Furnace Repair in Kingsport, TN
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Sullivan County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heat is a lot of starts and stops
Kingsport homes run the furnace October through April, seven months out of the year. Winter nights average 29°F from December through February, cold enough that the burner is cycling on and off most of the night to keep up. Every one of those starts puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner lit.
Most homes here heat with electricity, and Sullivan County has seen 29 winter storms and 58 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power drops, the furnace stops with it, and in Tennessee last year 20% of households went at least 24 hours without power. When it comes back on, that is often when a weak igniter or a failing part finally shows itself and the furnace will not restart on its own.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 29°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 29 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- 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 to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit. A dead batteries in the thermostat will also stop the call for heat cold. If power and settings check out, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a job for a contractor to diagnose.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the furnace may be running the blower without a flame. That happens when the igniter isn't lighting the gas or the flame sensor shuts the burner off right after it lights. It can also mean the furnace is in the middle of its startup cycle, since the blower sometimes runs a few seconds before the burner fires. If cold air keeps coming with no warm air behind it, the burner isn't staying lit and a contractor needs to look at it.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is almost always a bad or dirty thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is burning. When it can't sense the flame, it shuts the gas off as a safety measure, even if the pilot is actually lit. Drafts near the pilot or a buildup of soot on the thermocouple can cause the same thing. This isn't something to force past by holding the button down longer. It needs a contractor to clean or replace the part.