HVAC Repair in Chambersburg, PA
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system 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.
Eleven months of work, most of it in the cold
Your furnace carries the load here. Heat runs October through May, eight months, and the other three still bring cooling. That leaves the system almost no season off.
Winter nights averaging 24°F mean long, frequent burner cycles, and every cycle puts wear on the igniter and the ignition control board. A lot of homes here heat with electricity, so a tripped breaker or a failed heat strip can mean no heat at all until it's fixed. The county has seen 16 winter storms and 78 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and the outages that come with them turn a system that won't restart on its own into a cold house fast.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 84°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the state and nothing more. Nobody tested the contractor's HVAC knowledge to get that number, and the state isn't vouching for the quality of the work. It just means the business is on record with the Bureau of Consumer Protection. Franklin County and every other municipality in Pennsylvania are barred from layering their own HVAC license on top of that, so this registration is the only state-level record that exists here.
On a repair job like this, that record is what you have. Pennsylvania has not built a trade exam or a state license into the process, so nothing at the state level checks the work itself, only that the business is registered.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat and the power to the furnace before you assume the worst. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check the breaker or switch for the furnace. If you have a gas furnace, look for a pilot light or listen for the igniter trying to fire. With winter nights here averaging 24°F, a furnace that won't stay lit or won't start needs a contractor soon, since a home can lose heat fast at that temperature.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- The fan running doesn't mean the system is actually cooling. Check the air filter first, since a clogged one chokes airflow across the coil and can freeze it. Check the outdoor unit too, and clear away any leaves, grass clippings or debris blocking it. If the filter is clean and the outside unit is clear but the air coming from the vents still isn't cold, the system likely has a refrigerant or mechanical problem a contractor needs to diagnose.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings, the batteries in it if it has any, and the breaker for the system. Check the air filter and replace it if it's dirty, since that alone causes a lot of the airflow and freezing problems people call about. Check that all supply vents in the house are open and unblocked. If the system still isn't heating or cooling right after that, a contractor will need to look at it, and telling them what you already checked helps them get to the answer faster.