Furnace Repair in Chambersburg, PA
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Franklin County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat wears a furnace down
Your furnace runs from October through May here, eight months of the year. On winter nights that average 24°F from December through February, it holds a long, steady burn instead of a few short cycles, and that steady demand is hard on the igniter and the blower motor.
51.9% of homes here heat with electricity, so a furnace tied to the power grid stops working the moment the power does. Franklin County has seen 16 winter storms and 78 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and across Pennsylvania 15% of households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. When the power comes back on, a furnace that will not restart on its own, or one that was already struggling before the outage, is often what a homeowner notices first.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 16 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
Registration puts a contractor's business on file with the Bureau of Consumer Protection. It confirms the business exists and can be traced if something goes wrong. It does not mean anyone tested the contractor's gas work or checked their skill with a furnace. Pennsylvania also does not let cities or townships layer their own HVAC license on top, so this registration is the only state-level record you will find anywhere in the state.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, and no state exam stands behind the person making it. A contractor's registration on file with the Bureau means the business is traceable. It says nothing about whether the burner was seated right or the gas line was tested.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it's the thermostat, the power supply, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check the breaker for the furnace. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a repair for a contractor rather than something to test yourself. With winter nights here averaging 24°F, it's worth getting this looked at quickly rather than waiting.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If the air feels cold right when the furnace starts, that's normal. It takes a minute for the burners to heat the air before the blower pushes out warm air. If it stays cold, the igniter or flame sensor may not be lighting the burners at all, or the furnace could be overheating and shutting the burners off while the blower keeps running. Either way, that's a job for a contractor to diagnose.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out and is no longer sensing the pilot flame correctly, so the gas valve shuts it off. A draft blowing out the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can also cause it. A standing pilot doesn't need power to stay lit, so this isn't related to outages. A contractor can test the thermocouple and replace it if that's the cause.