This is my first Winter in this house and I've just realized that I can't make the heat turn on. The home has natural gas heating and baseboard vents. There's no A/C or other units; just baseboard heating.
I'll pay a pro to come out if I have to, but I just want to make sure that I check everything obvious first, since this probably would've come up in the home inspection if there were really something wrong with the heater.
Here's a list of what's been checked:
Thermostat -- seems to work fine and is a very simple electronic model. Heat is set to ON with a (desired) temperature of 71, but actual temperature shows as 55. I tried turning it on and off, up and down, etc.
Water -- hot water works fine.
Emergency shutoff switch -- heat is set to ON. Tried turning it off and on.
Other valves / pipes -- I can't figure out which pipes are supposed to connect to the baseboard units, but I made sure that everything I could find was switched on.
I have to admit that I am very ignorant in this area. The same furnace that heats the water is the same one that should be heating the air, right? If so, it seems to be on and working.
This photo has the furnace, water heater, and gas in it:
You can see the baseboards in the bottom right of this photo: