Furnace Repair in Elkins, WV
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Randolph County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat puts real strain on your furnace
Randolph County needs a working furnace from September through May. That is nine months of the year your system has to fire up and hold, night after night, with winter lows averaging 21°F. Every one of those cold nights means more cycles, more starts, more wear on the igniter and the parts that get it burning.
The county has also seen 37 winter storms and 56 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in West Virginia over a third of households lost power for at least 24 hours in 2024. When the power drops in the middle of a cold snap, your furnace stops with it, and getting it back running matters fast.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 21°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 37 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
West Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
West Virginia licenses HVAC contractors through the Commissioner of Labor. That license belongs to the contractor as a business, not to any one job, so the same license covers this repair and every other job that contractor takes on.
For a furnace repair, the gas connections and venting are the part that matters most, since a bad connection or a blocked vent is what makes the job dangerous. The state's license is what stands behind the contractor doing that work here.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it's the thermostat not calling for heat, a tripped breaker, or the switch that looks like a light switch near the furnace turned off. Check the thermostat batteries first, since a dead set will blank the screen or stop it from signaling the furnace at all. If power and settings look right, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a job for a licensed contractor to test. With winter nights here averaging 21°F, it's worth having someone look at it the same day rather than waiting.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the burners likely aren't lighting even though the blower is running. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause, and so is a clogged filter that's making the furnace overheat and shut the burners off as a safety measure. It can also mean the thermostat fan is set to "on" instead of "auto", which runs the blower even between heating cycles. Check the filter and the fan setting first, then call a contractor if the burners still won't stay lit.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit usually means the thermocouple has worn out and isn't sensing the flame properly, so the gas valve shuts it off as a safety check. It can also mean a draft is blowing the flame out, or the pilot orifice is partly clogged. A standing pilot doesn't use electricity, so a power outage isn't the cause. This is a gas component, so have a licensed HVAC contractor relight and test it rather than repeatedly restarting it yourself.