Furnace Repair in Knoxville, TN
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Knox County will get in touch.
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Seven months of heat calls, night after night, on Knox County's furnaces
Your furnace works from October through April here, and on the cold nights in between it runs for hours at a stretch trying to hold the house at 31°F. Most homes in Knox County heat with electric furnaces, and every one of those cycles depends on the igniter lighting the heating element or the burner without fail. Run that many cycles over a winter and the igniter or the heating element is what tends to fail first, usually with the blower running but no heat coming out of the vents.
Knox County has logged 13 winter storms and 181 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and power drops with them. Close to a fifth of Tennessee households went at least a day without power in 2024. When the power comes back, most furnaces restart on their own, but if yours doesn't fire back up after an outage, that's worth a call rather than a guess.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 31°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 13 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 below room temperature and has working batteries if it uses them. Next check the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker at your panel. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch inside the furnace may be the problem, and that's a job for a contractor to diagnose.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- The most common cause is a dirty air filter restricting airflow, which can trip a safety switch and shut off the burners while the blower keeps running. Replace the filter first and see if that solves it. If the air stays cold, the igniter or flame sensor may be failing, or the gas valve isn't opening. A furnace that blows cold rather than shutting off completely usually means it started a cycle but couldn't sustain a flame.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple isn't sensing the flame, so the gas valve shuts back off to protect the house. A draft blowing out the pilot is another common cause, so check that the area around the furnace isn't exposed to a vent or open window. If the thermocouple is worn or out of position, it needs to be adjusted or replaced by a contractor. Newer furnaces don't use a standing pilot at all, they use an electronic igniter, so this issue mostly comes up in older units.