Furnace Repair in Lancaster, OH
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Fairfield County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on your furnace
From October through May your furnace is the thing standing between you and a 24°F night. That's eight months of the burner cycling on and off, sometimes many times in a day, and every start puts a little more wear on the igniter and the flame sensor. When one of those finally gives out, the furnace won't light at all.
Most homes in Lancaster heat with gas, so when the power goes out the furnace usually needs it back to run the blower and controls, even with a gas burner. Fairfield County has seen 13 winter storms and 81 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and outages happen. If your furnace won't start after the lights come back on, that's often a control board or a limit switch that needs a reset or a look.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 60%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 13 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $150 a year off heating for a typical Fairfield County home.
Estimates for a typical Fairfield 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.
Ohio leaves this to the counties, so there is no state record to check for a furnace repair here. Whether a contractor needs a local license depends on Fairfield County's own rule, not anything the state tracks. Ohio does define what counts as a home contractor, and that definition includes carrying at least $250,000 in liability insurance. Nobody tested the contractor to meet that. It is a definition, not a license.
For a furnace repair, the gas connection is the part that matters most, since a bad one is what makes the job dangerous. With no state license behind the work, that insurance minimum is the one thing Ohio puts in writing about who is fit to take this job on. In Fairfield County, 59.8% of homes heat with gas, so this is the fuel most of the county's furnaces run on.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The most common cause is the thermostat, the power supply, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check the breaker for the furnace. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, or the flame sensor may be dirty enough that the furnace shuts itself off as a safety measure. A closed gas valve or a clogged filter tripping a safety switch can also keep it from starting. A contractor can test each part and find which one is stopping it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the blower is running but the burners have not lit, or have shut off. A dirty flame sensor or a failed igniter will stop the burners while the fan keeps moving air through the ducts, and that air feels cold. It can also mean the thermostat fan setting is on instead of auto, so the blower runs even when there is no heat cycle. If the furnace is short cycling or shutting off after a few minutes, a contractor should check the flame sensor, the igniter, and the limit switch.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually points to the thermocouple, a part that senses the pilot flame and keeps the gas valve open. When it wears out or sits out of position, it tells the valve the flame is out even when it is lit, and the gas shuts off. A draft blowing across the pilot, or a dirty pilot orifice, can also put it out. Since this involves the gas valve and burner assembly, a contractor should be the one to adjust or replace the thermocouple.