Furnace Repair in Asheville, NC
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Buncombe County will get in touch.
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Seven months of heat put real wear on your furnace
Your furnace works from October through April here, seven months of the year. On winter nights that average 28°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch to hold the house steady. Each start puts load on the igniter and the parts that get the burner going, and that wear catches up with older furnaces first.
Most homes in the area run on electric heat, so a power outage means no furnace at all. With winter storms and wind events on record here in recent years, a furnace that already struggles to keep up is the one that fails when the power blinks and comes back on.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 28°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 8 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
North Carolina requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
North Carolina licenses HVAC contractors through the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any one job, so the same license covers your furnace repair as covers the next house they work on.
A furnace burns gas, and a poor connection or a bad seal is the dangerous part of that repair. In North Carolina, the contractor's state license is what stands behind the person doing that work.
Sources: North Carolina General Assembly · North Carolina State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often it's the thermostat, the power, or the gas supply to the unit. Check that the thermostat is set below room temperature and has working batteries, then check the breaker for the furnace hasn't tripped. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch inside the furnace may be the problem, and that calls for a contractor to test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Cold air usually means the furnace isn't firing, even though the blower is still running. A clogged filter, a bad igniter, or a flame sensor that's stopped reading the flame can all cause this. If the air has stayed cold for more than a few minutes, the burners likely shut off, and a contractor needs to find out why.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that keeps going out is almost always the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the furnace the flame is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, the gas valve shuts the pilot off as a safety measure. It can also mean a draft is reaching the pilot or there's an issue with the gas supply itself, so this is worth having a contractor look at rather than relighting it over and over.