Furnace Repair in Mount Washington, KY
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Bullitt County will get in touch.
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Seven months of heat puts real wear on your furnace
Mount Washington homes need heat from October through April. That is most of the year for a furnace to cycle on and off, and on winter nights averaging 28°F, it runs long stretches to keep up. Every cycle depends on the igniter lighting the burner. Over that many months, a weak igniter starts failing to catch, and the furnace runs shorter and shorter until it stops lighting at all.
Almost half of homes in the area heat with electricity, and power here does not always stay on. Nearly a quarter of Kentucky households lost power for a full day or more in 2024, and the region has seen 14 winter storms and 58 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power drops in the cold, an electric furnace stops producing heat until it is back, and some furnaces need a reset or a service call to start again once it returns.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 28°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 14 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 Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction issues the license, and it's tied to the contractor, not to the specific job. That means the same license that qualifies someone to work on your furnace covers the next homeowner's furnace too. It's a record the state keeps and tested for, not a form the contractor filled out.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the person working on your gas connections and burner assembly. A bad connection is the dangerous part of this job, and in Kentucky it's the state-tested license that's supposed to mean the contractor knows how to get that right, not just a business filing on record somewhere.
Sources: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The most common reason is the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way you think it is, so check that it's set to heat and set above room temperature first. If that's fine, look at your breaker panel, since a tripped breaker will shut the whole system down. A dirty filter can also cause the furnace to shut itself off as a safety measure, so check that too. If none of that explains it, the igniter or a safety switch inside the unit may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to open it up and test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit, so air is moving through the ducts without any heat added to it. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause of this, since it will shut the burners off even while the fan keeps going. It can also mean the furnace is in the middle of its normal cycle, blowing a few seconds of cool air before the burners catch. If the air stays cold the whole time it runs, that's a repair a contractor needs to diagnose.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out and stopped sensing the pilot flame correctly, so the gas valve shuts off as a safety response. It can also mean the pilot orifice is dirty or there's a draft in the area reaching the flame. Newer furnaces use an electronic igniter instead of a standing pilot, so if yours has one, this isn't the cause. Either way, a gas valve or ignition problem isn't something to keep relighting on your own. It needs a contractor to find why it's failing.