Furnace Repair in Centreville, MD
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Queen Anne's County will get in touch.
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Seven months of heat wears on a furnace here
Centreville needs a working furnace from October through April. On the cold nights in that stretch, winter lows average 28°F, so the burner is cycling on and off for hours at a time, night after night. Each cycle puts a load on the igniter and the parts that get the burner lit. That is usually where trouble shows up first, as a furnace that will not start or shuts off partway through a cycle.
Most homes here heat with electricity, so a power outage means no heat at all, not just a lower setting. Queen Anne's County has seen 9 winter storms and 104 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and statewide, about 11% of households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024. When the power drops on a cold night, a furnace that was already struggling may not come back on the way it should.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 28°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
Maryland requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is held by the contractor, not issued job by job, so the person or company doing the work has already been tested and is on record with the Maryland Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Contractors before they ever get to your furnace.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the work. A furnace burns gas, and a bad repair on the gas line or the venting is the dangerous part of the job, so the same license that lets the contractor take the work also puts their name on it with the state.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly · Maryland Department of Labor
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often it is the thermostat, the power supply, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, then check the breaker and the furnace switch, which looks like a regular light switch near the unit. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, and that is a repair for a licensed contractor since it means opening the furnace.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Air blows cold for a few minutes when the furnace first starts, that's normal while the heat exchanger warms up. If it stays cold, the burners may not be lighting even though the blower is running, which can point to a bad igniter, a dirty flame sensor, or a gas supply problem. A dirty filter can also choke off airflow enough to trip a safety switch that shuts the burners off while the blower keeps going. With nights here averaging 28°F through the winter, this isn't something to leave unresolved.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit usually means the thermocouple has worn out and is no longer sensing the flame correctly, so the gas valve shuts it off as a safety measure. It can also mean a draft is blowing the flame out, or the pilot orifice is partly clogged. Newer furnaces mostly use electronic ignition instead of a standing pilot, so if yours has one, it is likely an older unit and a licensed contractor can tell you whether the part is still worth repairing.