the smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector hadn't gone off.

I ran to my daughter's room to see if the smell was also in there, waking her up in the process. (The smell was definitely in her room.)

I flung open windows to air out the bedrooms. It was -15C/5F at the time.

I ran downstairs and found the smell was much stronger in the upstairs bedrooms than on the main floor.

I checked the basement - no smell there! I checked out the furnace. It looked fine. I changed the filter, just in case (a week or two before schedule).

I ran up and down, here and there, checking everywhere for the potentially smoldering something that might be about to burst into flame. (More than one "WTH?" was muttered!

I got out my infrared thermometer and started scanning the outlets and vents to find anywhere that might be a hot spot.

I discovered the smell was coming through the vents.

Eventually I noticed that despite the cold air pouring into the house through the wide open windows that the furnace wasn't coming on.

I made mental plans to start a fire.

But first I ran through the checklist of what to do if the furnace isn't working. The first thing to do is to check the breaker.

I have those annoying breakers that don't actually flip to off if tripped, but I learned long ago to not go off a visual cue and to purposely flip them off and on. I flipped the breaker and the furnace came back on. No smell.

All was well - but it's not the end of the story.

Today I could hear the motor on the furnace making horrible noises. I wanted to avoid a burnt out motor, so I just flipped the breaker to "off" and left it there. (I guess it is time for a new furnace.) But no need for an emergency call on a Saturday - I just started a fire. The main level is currently a toasty 24C/76F, and my daughter is having to open up windows because upstairs is too warm.

It is so nice to be prepared. To not have to panic. Because things happen on regular days, not just when SHTF.