Furnace Repair in Murrysville, PA
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Westmoreland County will get in touch.
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Eight months of Murrysville winter wears a furnace down
Your furnace runs from October through May here, eight months of the year. On nights that average 23°F through December through February, it is not just cycling on now and then. It is holding that line for hours at a stretch, and the burner is lighting and shutting off many times over.
Each start puts a small load on the igniter and the flame sensor. Over enough winters that adds up, and a furnace that has run this hard for eight straight months is the one most likely to fail deep in winter rather than at the start of it. Westmoreland County has also logged 29 winter storms and 441 damaging wind events over the past ten years, the kind of weather that cuts power and forces a cold furnace through a hard restart the moment it comes back on.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 65%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 29 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $150 a year off heating for a typical Westmoreland County home.
Estimates for a typical Westmoreland 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 nothing more. Nobody tested this contractor's gas work or checked their trade knowledge to get that number. Pennsylvania also keeps cities and towns from layering on their own HVAC license, so the registration is the only state-level record that exists anywhere in the state, and Westmoreland County is no different.
On a furnace repair, the part that matters is the gas connection, since a bad one is what makes the job dangerous. Registration does not cover that. It is a record that the business exists, not a check on how the work is done. In Westmoreland County, 65.3% of homes heat with gas, so that gap sits under most of the furnace repairs done there.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the power to the furnace. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is set above room temperature, then check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, or the furnace may be locked out after repeated failed attempts to light. A furnace can also refuse to start if the filter is clogged enough to trip a safety switch. A contractor can test each part and find which one is causing it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- In most cases the furnace is running but not firing, so air is moving through the ducts without being heated. This points to the igniter, the flame sensor, or the gas valve not doing its job. It can also mean the furnace is short cycling, shutting off soon after it starts because a safety switch is tripping. If the air is only lukewarm rather than cold, a dirty filter or a failing blower can be the cause instead.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually comes down to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve a flame is actually present. When it wears out or sits out of position, it shuts the gas off even though the pilot lit just fine. A draft near the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same problem. A furnace with a standing pilot does not need power to keep that flame lit, so a power outage is not the cause here. A contractor can check the thermocouple and clean or adjust the pilot assembly.