Furnace Repair in Cookeville, TN
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Putnam County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of work, most of it on cold nights
Cookeville needs heat from October through April, seven months of the year. That means seven months of the furnace cycling on through nights that average 30°F, and every one of those cycles puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner going.
Most homes here heat with electricity, so when the power goes out, the furnace stops with it. Putnam County has seen 11 winter storms and 81 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in 2024, 20% of Tennessee households lost power for at least 24 hours. When the furnace won't start back up after an outage, that is often the first sign something needs a look.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 30°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 11 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and the set temperature is above room temperature, since a setting bumped a degree or two can make the furnace look dead when it isn't. Check the breaker next, because a tripped breaker will stop the furnace cold with no warning at all. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch may be at fault, and that calls for a contractor to test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is running the blower but hasn't fired up the burners yet, so you feel cold air for a minute or two before it warms. If the air stays cold the whole time it runs, the igniter may have failed, or the gas valve isn't opening. A clogged filter can also choke airflow enough to trip a safety limit and shut the burners off while the fan keeps blowing. A contractor can tell which one it is in a few minutes.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out. It's the small sensor that proves to the gas valve that a flame is actually burning, and once it wears out it shuts the gas off even though the pilot is lit. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing. None of these are safe to force past, so have a contractor check the thermocouple and clean the assembly.