Furnace Repair in Follansbee, WV
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Brooke County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, on nights near 24 degrees
Your furnace works from October through May here, longer than it rests. On winter nights that average 24°F, it runs long stretches to keep up, and the burner cycles on and off for hours at a stretch. Every cycle puts a little more wear on the igniter and the flame sensor, the parts that have to work each time the burner lights.
Most homes in this area heat with gas, so a furnace that won't light or won't stay lit means a cold house fast. Brooke County has also seen 7 winter storms and 38 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and outages come with them. Across West Virginia, more than a third of households lost power for at least a day in 2024. When the power drops mid-storm and comes back on, a furnace that was already struggling may not restart on its own.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 59%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 7 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $180 a year off heating for a typical Brooke County home.
Estimates for a typical Brooke County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, West Virginia 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.
West Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is held by the contractor, not issued job by job, so it travels with the business and covers whoever they send to your house, not just the furnace they happen to be working on today.
Because West Virginia licenses at the contractor level, that license is what stands behind the furnace repair itself. Gas furnace work means checking the gas connection along with the burner and ignition, since a bad connection is the dangerous part of the job, and in Brooke County, where close to six in ten homes heat with gas, that is exactly the kind of repair the state license is meant to cover.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and the setting is above room temperature, since a setting bumped a degree or two can stop a call for heat. If that's fine, check the switch that looks like a light switch near the furnace, the power to it may have tripped or been turned off. A closed gas valve or a dead breaker will also stop it cold. If the furnace still won't respond, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a job for a contractor to check safely.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the blower is running before the burners have caught up, which happens for a few minutes after startup and isn't a problem. If cold air keeps blowing the whole time it runs, check the filter first, a clogged one starves the burners of the airflow they need and can shut off the flame while the fan keeps going. A cracked igniter or a failed flame sensor will do the same thing, cutting the flame but leaving the blower on. Either way, a contractor needs to look at the burner assembly to find out which it is.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit almost always points to the thermocouple, the small part that senses the flame and keeps gas flowing to it. When it wears out or sits slightly out of position, it reads the pilot as out even when it's lit, and shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out, so check for a vent or door pulling air toward the furnace. If relighting it doesn't hold for more than a few seconds, the thermocouple needs replacing, and that's not something to keep relighting on your own.