If you think that surviving the bitterly cold weather is challenging, think about how your furnace feels. In sub-zero temperatures, your furnace has to work overtime to keep your home warm and comfortable. In fact, during the heating season, your furnace endures the equivalent of putting 133,000 miles on your car.

As you can imagine, that extra output can put a real stain on your furnace system — which can seriously impact efficiency (and your heating bills) when the weather dips into freezing territory. So, how exactly does the weather impact your furnace efficiency and what can you do about it? Those are the questions we hope to answer for you down below.

3 Reasons Furnace Efficiency Is Impacted By Weather

Curious as to how the weather impacts your heating bill and what it means for your furnace? Here are the three ways weather can impact your home’s heating efficiency.

1. Cold Air Is Hard to Heat

Dry, cold air is harder to heat just like moist, warm air is harder to cool. Arid air also makes us feel colder even though the temperature might be just right. And considering that winter is the season that creates annoying static in the air and dries our skin, it also means our furnaces have to work harder to make it warm indoors. With this required extra effort to keep rooms warm, it’s likely that your energy bill will have something a little extra for you, too.

2. Heat Dissipates Faster

Your home will lose its temperature faster in the winter, and if temperatures drop below zero, you can expect to lose heat at a breakneck rate. With this heat loss, your furnace will cycle on and off more frequently in an attempt to maintain your thermostat temperature setting. As you may have already guessed, this frequent cycling isn’t great for efficiency as your furnace will be running more and more the colder it gets outside.

3. Power Is at Risk

Power outages don’t just happen during summer thunderstorms, they also happen during winter in blizzards and snow showers. Outside of stormy conditions and strong winds that disrupt power lines, cold winter weather can simply overwork your home as your furnace will be working harder, taking up more power in the process. And while a powerless furnace isn’t consuming energy, when power does return your furnace will have a heck of a job heating up your home, causing any potential energy savings to go out the window.

How to Protect Your Furnace From Cold Weather

Read on to discover how you can help improve your furnace efficiency in the dead of winter.

Perform Regular Furnace Maintenance

One of the most common reasons why a furnace’s efficiency deteriorates is due to dirty furnace components, so it’s imperative that you clean your furnace regularly. This includes cleaning the blower and replacing your furnace air filter. Not sure when to replace your furnace filter? Pleated and high efficiency air filters should be changed once every three months while fiberglass and spun glass filters should be changed about once a month. If you can’t remember the last time you changed the air filter for your heating and cooling system, then it’s definitely time to replace it.

Check out our DIY furnace maintenance tips for more ways you can keep your furnace running efficiently all year long.

Humidify Your Home’s Air

Because the sub-zero temperatures of extreme cold weather extract moisture from the air, you’ll want to inject some moisture back into your home so it’s easier for your furnace to heat. If you have a manual humidistat, set it to 10% when the temperature drops below zero to combat the dry air.

However, if you have hardwood floors, you should set your humidistat to 30-35% in order to prevent your wood floors from separating or cracking. And if you don’t have a manual humidistat, whole-home humidifiers can deliver optimal humidity to your entire home throughout the year. By making your home easier to heat with some humidity, your furnace won’t have to work nearly as hard, which prevents your heating costs from going up.

What to Do If Your Furnace Has Caught a Cold

If your furnace is suffering from cold weather furnace problems, use these tips below.

Tip #1: Double Check Your Thermostat

Heavy furnace cycling might not be the weather’s fault. If your filter and blower are clean, it’s time to investigate your home’s thermostat as it may be triggering the furnace to run more often than it needs to. Review your thermostat manual for some suggested troubleshooting tasks, workarounds, or repairs. If your efforts still don’t solve the problem, call in a heating professional to get it fixed before your costs go through the roof.

Tip #2: Double Check Your Fuses and Breakers

If your furnace suddenly shuts down, you may have blown a fuse or be suffering a power outage. Make sure to check your fuse or breaker box to see if you blew a fuse or suffered from a power surge. If all is clear in your home’s electrical box and the rest of your home is out of power, you’ll want to call your power company right away to see when power can be restored.

In addition to checking your home’s electrical box, you’ll also want to check your furnace’s pilot light. If the pilot light is burning, odds are you can get it back up and running after a little furnace troubleshooting to fix the problem. However, if your fuses look good, your pilot light is out, and power is on in the rest of your house, you’ll need to call your local heating expert to schedule an emergency furnace repair before it gets too cold in your home.

Looking for More Ways to Save?

Cold, freezing temperatures can have a negative impact on your furnace & energy efficiency. For tips on how to improve your furnace’s efficiency no matter the weather, check out how to save on heating costs.