Furnace Repair in Bowling Green, OH
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Wood County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat wears a furnace down
Your furnace runs from October through May in Wood County. On nights that average 22°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch, and every start puts load on the igniter and the flame sensor. Those are usually the first parts to fail, and when one does, the burner won't light or the furnace shuts off soon after it does.
Most homes here heat with gas, so that burner and igniter are doing the work all winter long. Wood County has seen 79 damaging wind events and 6 winter storms over the past ten years, and power drops with them. Gas furnaces need electricity to run the blower and controls, so when the power goes out, the heat goes with it even though the gas is still there.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 65%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 6 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $160 a year off heating for a typical Wood County home.
Estimates for a typical Wood County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Ohio fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
In Ohio, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties.
Wood County sets its own rule for who can do this work, since Ohio leaves HVAC licensing to the counties rather than testing and recording contractors at the state level. Whatever a contractor holds here comes from the county, not the state, so it is worth knowing that before anyone opens up the furnace. Ohio does define what a home contractor is expected to carry, including at least $250,000 in liability insurance, but that is a definition written into state law, not a license anyone had to earn.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since a bad one is what makes this job dangerous rather than just inconvenient. With no state license standing behind the work, that check falls to whatever county or local inspection applies to gas repairs in Wood County. Most homes here heat with gas, 64.6 percent of them, which is exactly why that connection is the part worth getting right.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the set temperature is above room temperature, and put in fresh batteries if it takes them. If that's not it, check the breaker for the furnace and the switch that looks like a light switch near the unit, sometimes called the furnace switch. Furnaces built in the last couple decades also need power for the igniter and control board, so a tripped breaker will stop it cold even though the furnace runs on gas. If power and the thermostat check out and it still won't fire, that points to something inside the furnace a contractor needs to look at.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- First check that air is coming from the vents at all and isn't just cool because the furnace hasn't caught up yet. A dirty filter can choke off airflow enough that what does come through feels cold, so check that first. If the blower is running but no heat is coming with it, the burners may not be lighting, which can come down to the igniter, a flame sensor reading dirty, or the gas valve not opening. With winter nights here dropping to 22°F on average, a furnace that's only blowing cold air needs attention soon rather than waiting it out.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple isn't sensing the flame well enough to keep the gas valve open. The thermocouple sits in the pilot flame. Its job is to prove the flame is burning, and if it's dirty, out of position, or worn out, it tells the valve to shut off even though the pilot lit fine a moment ago. A draft blowing out the pilot is the other common cause, so check for airflow near the burner compartment. Relighting it yourself is usually fine to try once, but if it won't hold, a contractor should check the thermocouple and the pilot assembly rather than relighting it over and over.