First cold snap of season means busy time for home heating technicians

It's been a wild weather day in the Bay Area with hailstorms, rumbles of thunder and brief heavy downpours. Now the Bay Area is in for a cold night ahead with some of the coldest temperatures so far of the season.

There is a frost advisory from 12 a.m. to 9 a.m. Thursday for the North Bay interior valleys.

"You know it's cold when the cat over there is curled up in a bun!" said homeowner Sue Kauer.

Kauer and her cat named Kitty are already feeling the temperatures drop, even inside their San Jose home.

"Oh my goodness, so when the meteorologist says, 'It's going to be chilly, it's OK!" said Kauer. "But when they say it's going to get cold, and you know it's going to be cold, that heat better be working!"

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Unfortunately, her old furnace doesn't even warm up the house, so Kauer said s it's time for it to go!

"So, I have a 47-year-old furnace right here, and it's a monster, and it's so old and noisy, it booms when it goes on," she said.

John Towner owner Silicon Valley Comfort is here to help. Towner has been a heating and cooling expert for more than 20 years in the South Bay.

"This trade has been good to me, and it's the one thing that I'm pretty good at," said Towner.

This time of year, Towner is extremely busy with desperate homeowners who need their furnaces fixed fast.

"Once it started getting colder, especially in the mornings, that's when they really start calling in," said Nina Zanoletti, Silicon Valley Comfort partner. "They're saying it's blowing cold air, and it's actually colder inside the house than outside which is awful!"

Thankfully for Kauer, she's getting a brand new furnace to keep her home warm.

"I don't wanna get out of the shower freezing with icicles hanging off my hair!" said Kauer. "I don't wanna be that person!"

Homeowners should replace their air filters every 90 days for a home without pets and every 60 days with one pet. If homeowners have more than one pet or if they have allergies or asthma, they should replace their air filters every 20 to 45 days.