Furnace Repair in Woodstock, VT
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Windsor County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat, and nights near 12 below zero
Woodstock needs heat from September through May. That is nine months of the year your furnace is running, lighting and shutting off, over and over, night after night.
Winter nights here average 12°F from December through February. Cold like that keeps the burner cycling most of the night to hold the house steady, and every cycle puts wear on the igniter and the parts that start it. Almost half of homes here heat with fuel oil, which means the burner, the nozzle, and the ignition system are doing that work, night after night. When one of those parts finally gives out, you will notice at the worst time, when it is coldest outside and the furnace won't light.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 12°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 18 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 does not put HVAC contractors through any state process at all. There is no test behind the work and no state list to check a name against. A contractor here can set up shop and start taking furnace repair calls without the state ever having looked at their work.
On a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since that is what can leak or burn wrong if it is done poorly. Vermont's answer to that risk is not a license. There is no state license or registration standing behind the person doing this work, only whatever the contractor has learned on the job.
Source: Vermont Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Safety
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. If the screen is blank or won't respond, check the batteries before anything else. If the thermostat looks fine, check your breaker panel and the furnace's own switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit or on the basement stairs. Furnaces also have a safety switch on the door panel that shuts the whole system down if the door isn't seated right, so make sure the panel is on all the way. If none of that gets it running, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a repair for a contractor to diagnose.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often this means the furnace is running but the burners haven't lit. Air moves through the ducts before it's actually heated, so a few seconds of cool air at startup is normal, but cold air the whole time it runs is not. A dirty filter can also cause this by blocking airflow enough that the system trips a safety limit and stops heating. If you've changed the filter and it's still blowing cold, the igniter or gas valve likely needs a contractor to look at it, especially with winter lows here averaging 12°F.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually points to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is actually lit. When it wears out or sits out of position, it shuts the gas off even though the pilot was burning fine. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out, so check that nothing nearby is pushing air toward it. If it keeps going out after you relight it, the thermocouple needs to be replaced or adjusted by a contractor, not something to keep relighting through the winter.