SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — With temperatures dipping below freezing a lot of people are cranking up their furnaces.

It’s the first time a lot of us have turned up the heat since last winter and that has HVAC companies busy answering calls for furnace repairs.

When old man winter comes a knocking, service techs like Levi Faber answer.

The calls started coming in Saturday when the temperatures plummeted.

“That’s when everything went haywire and I was the lucky one on call,” Faber said.

Faber is one of five service techs at J & R Mechanical and they’ve all been busy.

“Usually the first two weeks after the temperature drops calls come in like crazy, because furnaces weren’t being used over the summer so everyone turns them on and all of a sudden it doesn’t work,” Faber said.

Now that the weather has turned cold, Faber answers about five to eight calls a day from people wanting their furnaces worked on.

He says the best thing homeowners can do is change the filter routinely and schedule a maintenance check.

“We show up, go through everything make sure there’s not going to be any issues, we check everything from the blower fan all the way to the flame sensor,” Faber said.

Faber says it makes sense to pay a little now or pay a lot later.

This furnace took a little longer to fix…

“It just clicked and nothing happened,” Faber said.

…but he figured it out, so now he’s packing up and heading to the next call.

A service call for a maintenance check can cost a little over $120.