My gas furnace won't kick in for several hours after using the gas oven/stove or the gas fire place.

I finish cooking dinner using the stove about 8:30 pm. We go upstairs at 11:00 pm to watch TV. I plug in the small electric heater in the bedroom and close the master bathroom and bedroom doors. The wife, dog and cat all get under the covers. The blower/furnace will blow cold air until about 3:30 am. At 4:00 am the bedroom is so hot we can't breath and we are sweating; it wakes us up to turn off the small heater and open the door to the bedroom, bathroom and even the windows sometimes. It takes so long to heat the downstairs it cooks us upstairs.

I have been wondering why this is happening without making a service call (money is very tight these days)?

Can anybody give an explination or recommend a quick cheap fix?

it would help if we knew the make and model of your furnace. but it sounds like there may be a failure in the furnace that may be causing a hard lockout. most furnaces will retry within 3 hours.

it could also be a bad program in the thermostat if you have a programmable t-stat

i think it may be coincidence with the oven or fireplace operation

Carrier Model# VC7024

I changed the thermostat, removed old filter with new one.

This only happens when I use the stove/oven/fireplace; I don't use these everyday.
I have not used the fireplace this year. I cook once/twice a week.

are you sure that's the model? it doesnt cross reference for me at all. make sure you are taking the model from the sticker inside the furnace.

something i thought of - if this furnace is induced draft with a single vent pipe (combustion air is taken from inside the living space) AND you are using a ventilation fan for your stove/oven (fireplaces create large natural drafts) AND your house is relatively airtight then the pressure switch on the furnace may not close. look for LED error codes on the furnace circuit board.

Make : carrier
Model : 58PAV070-12

This is the model # I got from inside.

The vent over the stove is not connected to anything, it just blows out of the top into the room.

Last night I turned the switch to the off position on the Tstat and just used the small blower in the bedroom.

Ps. Now I have no heat at all...good thing is it was 70 degrees out today.

ok, so you have a 70,000 btu forced draft furnace with an integrated control board that diagnoses itself and displays the problem with LED codes.

when the furnace quits next time you need to read the number of blinks the LED makes and read the error code on the inside of one of the furnace panels or owner's manual. do not turn the power off, do not turn the tstat down or off, do not remove any panels until the error is read.

without the error code any diagnosis is wasted time.

Too bad I learned this after the fact. I saw the codes on the panel. If it ever kicks back in I'll count the codes.

Can you explain what Draft is?

draft is what you have when the exhaust fan on the furnace turns of. it's the air movement through the furnace and out the flue pipe. draft is also air movement up a chimney in a fireplace. draft is air movement out a ventilation fan duct.

the movement of air from the house to the outside creates a negative pressure inside the house. in an older leaky house this negative pressure is negated by airflow back inside from leaky windows or doors. in a tight, usually newer house, this negative pressure is harder to overcome because of better sealant or insulation properties.

something else i thought of (sorry i missed it before)... it's *not* a common occurrence BUT if the gas line is undersized and 2 or more appliances call for heat (stove, furnace, dryer, fireplace, etc.) the gas line may not be able to supply enough gas for the furnace to operate correctly. it would typically have a flame failure or ignition lockout code. it *may* have a limit lockout code if there is an user installed gas low pressure lockout control installed. a technician with a gas manometer can find this out by hooking the manometer to the gas line, then starting each appliance. the pressure drop can then be measured. each appliance will have a minimum required gas pressure listed.

My 2 story townhouse (13yrs) no garage was very leaky when my wife bought it new. I've been here 4 years. She said it use to be so cold downstairs in the winter, she had to have the fireplace going the whole time. I started to close up the leaks and drafts about 3 years ago. The ground floor had cold air coming in from all the electric outlets. I backfilled them all with "Great Stuff" TM and form fitted foam covers over the other outlets. I installed new foam around all the doors. Then we didn't turn the fire place on that winter and the downstairs was warm enough without having to wear socks. Last year we noticed the vent above the thermostat had a steady stream of cold air dropping right on the thermostat. I put a piece of cardboard over it. Then I asked if we could light the fireplace at night when we watch TV because I had never seen the fireplace lit up and thought it would be nice; that's when we started to notice the heat not kicking in. Then if I used the stove the heat would not kick in untill 3AM. This year I noticed a cold draft behind the stove, so I sealed the gas line and the electric outlet behind the stove. Then all the hot air (always) would go right up the open floor plan staircase (hot upstairs/cold downstairs) so I closed the bedroom doors. Now, I hung a sheet at the staircase to block all the downstairs heat from going upstairs. The first few night it was nice and toasty downstairs and very comfortable upstairs. Downstairs was finally able to keep its heat!

Could all this blockage be part of the reason the furnace might now not be working? I have made a much air tighter house.