Furnace Repair in Harrisburg, PA
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Dauphin County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights near 24 degrees
Your furnace works from October through May in Harrisburg, eight months of the year. On nights that average 24°F, it runs long and it runs often, cycling on and off to hold the house warm. Each cycle means another ignition, and that wear adds up on the igniter and the flame sensor first.
Dauphin County has also seen 18 winter storms and 149 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind like that can snuff a pilot light or knock loose a vent connection, and across Pennsylvania about 15% of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. A furnace that loses power and does not restart on its own, or one that was already struggling before the outage, tends to show it the next cold morning.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 18 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the Bureau of Consumer Protection so there is a record and a number to check if something goes wrong later. It does not mean anyone tested the contractor's furnace work or graded it against a trade standard. Pennsylvania does not license HVAC contractors, so there is no exam behind the name on your invoice, and no city or town in the state can add its own license requirement on top of the registration.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since a poor one is what makes the job dangerous rather than just imperfect. Pennsylvania's registration is a business record and does not cover that check. The registration tells you the business is on file. It does not tell you the gas work was done right.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the temperature is set above the room temperature, and check the batteries if it has any. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and make sure the breaker hasn't tripped. A furnace that still won't start after that has a problem inside it, often the igniter or a safety switch, and that calls for a contractor to look at it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is still starting up and hasn't warmed the air yet, so give it a few minutes before deciding something is wrong. If cold air keeps blowing, check the thermostat is set to heat and not just fan. A furnace that runs but never delivers warm air past that point usually has an ignition problem, and with lows averaging 24°F here in the winter, that's not something to leave for long.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple, the small part that senses the pilot flame is lit, has worn out or is out of position. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out, so check for anything that might be pushing air toward it. If it relights and goes out again on its own, the part needs to be replaced, and that's a job for a contractor since it involves the gas valve.