No heat in the house

If you smell gas or propane, see a downed line, or have water near electrical equipment, leave the area and call 911 or the utility first. The checks below need no tools and no training; anything past them — gas, the panel beyond a breaker, a pressure tank, a septic lid — is a job for a licensed trade. This is general information for this area, not advice for your house, and following it is at your own risk (terms).

A dead furnace at -20 is a two-clock problem: one clock on your comfort, a faster one on your pipes. The good news is that a meaningful share of winter no-heat calls end at a checklist item the homeowner could have found. Run these checks, then call — and if the house is going to sit cold, jump to the last section first. Who answers tonight ↓

The five checks before you call

Thermostat: fresh batteries, set to heat, setpoint above room temperature — trivial, and it happens to everyone. Breaker and switch: furnaces have a wall switch that looks exactly like a light switch, usually at the top of the basement stairs or beside the unit, and it gets bumped. Propane: on estate lots the tank gauge is the first suspect after a cold snap — heavy demand draws tanks down faster than the delivery schedule assumed. Below roughly 20% in deep cold, pressure can drop enough to starve the furnace. The condensate line: high-efficiency furnaces drain water, and a frozen or blocked condensate line shuts the unit down on purpose. The filter: a choked filter overheats the furnace until it locks out; if the filter looks like felt, that may be the whole story.

What the repair is likely to cost

If the checks come up empty, you're into diagnosis — and if it is the middle of the night, note that of the shortlisted firms Francis Fuels states a 24/7 emergency line on its own site (613-723-4567), and NB Comfort runs an emergency line to 10pm with no night or weekend surcharge. A service call runs $99–$180 and is often credited against the repair. The most common winter part failures are the flame sensor and ignitor at the low end, and a control board at $400–$900. A furnace that is 15-plus years old and failing in January starts the replacement conversation — $5,000–$8,500 installed for propane — but a good contractor will get heat on first and quote second. The heating & cooling page has the full cost table, the short list, and the Ontario heat-pump rebate math that changes the replacement decision for propane and oil homes.

Protecting the house while it's cold

Pipes freeze before people do. Open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls, let the furthest taps drip — moving water resists freezing — and know where your main shutoff is before you need it. Space heaters bridge a night if they're on their own circuits, away from anything soft, and never fed by an extension cord. If you have a wood stove or fireplace, this is its moment — and if the flue hasn't been swept in years, that's a different emergency; don't find out tonight. A house that will sit empty and cold for more than a day should have its water shut off and, ideally, lines drained.

The propane call

If the tank is the problem, call your supplier's emergency line rather than waiting for the scheduled route — running a propane system completely dry can require a technician to restart it, because Ontario fuel-safety rules treat an out-of-gas event as a potential leak situation requiring a pressure test before relight. That's a TSSA rule, not a supplier upsell. It is also the argument for the tank monitor most suppliers now offer.

Common questions