I’ve been living with this problem for 3 months. It all started on the first really cold night of the season, I turned the furnace on before settling down for the night and it kicked on without a problem. It took me awhile to drift off to sleep, my mind was racing and the main source of worry was the fact that my furnace was 30 years old and I couldn’t get it replaced last spring as I would have liked.

I finally dozed off, deep into splendid slumber filled with sweet wonderful dreams.. KABOOM! I swear to god I jumped out of my skin!! My daughter, my cat.. my dogs.. all of us had heart attacks at that very moment. I remember wondering if we were all alive or if we had all just blown up. It took a good 15 minutes to come down from that adrenaline rush, and another 15 minutes to build up the courage to go look in the basement. I never did get back to sleep that night.

I thought perhaps it was just a freak thing, but I was fooling myself. It kept happening. It wasn’t every time the furnace turned on, but when it did decide to do it, it shook the whole house. I called a few HVAC places and they thought perhaps it was “oil canning”. I prayed for oil canning. I researched oil canning.. I waited and listened intently to see if it was oil canning, but no.

The furnace starts, “tick” goes the gas, “grumble” goes the burners, a few moments go by and then “whirrrrr” the blower kicks in, relief.. it didn’t happen.

The furnace cycles a few more times then I hear it, “tick” a few moments go by and then “KABOOM!!!”. My heart jumps in my throat again.

I finally break down and have someone come and look at it. Of course it won’t duplicate the problem but the tech seems to think one of the burners isn’t igniting right away so I get a build up of gas in the furnace and when it does finally ignite it goes “boom”.

“boom”? Silly man. Boom doesn’t even begin to describe it. KABOOM!!!! Doesn’t describe it!

Anyway, I ask if it’s dangerous he said no, not really, but I should really consider getting a new furnace. (ya think?) He then checked on a strange noise he heard.. he shook some of the sheet metal, then opened a weird hatch thingy (I’m so technical) and he pulled out a bird.. A BIRD!! I had a BIRD in my furnace! What next? He set the bird free outside, and explained that I need a cover for the chimney on my roof. Birds sit on it to get warm then pass out from the Co2 and fall in.

FANTASTIC

So I set forth, getting estimates, figuring out how I’m going to pay for it etc. etc. All the while getting classically conditioned to where I have a panic attack the moment I hear that “Tick”. Sleep is but a thing of the past. It progressively gets worse over time.. and it gets to the point I can’t wait any more. (I would have done it sooner but I’m a single mom, with house and car payment etc. etc.)

So today I am having a new furnace and air conditioner put in, thank god for my tax return! I’m hoping for a good nights sleep but that burnt oil smell is making me nauseous and screwing with my sinuses. I can’t really complain though.. at least I know we are not going to blow up.