Furnace Repair in Alexandria, VA
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Alexandria will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of work, most of it on cold nights
Your furnace runs from October through April in Alexandria, seven months out of the year. On nights that average 29°F through the winter, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch, and every cycle puts a little more wear on the igniter and the burner.
About half the homes here heat with electricity, and last year 22% of Virginia households went at least 24 hours without power at some point. Add in the wind, 31 damaging wind events and 8 winter storms recorded here over the past ten years, and a furnace that quits often does it in the middle of a cold stretch, not on a mild afternoon.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 29°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
Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license comes from the Board for Contractors, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. The state tested them and keeps a record of who they are before they touch your furnace. That license does not reset with every visit. It covers the contractor across every job they take on.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the work. Virginia does carve out an exception for jobs under $1,000, so a small repair can fall outside the licensing requirement. A furnace repair often runs past that line, and where it does, the contractor working on it is expected to hold that Board for Contractors license.
Sources: Virginia General Assembly · Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to heat and set a few degrees above room temperature, and check that it has power if it runs on batteries. If the thermostat looks right, check the breaker panel and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit. Furnaces also won't start if the filter is badly clogged or if a safety switch has tripped, and a licensed contractor can tell you which one it is.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is running the fan without the burners lit. Check the thermostat fan setting. If it is set to "on" instead of "auto", the blower runs constantly and pushes cold air between heating cycles. If the fan is set to auto and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or a flame sensor may be failing, and that's a repair for a licensed contractor. A clogged filter can also choke off airflow enough that the air feels cool by the time it reaches the room.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that keeps going out is usually a sign the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small sensor that sits in the flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep the gas flowing. When it fails, it shuts the gas off even though the pilot is lit, or it lets the flame go out from a draft. Older furnaces still use this setup, and a thermocouple is a straightforward part for a licensed contractor to replace.