Furnace Repair in Alburgh, VT
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Grand Isle County will get in touch.
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Alburgh asks a lot of a furnace
Nine months of the year, your furnace is the thing standing between your family and 13 degree nights. That is September through May of near constant cycling, and every start puts a small load on the igniter and the burner assembly. Over enough winters, that wear is what finally keeps the burner from lighting at all.
Grand Isle County has seen 16 winter storms and 33 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and power in Vermont does not always hold through them. Close to half the homes here heat with fuel oil, and an oil furnace still needs electricity to run its igniter and blower. When the power drops on a night that cold, the furnace stops with it, and it needs to come back on correctly once the lights do.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 13°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
Vermont has no state license for HVAC contractors.
Vermont keeps no state license or registration for HVAC contractors doing home work, so there is no state record on the contractor who shows up in Grand Isle County. Nothing about them has been tested or filed with the state before they start.
A furnace repair means working around a gas line and a flame, and that connection is the part that can actually hurt someone if it is done wrong. In Vermont, there is no state credential standing behind that work. The facts here name no license, no registration, and no state inspection of it.
Source: Vermont Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Safety
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The most common cause is the thermostat calling for heat but the furnace not responding, which usually points to a power or safety switch problem. Check that the switch on or near the furnace, which looks like a light switch, is on. A tripped breaker, a clogged filter that triggered a safety shutoff, or a dead thermostat battery can all stop the furnace from starting. If the power has been out recently, some furnaces need the switch cycled or the thermostat reset before they will fire again. With average winter lows around 13°F here, a furnace that won't start needs attention the same day.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the blower is running before the burners have warmed up, which is normal for a short stretch after the thermostat calls for heat. If cold air keeps blowing well past that, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing to light the burners at all, so the blower just moves unheated air through the ducts. A dirty flame sensor is a common reason a furnace lights, then shuts off and blows cold. This is worth fixing quickly since homes here need heat from September through May.
- 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 even when one is there and shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same problem. If your furnace uses a standing pilot, it will keep working through a power outage since it doesn't rely on electricity, but the thermocouple issue has nothing to do with power and needs a contractor to replace the part.