Furnace Repair in Westminster, MD
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Carroll County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of cold nights wear a furnace down
Westminster needs heat from October through April. That's seven months a year of nights averaging 25°F, which means the burner is cycling on and off for most of the day and night to keep up. Every one of those starts puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner going. Eventually one of them fails, and the furnace either won't light or won't stay lit.
Half the homes in this area heat with electricity, so a power outage stops the furnace outright, not just the thermostat. Carroll County has seen 21 winter storms and 173 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and statewide, about 1 in 10 households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. When the power comes back, some furnaces don't restart on their own and need a hand to get going again.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 25°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 21 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 comes from the Maryland Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Contractors, and it means the state tested this contractor and keeps a record of them. It is tied to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same license covers the furnace repair at your house as it would any other HVAC work they take on.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the person working on your gas connections and burner assembly, the part of the job where a bad connection is dangerous. In Maryland, that license is the credential meant to keep someone unqualified from doing that work in the first place.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly · Maryland Department of Labor
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often it's the thermostat, the power to the unit, or the igniter. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check the furnace switch and the breaker. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch may be keeping it from starting, and that calls for a contractor to check further. With winter nights here averaging 25°F, it's worth getting this looked at quickly rather than waiting.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- It's usually one of two things. If air runs cold for a few minutes after the furnace starts, that's normal, it's clearing cool air from the ducts before the heat exchanger warms up. If it stays cold, the furnace may be firing but not igniting, or the flame sensor may be shutting it down early. Either way a contractor will need to look at the burner and ignition system directly.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually comes down to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the pilot is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, it reads no flame even when there is one, and the valve shuts the gas off. A draft blowing out the pilot is the other common cause. A contractor can test the thermocouple and reposition or replace it.