Furnace Repair in St. Albans, VT
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Franklin County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat, and nights near 11 below zero
Your furnace in St. Albans runs from September through May. That is nine months of the burner lighting and shutting off, and on the coldest nights, when the temperature drops to an average low of 11°F, it runs longer and more often to keep the house warm.
About a third of homes here heat with fuel oil, so that furnace is working hard through a long season. Winter storms add another risk. Vermont saw 21% of households lose power for at least a day in 2024, and a furnace needs electricity to run its blower and ignition. When the power goes out on a cold night, the heat goes with it, even if nothing is wrong with the furnace itself.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 11°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 51 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 license for HVAC contractors, and it keeps no registration list either. There is no state record of who is doing this work or what training stands behind them.
For a furnace repair, that means no license number stands behind the person doing the work. Gas connections are the part that matters most on a furnace, since a loose fitting or bad seal is what turns a repair dangerous. In Vermont, nothing at the state level checks that work on this job. Whatever stands behind it comes down to the contractor doing it, not a credential the state issued them.
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 the way it should, or power isn't reaching the furnace. Check that the thermostat is set above room temperature and has fresh batteries if it uses them. Next check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker at your panel. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a job for a contractor to test and replace.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the furnace may be running the blower without the burners lighting. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause of this, since it shuts the gas off as a safety measure when it can't confirm a flame. A clogged filter can also cause the system to overheat and cut the burners while the blower keeps running. With nights here averaging 11°F in winter, this isn't something to leave alone, so have a contractor check it soon.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple isn't sensing the flame and is shutting the gas valve as a result. It can also mean a draft is blowing the pilot out, or the pilot orifice is partly clogged. A standing pilot doesn't use electricity, so a power blip isn't the cause. A contractor can tell which of these it is and replace the part that's failing.