Furnace Repair in Arlington, VA
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Arlington County will get in touch.
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Seven months of Arlington winters wear a furnace down
Your furnace works from October through April here, seven months of the year. On winter nights that average 29°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch to keep the house warm. Each cycle puts a load on the igniter and the burner, and over a season that adds up to a lot of starts.
More than half the homes in the area heat with electricity, so a power outage takes the furnace down with everything else. Arlington has recorded 8 winter storms and 77 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and Virginia households have gone a full day or more without power often enough that it is worth planning for. Most furnaces come back on by themselves once power returns. If yours does not, that is worth a call.
- 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 is issued to the contractor by the Board for Contractors, and it stays with that contractor across every job, not tied to any single one. Work under $1,000 doesn't need a licensed contractor, so that threshold applies to smaller repairs, not to the license itself.
A furnace burns gas, and the gas connection is the part of the job that has to be right. Where the repair falls under that license, the contractor doing the work is the one the state holds a record on.
Sources: Virginia General Assembly · Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often it's the thermostat, the power to the unit, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check that the furnace switch and breaker are both on. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, since it wears out over time and won't relight the burners when it does. A licensed contractor can test the igniter and the safety switches to find out which one is stopping the furnace from starting.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Usually the burners aren't lighting even though the blower is running, so you get moving air with no heat behind it. This can mean a bad igniter, a dirty flame sensor, or a gas valve that isn't opening. It can also mean the furnace is in its startup cycle, when the blower runs briefly before the burners fire. If the air stays cold for more than a few minutes, a contractor will need to check the ignition system directly.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This points to the thermocouple, a small sensor that shuts off gas flow if it doesn't sense the pilot flame is lit. When it wears out or sits out of position, it reads the flame as out even when it's burning, and cuts the gas. A draft blowing across the pilot can also put it out. Newer furnaces use an electronic igniter instead of a standing pilot, so if yours has one, the problem is elsewhere and a contractor should look at the ignition control.