Furnace Repair in Covington, KY
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kenton County will get in touch.
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Covington furnaces run long and hard from October to April
Your furnace works seven months out of the year here, and on the cold nights, the ones that average 26°F from December through February, it cycles on and off all night to keep up. Every one of those starts puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor. Eventually one of them fails, and the furnace either won't light or shuts itself off a few minutes after it does.
Kenton County has also seen 14 winter storms and 67 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind like that can push a furnace's vent hood or flue out of position, and a storm that knocks out power stops a gas furnace cold since the blower and ignition both need electricity to run. Across Kentucky, close to a quarter of households lost power for at least a day in 2024, and a furnace that was working fine before the outage sometimes needs a reset or a repair to come back on afterward.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 26°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 51%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 14 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $100 a year off heating for a typical Kenton County home.
Estimates for a typical Kenton County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Kentucky 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.
Kentucky requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Kentucky tests contractors before it issues a license, and the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction keeps that record on file. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. It travels with them from one house to the next rather than being issued fresh each time.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the person working on your gas line. A loose or bad connection there is the real danger in this job, and the state's testing is aimed at the people who make those connections. In Kenton County just over half of homes heat with gas, and for those homes this is the protection in place, a contractor the state has already checked before letting them near a gas furnace.
Sources: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way it should, or power isn't reaching the furnace. Check that the thermostat is set below room temperature and has fresh batteries if it takes them. Next check the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker it's on. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch inside the furnace may be the problem, and that's a job for a licensed contractor to open up and test.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- A furnace that runs but only pushes cold air usually hasn't lit at all. It's running the blower motor without ever igniting the burners, so air moves through the ducts but nothing heats it. This points to the igniter, the flame sensor, or the gas valve not doing its job. A dirty air filter can also make things worse by choking airflow, so check that first since it's the one thing you can rule out yourself. Beyond that, a licensed contractor needs to test the ignition system directly.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This almost always comes down to the thermocouple, the small part that senses the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to stay open. When it wears out or sits out of position, it reads the flame as out even when it isn't, and shuts the gas off. A draft blowing out the pilot is the other common cause, so check for anything disturbing the airflow around it. Either way, a furnace with a pilot that won't hold is a repair for a licensed contractor, not something to keep relighting through a Covington winter.