HVAC Repair in Newark, 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 Licking County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of work, most years
In Newark, the furnace runs October through May and the air conditioner picks up in June through August. That leaves only a few weeks a year when the system gets a real break. Winter nights averaging 22°F mean long, steady burner cycles, and every cycle depends on the igniter lighting the gas on the first try. When it starts to fail, it usually shows up as a house that takes longer to warm up, or one that stops warming up at all.
Summer afternoons near 82°F put load on the compressor and the outdoor coil, and a dirty coil or a low refrigerant charge shows up as a system that runs longer but cools less. Licking County also sees its share of hard weather, with 133 damaging wind events and 8 winter storms over the last ten years. Wind and ice bring down power lines, and 18% of Ohio households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. When power drops on a cold night, a furnace that was already struggling to light may not come back on its own once it returns.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 82°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 Licking County home.
Estimates for a typical Licking 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.
Licking County sets its own rule for who can do HVAC work on a house, because Ohio leaves that decision to the counties. There is no state license behind a contractor here, no state test, no state record. What Ohio does say is that a home contractor carries at least $250,000 in liability insurance. That is part of how the state defines a home contractor, not a license and not proof anyone checked the work.
For a repair on your heating and cooling system, that means any license requirement comes from the county, not the state. Ohio's insurance figure still applies to whoever takes on the job, so the contractor should be carrying that $250,000 in liability coverage regardless of what Licking County requires on top of it.
Source: Ohio Legislative Service Commission
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to heat and the temperature is set above the room temperature, since a setting bumped a degree or two can look like a dead system. Check your breaker panel next, because a tripped breaker will shut the furnace down with no warning. If the thermostat has batteries, swap them. Gas furnaces also have a flame sensor that dirties over time and will stop the burners from staying lit, so if the furnace tries to start and then shuts off again, that is worth mentioning to whoever comes to look at it.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter choking off airflow, so check that first and replace it if it is gray or clogged. A frozen evaporator coil can cause the same problem, and if the outdoor unit or the indoor coil has ice on it, turn the system off and let it thaw before doing anything else. Running the blower while the coil is frozen only makes it worse. If the filter is clean and there is no ice anywhere, the system may be low on refrigerant, and that is a repair for a licensed contractor since it means finding and fixing a leak, not just adding more.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings and batteries first, since a wrong setting or dead batteries account for a lot of no-heat and no-cool calls. Check the breaker panel for anything tripped. Look at the air filter and replace it if it is dirty, since restricted airflow causes problems on both the heating and cooling side. If you have a gas furnace, check whether the pilot light or igniter is lit, and if you smell gas, leave the house and call the gas company before calling anyone else. Write down anything unusual, like odd sounds or error codes on the thermostat, so you can tell the contractor exactly what you saw.