Furnace Repair in Morgantown, WV
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Monongalia County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on your furnace
Morgantown needs a working furnace from October through May. That is eight months of nights averaging 24°F, which means the burner is lighting and shutting off many times a day for most of the year. Each cycle wears on the igniter and the parts that control the flame.
Over half the homes in the area heat with gas, so when the furnace stops, there is no backup running quietly in the basement. And the power does not always stay on to help it. More than a third of West Virginia households lost power for a full day or more in 2024, and this area has logged 12 winter storms and 114 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When a storm knocks out power on a night that cold, a furnace that was already struggling has no room left to give.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 52%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 12 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 Monongalia County home.
Estimates for a typical Monongalia 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 is tied to the business doing the work rather than the specific repair. West Virginia's Commissioner of Labor tests and records contractors before they can legally take on HVAC work in the state.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the person working on the gas connections inside your home. A bad connection is the dangerous part of this job, and the license means the state has already checked that the contractor knows how to do this work correctly before they show up. In Monongalia County, where more than half of homes heat with gas, that check matters as much as it does anywhere in the state.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time this is the thermostat, the power to the unit, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check that the furnace switch and breaker are both on. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, or a safety switch may be holding the furnace off because of a clogged filter or a blocked vent. A furnace that won't start at all with power and a working thermostat needs a contractor to look at the ignition system.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it is cold, the burners likely aren't lighting even though the blower is running. That points to the igniter, the flame sensor, or the gas valve not getting the furnace to fire. It can also happen during the startup cycle, when the blower kicks on a few seconds before the burners do. If the air stays cold the whole time the furnace runs, it needs a contractor to check the ignition system.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is usually the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, it reads no flame and shuts the gas off even though the pilot lit fine a moment ago. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot opening can cause the same thing. Relighting it yourself might work for a night, but if it keeps going out, the thermocouple or the pilot assembly needs a contractor's attention. Winters here run October through May, so a furnace that won't hold a pilot is worth getting fixed rather than relit night after night.