First: Is It an Emergency?
No heat becomes a true emergency when it is cold outside and there are vulnerable people in the home — infants, elderly residents, or anyone with a health condition — or when it is paired with a safety warning. If you smell gas or a carbon monoxide alarm is sounding, stop everything, get everyone out of the home, and from outside call FortisBC at 1-800-663-9911 or 911. Do not troubleshoot, do not relight, do not flip switches. Once the home is cleared by the utility or fire department, call us at 604-359-1081.
If there is no safety warning and the home is not dangerously cold, you have a little time to run the simple checks below — many no-heat calls turn out to be a tripped switch, a dead thermostat battery, or a clogged filter that you can sort out yourself.
The Five-Minute Homeowner Checklist
1. Thermostat. Set it to Heat, raise the target several degrees above room temperature, and replace the batteries if the screen is dim or blank. A surprising share of no-heat calls end here.
2. Furnace switch. Most furnaces have a nearby switch that looks like a light switch. Make sure it is on — it gets bumped off more often than you would think.
3. Breaker. Check your electrical panel for a tripped breaker serving the furnace and reset it once.
4. Filter. A filthy filter chokes airflow and can trip the high-limit safety, causing the furnace to blow cool or shut off. Replace a grey, matted filter.
5. Access panel and gas. Confirm the front panel is fully seated (a loose door trips the safety switch) and that the gas shut-off to the furnace is in the open position. If all five check out and there is still no heat, it is time for a technician.
Common Causes of No Heat
Once the basics are ruled out, the usual culprits are mechanical or electronic. A failed igniter or dirty flame sensor lets the furnace try to start but not stay lit. A faulty inducer motor or tripped pressure switch stops the furnace from proving draft, so it never fires. A bad blower motor or capacitor means the furnace heats but no air moves, or nothing moves at all.
Other frequent causes include a clogged condensate drain triggering a safety shutdown, a control-board fault flashing an error code, a stuck gas valve, or a limit switch that has tripped from overheating. Many furnaces flash a diagnostic blink-code on an LED behind the access panel; if you can safely read and note that pattern, it helps the technician arrive ready with the right part.
Staying Safe and Warm Until Help Arrives
While you wait for service, keep the home as warm as you safely can. Close off unused rooms, open curtains on the sunny side during the day and close them at night, and layer up. Use only safe, approved heat sources: electric space heaters with tip-over and overheat protection, kept clear of fabric and never left running unattended or overnight.
Never use a gas range, oven, barbecue, or any outdoor/portable combustion heater indoors to heat the home — these produce carbon monoxide and cause deaths in BC every winter. Make sure your CO alarms are working; if one ever sounds, treat it as the emergency it is. If pipes are at risk in a hard freeze, let a tap drip and open cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls.
Fast Furnace Service Across BC's Lower Mainland
Furnaces are serviced by our parent company, CanroHeat, whose Red Seal–certified technicians cover Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, New Westminster, and the North Shore. We prioritize no-heat calls — especially homes with infants, seniors, or medical needs — and offer same-day and weekend service.
When you call, have your furnace brand, model, and any error code ready to speed diagnosis. Repair cost depends entirely on the fault, so rather than quote a number that may not fit, we diagnose and give you an exact written price before any work begins. If your furnace is older and the repair is major, we will also lay out your options honestly, including whether repair or replacement is the better value, so you can decide with full information. Call 604-359-1081 to get a technician on the way.