INDIANAPOLIS GUIDE

When the house is getting cold tonight

The hallway is colder than it was an hour ago, and the furnace has gone quiet. Outside, the steps may be icing over. This page is the overnight list: keep people safe, do not create a new hazard while you wait, and write down what the equipment is doing so the morning call is specific. It is not a repair manual. Gas furnaces are common in these houses. Heat pumps with emergency heat exist too. Either way, a falling indoor temperature is a people problem first and an equipment problem second.

By Mike Maziarz · Sources checked October 6, 2026 · How we write these guides

People first, then the equipment

Notice who is in the house. Infants, older adults, and anyone who cannot add a layer or say they are cold need a plan sooner than a thermostat debate. If the indoor temperature keeps falling and you cannot keep those people warm, go somewhere that is warm. A neighbor, a hotel, or another safe building is a legitimate choice. Pride is not a heat source.

Dress for the room you are in, close doors to rooms you are not using, and keep curtains shut once the sun is down. Those steps do not fix a furnace. They slow the drop. Roll towels against a leaky door if the wind is coming through. Do not block a return grille or a supply vent that the system still needs if it might start again.

Write the thermostat temperature now, and again in an hour. A number that is holding is a different night from a number that is sliding. That pair of readings is the most useful thing you can hand a technician in the morning.

Smells and alarms mean you leave

If you smell gas, leave the building. Do not flip switches, do not try the thermostat one more time, and do not start a car in an attached garage. From outside, call the gas utility emergency number printed on the bill. Many Indianapolis addresses use Citizens Energy Group. The number to use is the one on that bill, not a number from memory or from a search page.

If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, or if people have a headache, dizziness, or flu-like symptoms that ease when they step outside, get everyone out and call emergency services. Do not air the house out and go back to sleep. Do not look for the source in the basement. The alarm is the instruction.

A burning smell, scorched plastic, or a breaker that trips again as soon as the furnace starts is a stop as well. Leave the system off. A fire risk is not a no-heat inconvenience. Tell the dispatcher or the technician what you smelled and whether the breaker will not stay on.

Heat you can use without improvising

If you have a heat pump, emergency heat is the mode meant for a failed outdoor unit. Set it if you know that control, and leave it. Do not open the air handler to force the strips on. If the thermostat is blank, the thermostat page covers batteries and a simple call for heat. One check is enough tonight. A blank screen and a cold house can wait for daylight if everyone is safe.

An electric space heater is a temporary tool only if you use it the way the label says: on a firm floor, away from bedding and curtains, plugged straight into a wall outlet, and awake while it runs. Do not use an extension cord as a permanent answer. Do not leave it on when you sleep unless the device is specifically made for that and you still have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

Do not heat the house with a gas oven, a grill, a camp stove, or a generator. Those belong outside the living space, and a generator does not belong in the garage or on a porch where fumes can drift indoors. Cold is miserable. Carbon monoxide is worse. The same outdoor unit that would not cool in July is not something to charge from a can tonight. The refrigerant page is the reason that shortcut stays closed.

Three notes from the basement or the closet

If there is no gas smell and no alarm, look once. Is the thermostat set to heat, above the room temperature? Is the furnace switch on? Is the filter so packed that you can see it bow? Fix only the obvious: a switch that laundry bumped, a filter you can slide out and replace with one you already have. Then stop. Do not pull the blower door off. Do not hold a safety switch down with tape.

Listen. A click and silence, a blower with no warmth, or nothing at all are three different notes. On a heat pump, look outside without climbing. A unit buried in snow, or a coil solid with ice that never goes into a short defrost, belongs in the description. Clear loose snow you can lift from the ground. Leave the fins alone.

If the system tries to run and the breaker trips, leave the breaker off. Repeated resets are how a motor or a heat strip fails hotter. Morning is soon enough for a diagnosis if the house is holding with safe backup heat.

Power, drains, and a long outage

No electricity means no blower, whether the heat is a gas furnace or a heat pump. Confirm whether the outage is the block or only your panel. A furnace breaker that is off is a house problem. A dark street is a utility problem. Do not wander the panel flipping breakers you cannot name. One furnace breaker, looked at once, is the limit.

A long stretch without heat can put pipes at risk, especially in a crawlspace, an exterior wall, or a cabinet on an outside wall. Open those cabinet doors so room air can reach the traps, and know where the main water shutoff is in case a line lets go. That is preparedness, not a plumbing repair. If water is already leaking, deal with the water and keep the electrical equipment dry.

High-efficiency furnaces and cooling coils have drains and pumps. If you are running emergency heat or a blower, glance at the pan. A pump that died can shut a system down or overflow on a ceiling. Do not disconnect the drain to test it. Note the water and leave the hoses on.

What the morning call should include

Tell the company the indoor temperature trend, what you heard, whether emergency heat is on, and whether anyone smelled gas or the alarm went off. Say if the house is a basement furnace or a closet or attic unit. Say if the outdoor unit is a heat pump that also failed to cool earlier in the year. The cooling guide is the summer half of that history, and it keeps a July frozen coil from being forgotten in January.

Ask whether the visit is diagnosis, repair, or both, and what after-hours means if you are still in the night window. You do not need a lecture on equipment age. You need someone who will say what failed.

When the heat is back, put a fall check on the calendar before the next cold snap, and a spring check before the humid season. The seasonal maintenance page is that list. Tonight is for staying safe. The tune-up is how you avoid repeating the same night next year with no notes at all.