I don't know a lot about furnaces. We have a gas furnace and the heat keeps going out. The furnace is still of, it's just not blowing anything warm and the flame isn't on. The thermostat is set to auto at 72 but right now it's 67. Sometimes it will start working again, especially if I turn it off for a minute and back on. The last time, I had someone come look at it and all they did was clean it and that worked. That was two years ago. I looked at the service sticker that shows when it was last serviced and it was a good number of years before that. This is the first home I've owned. I've owned it for 7 years but there are still things I come across that I realize I should be maintaining regularly. I don't know if it just needs to be cleaned again but I assume so. I'm pretty handy but I don't want to go poking around something I am unfamiliar with when fire is involved. Any suggestions? Does it just need to be cleaned? If so, how and how often?

 

A gas furnace should be checked and cleaned at least every other year.
Have you checked with your gas provider for service ?
They have well trained techs at affordable prices.

 

A make & model of the furnace would be helpful.

 

Do you have a couple working carbon monoxide detectors in the home? I would have at least one in a area with good airflow like hallway or living room and one in the bedroom.

Gas furnaces are quite reliable but there are a few inexpensive components that can cause trouble and there are a few things that need to be looked at to insure safe operation. One of those dangerous things is a cracked or corroded through heat exchanger. It's what separates the flame and exhaust gasses from the air going into your home. If it has a hole or crack in it carbon monoxide can enter the home. A cracked heat exchanger can cause a furnace to shutdown for safety. Turning the furnace off and then back on resets the error memory and can allow it to run for a short while but doesn't fix the problem.

 

How would I check the heater exchange? I did have it serviced a month or so ago, after I posted this. It works most of the time but sometimes we'll wake up and it's 65 degrees in the house. I've been really busy and unfortunately haven't had the time to learn something new and do the research. They don't seem terribly complicated, just dangerous if i don't know what I'm doing.

 

You never posted a make and model of the furnace so we can't offer any detailed help.
Some furnaces require partial disassembly to see the exchanger.

 

Right, sorry. It's a Bryant. I couldn't find the exact model on the unit but the manual next to it is for 383KAV/395CAV.

 

Open the burner service door.... there will be an ID tag on the side wall near the burner.

 

It's 383KAV, specifically 383KAV036070