Furnace Repair in Pittsburgh, PA
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Allegheny County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of Pittsburgh winter wears a furnace down
Your furnace runs from October through May here, eight months of the year. On winter nights that average 24°F, it has to hold the house at temperature for hours at a stretch. That means more cycles a day, and every cycle puts a little more wear on the igniter and the flame sensor.
Most Allegheny County homes heat with gas, and a gas furnace needs steady power to run its blower and control board. Pennsylvania has seen real outages. In 2024, 15% of households lost power for a full day or more. Add in the wind, with 548 damaging wind events recorded here over the past ten years, and a furnace can go down two ways on a cold night. A worn part finally gives out, or the power does.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 81%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 12 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 Allegheny County home.
Estimates for a typical Allegheny 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. No trade exam sits behind it. No state agency has tested this contractor's gas work before they take your call. Pennsylvania also keeps cities and towns from adding their own HVAC license on top of that, so this registration is the only state-level record that exists anywhere in the commonwealth.
For a furnace repair, the part that actually matters is the gas connection, since that is where a mistake turns dangerous. The registration does not touch that part of the job at all. It is a record of the business, not a check on the work. In Allegheny County, where 80.5% of homes heat with gas, that gap is worth knowing before a stranger opens up the gas line to your furnace.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Check the thermostat first. Make sure it's set to heat and the set temperature is above room temperature, since a battery running low can reset it without warning. If the thermostat looks right, check the breaker and the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit. Furnaces built in the last few decades also won't run if the filter is too clogged for air to move through it, and many won't start at all if the drain line or condensate pump is backed up. If none of that gets it going, the igniter or a safety switch inside the unit likely needs a contractor to look at it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- A few seconds of cool air when the furnace starts is normal, since it takes a moment for the burners to catch and the heat to build. If it's blowing cold the whole time it runs, the burners may not be igniting at all, which can come from a bad igniter or a dirty flame sensor. It can also mean the furnace is stuck on fan only, so check that the thermostat is set to heat and the fan setting is on auto, not on. If the air is cold and you also smell gas, turn off the furnace and call your gas utility before doing anything else.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- Most furnaces built in the last few decades don't use a standing pilot at all, they use an electronic igniter, so if yours has a pilot it's likely an older unit. A pilot that won't stay lit is usually a worn thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is burning. Wind or a draft in the flue can also blow it out, especially in a Pittsburgh winter when it's below freezing outside and the flue is pulling hard. If you relight it and it goes out again within a minute or two, that points to the thermocouple and it's worth having a contractor replace it rather than relighting it over and over.