Furnace Repair in Troy, OH
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Miami County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat wears on a furnace
From October through May your furnace is the thing standing between you and a house that's 23°F outside. That is eight months of the burner cycling on and off, night after night, to hold the temperature indoors. Each start puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner lit.
Miami County has seen 8 winter storms and 69 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. Most furnaces need electricity to run the blower and controls even if the burner itself is gas, so a power outage means no heat until it's back. If your furnace won't fire up after the lights flicker, or it's running rough after a cold stretch, that fits the pattern for homes here.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 58%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 8 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 Miami County home.
Estimates for a typical Miami 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.
Miami County sets its own rule for who can do HVAC work on a house, because Ohio does not license contractors at the state level. There is no state exam behind the work and no state record to check. Whatever protection exists comes from what the county requires, not from a license issued in Columbus. Ohio does define what a home contractor is, and that definition includes carrying at least $250,000 in liability insurance. That is not a license and nothing tests for it. It is a bar the business has to clear on paper.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since a bad one is what makes the job dangerous rather than just broken. Whether that connection gets checked depends on what Miami County requires, since there is no state licensing board doing that job here. In Miami County, 57.8% of homes heat with gas, which is the fuel this repair involves for most houses in the county.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check that it has power if it runs on batteries. If that's fine, check your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will cut power to the furnace with no warning. Furnaces with a standing pilot need that pilot lit, and furnaces with electronic ignition will lock out after a few failed attempts to light, which shows up as no heat at all. A contractor can read the fault code most furnaces display and tell you what's actually wrong.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the blower is running before the burners have caught up, which is normal for the first minute or so after a heating cycle starts. If cold air keeps coming for longer than that, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing to light the burners at all, so the blower runs with nothing to warm the air. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause and it's a quick fix for a contractor. If the air was warm and turned cold mid cycle, the furnace may have shut the burners off on its own as a safety response, and that's worth having looked at soon, especially with nights here averaging 23°F through the winter.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- The thermocouple is the usual cause. It's a small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the pilot is lit, and when it wears out or sits out of position, it reads no flame and shuts the gas off even though the pilot is burning. A draft blowing across the pilot can also snuff it out, so check that the area around the furnace isn't getting wind from a door or vent nearby. If the pilot lights and dies every time within a minute, that points to the thermocouple and a contractor can replace it.