Furnace Repair in Martinsburg, WV
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Berkeley County will get in touch.
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It takes about a minute.
Seven months of hard use, then the power goes out
Your furnace works from October through April here, and on the cold nights, down around 25°F, it cycles on and off all night to keep up. Every one of those starts puts wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner lit. When one of them finally gives out, the furnace won't light at all, and you'll notice because the house goes cold fast.
Most homes in Berkeley County heat with electricity, so when the power goes, the furnace goes with it. That happens more than you'd think. Statewide, over a third of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024, and this area has seen 20 winter storms and 90 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A furnace that won't restart after an outage isn't always broken. Sometimes it just needs to be checked.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 25°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 20 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.
The license is held by the contractor, not issued job by job. The Commissioner of Labor tested that contractor and keeps them on record with the state, and that license covers their work generally rather than this specific repair.
For a furnace repair, that license is the credential that stands behind the work. Gas connections are the dangerous part of the job if done wrong, and the contractor doing that work in Berkeley County is required to hold this same state license.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't sending power through, or the furnace isn't getting power or gas at all. Check that the thermostat has fresh batteries and is set to heat above room temperature. A tripped breaker or a switch near the furnace left in the off position will also stop it cold. If those check out, the igniter or flame sensor may have failed, and that's a part a contractor needs to test and replace.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If the air is cold and not just cool, the burners likely aren't lighting even though the blower is running. A dirty flame sensor or a bad igniter can shut the burners off while the fan keeps moving air through the ducts. It can also mean the furnace is in the middle of its startup cycle, when the blower runs briefly before the burners catch. If cold air keeps coming for more than a few minutes, that points to an ignition problem a contractor needs to look at.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is usually a sign the thermocouple has worn out or is out of position. Its only job is sensing the pilot flame and holding the gas valve open, and once it fails the valve shuts the pilot off as a safety measure. Wind or a draft in the flue can also blow the pilot out on its own. A furnace with a standing pilot doesn't use power to keep that flame going, so a power outage isn't the cause. If relighting it doesn't hold, the thermocouple is worth having a contractor check first.