Furnace Repair in Butler, PA
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Butler County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of winter wears a furnace down
Your furnace starts working in October and doesn't stop until May. That's eight months of nightly cycles, and on nights that average 21°F it runs long and hard to keep up. Every start puts load on the igniter and the flame sensor, and over that many months the wear catches up with one of them. The furnace either won't light or it lights and shuts off a few minutes later.
Butler County has logged 8 winter storms and 204 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind that strong can knock out power, and across Pennsylvania 15% of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024 alone. Most gas furnaces need electricity to run the blower and the control board, so when the power goes, so does your heat, even with gas still in the line.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 21°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 68%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 8 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $160 a year off heating for a typical Butler County home.
Estimates for a typical Butler County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Pennsylvania fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the state and gives it a number the Bureau of Consumer Protection can trace a complaint to. It does not mean anyone tested the contractor's gas work or checked how they run a repair. Pennsylvania also keeps cities and towns from layering on their own HVAC license, so this is the only state record that exists on a furnace contractor here.
With no trade exam behind the registration, nothing in this state's rule checks the gas connection on a furnace repair, and that connection is the dangerous part of the job. Sixty-eight percent of homes in Butler County heat with gas, so a repair here often means that line gets opened and closed back up. Pennsylvania's registration does not cover that work either way.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Check the thermostat first. Make sure it's set to heat and the temperature is set above room temperature, and check that the batteries aren't dead. If the thermostat looks fine, check the breaker panel. A tripped breaker or blown fuse will cut power to the furnace even though everything looks normal at the thermostat. Furnaces also won't fire if the air filter is badly clogged or a safety switch has shut things down, and those need a contractor to sort out.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is running the blower fan but hasn't fired up the burners yet. That happens for a few seconds at the start of every heating cycle, so a quick cool blast is normal. If the air stays cold the whole time it's running, the igniter may have failed, the gas valve may not be opening, or the flame sensor may be shutting the burners down right after they light. A contractor will need to check which part is causing it, since any of them will stop the burners from staying lit.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A dirty or bent thermocouple is the most common reason a pilot won't stay lit. The thermocouple senses the pilot flame and tells the gas valve to stay open, and if it's coated in soot or positioned wrong it reads the flame as out even when it isn't. A draft blowing across the pilot can also snuff it out. If you've cleaned the area and it still won't hold, the thermocouple likely needs replacing, and that's a job for a contractor since it involves the gas valve.