Furnace Repair in London, KY
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Laurel County will get in touch.
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London asks a lot of a furnace from October to April
Your furnace works seven months out of the year here, and on the coldest nights it is cycling on and off to keep up with lows that average 28°F. Every one of those cycles puts a load on the igniter and the burner. Over a winter that many starts wear a weak igniter down until it stops lighting the burner at all, and the house goes cold.
Kentucky has seen 16 winter storms and 115 damaging wind events over the last ten years, and in 2024 about a quarter of households in the state went at least a day without power. Most furnaces need electricity to run the blower and controls even if they burn gas, so when the power drops, the heat drops with it. It should start back up on its own once power returns, and if it does not, that points to a problem worth having checked.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 28°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 16 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Kentucky requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Kentucky's license is issued through the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, and it tests the contractor before anything is approved. It covers the contractor as a whole, not the individual job, so the same license that qualifies someone to install a furnace also stands behind a furnace repair.
For a repair on a gas furnace, that license is what backs the person doing the work, since Kentucky has already put them through its own testing and keeps their record on file. The dangerous part of a furnace repair is a bad gas connection, and the license is the state's way of vouching that the contractor knows how to make that connection safely.
Sources: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it's the thermostat, the power supply, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is actually above room temperature, since a dead thermostat battery can leave the screen looking normal but sending no signal. Next check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit and gets bumped off more than people expect. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, and that's a part a contractor needs to test and replace.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the furnace is usually running the blower without the burners lighting. That points to a flame sensor that can't detect the flame and shuts gas off as a safety measure, or an igniter that isn't getting hot enough to start it. A clogged filter can also make this worse by starving the burners of airflow. With winter nights here averaging 28°F, cold air coming from the vents for more than a few minutes means it needs a look before the house loses too much heat.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple, which senses the pilot flame and keeps gas flowing to it. If that part reads the flame as too weak or not there, it shuts the gas valve even though the pilot is lit. A draft near the pilot or a buildup of soot on the thermocouple can cause the same problem. Since a standing pilot burns without needing electricity, if the pilot itself keeps going out rather than the flame failing to register, the gas supply or the pilot assembly needs a contractor's look.