HVAC Repair in Lancaster, OH
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Fairfield County will get in touch.
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Eleven months of work, most years
Your furnace and your air conditioner in Lancaster only get a few weeks off each year. Heat runs October through May, eight months, and on nights that drop to 24°F it cycles on and off most of the night to hold the temperature. Then summer flips the load to the air conditioner for June through August, working against afternoons near 83°F.
That back and forth wears different parts. The furnace's igniter and burner take the hit from all the winter cycling. In summer, the air conditioner's capacitor and compressor take the strain from the heat. Wind and winter storms add to it. Fairfield County has seen 81 damaging wind events and 13 winter storms over the last ten years, and either one can cut power to the system outright.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $170 a year off heating and cooling 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.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
In Ohio, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties.
Because licensing here is a county matter, what's required of a contractor working on your system depends on where in Fairfield County the house sits, not on any state license file. Ohio doesn't test or license HVAC contractors for home work at the state level. The state's definition of a home contractor calls for at least $250,000 in liability insurance, but that's part of a definition, not a credential the state hands out after testing anyone.
On a heating and cooling repair, the gas connection is the part that matters most, since a bad one is the dangerous part of the job. Whether that gets checked here depends on the county, the same as licensing does. There's no state board standing behind the work. What protection exists comes from whatever your county has set up, not from a rule Ohio applies everywhere.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and the temperature is set above room temperature, since a setting bumped by accident is more common than people think. If that's fine, check your breaker panel for a tripped breaker, since a furnace that lost power will do nothing at all. Gas furnaces also won't run if the pilot light or igniter fails, so if you hear the blower but get no heat, that's worth telling a contractor when you call. With winter nights here averaging 24°F, a furnace that's short-cycling or blowing cold air needs attention fast, not a wait-and-see.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- Check your air filter first. A filter clogged with dust blocks airflow across the coil, and when that happens the coil can ice over and stop cooling the air even though the blower keeps running. Next check the thermostat is set to cool, not fan only, and set below room temperature. If the filter is clean and the thermostat is right, the system may be low on refrigerant from a leak, and that's not something to diagnose yourself. On an afternoon near 83°F, a system that runs constantly without cooling the house is losing ground, and a contractor should look at it before the coil ices up completely.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings and batteries first. A dead thermostat battery or a setting left on the wrong mode causes more no-heat and no-cool calls than an actual equipment failure. Next, check your breaker panel and any furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, to make sure nothing got shut off. If you have a gas furnace, check that the gas valve is open. Last, look at the air filter, since a filter that's packed with dust restricts airflow enough to shut a system down on its own. If everything checks out and the system still won't run right, that's the point to call a contractor and describe what you found.