Furnace Repair in Kingwood, WV
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Preston County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and winter nights near 22 degrees
Kingwood homes need the furnace running from October through May. That is eight months of the year the burner is cycling on and off to keep up, and on winter nights that average 22°F, it runs long and hard to do it. Every one of those cycles puts wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner lit.
Preston County has seen 36 winter storms and 108 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and across West Virginia more than a third of households lost power for at least a day in 2024. A furnace that loses power and comes back on usually restarts fine on its own, but a storm that knocks out power for a stretch during a cold snap leaves a house with no heat until it's back, and that's when a homeowner finds out if the furnace was already struggling before the outage.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 36 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.
That license comes from the West Virginia Commissioner of Labor, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. The same license should be in place whether the work is a full furnace install or a repair call.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the person working on the gas line and the burner. A bad connection there is the dangerous part of the job, and in West Virginia the state's licensing is what puts a name and a record behind whoever is making that connection.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. If the screen is blank, check the batteries before anything else. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, it looks like a light switch on or near the unit, and make sure it hasn't been bumped off. After that, check the breaker in your panel. Furnaces also have a door on the front that has to be seated correctly, a safety switch stops the furnace from running if that door is loose or off. If all of that checks out and it still won't start, a contractor needs to look at the ignition system or the control board.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this is the furnace warming up before the blower kicks on, so a minute or two of cool air at startup is normal. If cold air keeps coming the whole time it runs, check your filter first, a clogged one can cause the burners to shut off while the blower keeps going. If the filter is clean and you're still getting cold air, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing to light the burners at all, and that's a repair for a contractor. With nights averaging 22°F here in the winter, it's worth getting this looked at quickly rather than waiting it out.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out. It's the small part that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the flame is lit, and once it wears out it can't hold the valve open even though the pilot is burning right in front of it. A draft blowing out the pilot is another possibility, worth checking if you notice air movement near the burner compartment. Either way, this isn't something to keep relighting on your own, a contractor needs to replace the part causing it.