Furnace Repair in Columbia, TN
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Maury County will get in touch.
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Seven months of heat calls take a toll
From October through April your furnace is what stands between your house and a 30°F night. That is seven months of lighting, running, and shutting off, over and over, on the coldest nights of the year. Most homes in Maury County heat with electricity, so when the power goes out, the furnace stops with it.
Storms here do not stay away for long. The area has seen 9 winter storms and 104 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in 2024 a fifth of Tennessee households lost power for at least 24 hours. A furnace that was already struggling to light or run right does not always come back on clean after an outage, and that is often when a homeowner finds out something was wrong.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 30°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 9 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- The most common reason is the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way it should, so check that it's set to heat and the temperature is set above room temperature. If that's fine, look at the breaker box, since a tripped breaker will shut the whole system down. A dirty filter can also block airflow badly enough that safety switches stop the furnace before it starts. If none of that explains it, the igniter or a safety switch inside the furnace may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to check.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Check the thermostat fan setting first. If it's set to "on" instead of "auto", the blower runs constantly, including the minutes between heating cycles when the air coming out hasn't been warmed yet. If the fan is already set to auto and you're still getting cold air, the furnace may not be igniting at all, or the flame is going out shortly after it starts. A furnace that's 7 months into regular use here without a checkup is also more likely to have a dirty filter restricting airflow, which can trip the system's safety controls. Either way, a contractor needs to look at the burner and ignition system directly.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep the gas flowing. When it fails, the valve shuts off the gas as a safety measure, even though the pilot lit just fine a moment earlier. A draft blowing out the flame is possible too, but if it keeps happening after you relight it, the thermocouple is the more likely cause. Replacing it is a straightforward job for a contractor, and it's not something to keep relighting through on your own.