Furnace Repair in Island Pond, VT
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Essex County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat, eight below at night
Your furnace in Island Pond runs from September through June, ten months of the year. On nights that average 8°F, it has to cycle on and off for hours to keep the house warm, and each start puts wear on the igniter and the parts that light the burner.
More than half the homes here heat with fuel oil, and an oil furnace needs a clean nozzle and steady fuel flow to light right every time. Storms are common in this county, with 33 winter storms and 40 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and power loss is common with them. Most furnaces will not run without power, so when the lines go down, the heat stops with them, and on a night this cold that shows up fast.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 8°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 33 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 has no state process for HVAC contractors doing home work, not a license and not even a registration. There is no number to check and no state list to find this person on. Whatever confidence you have in the person working on your furnace comes from that person and their own record, not from anything the state issued them.
A furnace repair often means someone is working near a gas connection, and that connection is the part that matters most if it is done wrong. Vermont does not license or register the contractor doing that work, so there is no state check standing behind it here.
Source: Vermont Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Safety
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat, or the furnace is getting power but not gas or vice versa. Check that the thermostat is set above room temperature and has fresh batteries if it uses them. If the furnace still won't fire, look at the switch on the furnace itself or nearby, sometimes it looks like a light switch and gets bumped off. A furnace that won't start at all, with no fan and no sound, is usually an electrical problem, a tripped breaker, a blown fuse, or a safety switch that's cutting power. With winter nights here averaging 8°F, this isn't one to wait on. A contractor can trace it to the actual cause.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the burners may not be lighting even though the blower is running. That points to an ignition problem, a flame sensor that's dirty enough to shut the burners off, or a gas supply issue. It can also mean the furnace is in the middle of its normal cycle, air can feel cool for the first minute before it warms up. If it stays cold the whole time the furnace runs, the burners aren't doing their job and it needs a look before the next cold stretch.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is almost always the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure even though the pilot lit fine. Drafts can also blow a pilot out, so check for anything pulling air across it. This is a cheap part to replace but not one to keep relighting on your own, since it means the safety system is doing exactly what it's built to do.