HVAC Repair in Annapolis, MD
Homes here need heat from October through April and cooling from June through September. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Anne Arundel County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of work, most years
Your system in Anne Arundel County gets almost no rest. Heat runs October through April, seven months, then the AC takes over June through September. That leaves one month of downtime a year, if the weather cooperates.
Winter nights here average 29°F, cold enough that the furnace cycles on and off most of the night to hold the temperature. Summer afternoons average 86°F, and the AC answers back with long runtimes to keep up. Almost half the homes here heat with electricity, so a heat pump or electric furnace working this hard leans on the same parts all winter. Add in the wind this area sees, with 248 damaging wind events recorded over the past ten years, and outdoor units take a beating even when the system itself is sound.
- 7 months
- October through April, your system heats
- 4 months
- June through September, it cools
- 29°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 86°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Maryland requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Maryland Board of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Contractors issues this license, and it tests the contractor before granting it. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so the same credential covers a repair on your system as it would any other HVAC work they take on in the state.
For a heating and cooling repair, that license is what stands behind the person working on your system. If gas lines are part of the job, the connection is the part that has to be right, since a leak there is what makes the work dangerous.
Sources: Maryland General Assembly · Maryland Department of Labor
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat and the power to the furnace. If the thermostat screen is blank, check the breaker and any switch on the furnace itself that looks like a light switch. If it has power and still won't fire, the igniter is a common failure, and on older systems a pilot light can blow out. With winter lows here averaging 29°F, a furnace that won't hold heat overnight is worth getting looked at before the next cold snap, not after.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- Check the air filter first. A filter clogged with dust chokes off airflow, and the coil behind it can ice over so the air coming out feels warm instead of cold. If the filter is clean and the air still isn't cold, the refrigerant charge or the outdoor unit itself needs a contractor to look at it, since that isn't something to diagnose from inside the house.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings, the batteries in it if it uses them, and the breaker for the system. Check the air filter and replace it if it's gray or clogged. Look at the outdoor unit and clear away any leaves or debris sitting against it, since after 248 damaging wind events here over the past ten years, that's a common thing to find blocking it. If those all check out and the system still isn't heating or cooling right, it's time to have a licensed contractor take a look.