Furnace Repair in Granite City, IL
Furnaces here run from October through April. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Madison County will get in touch.
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Seven months of work in Granite City cold
Your furnace runs from October through April here. On nights that average 25°F, it cycles on and off many times to hold the house steady, and every start puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor. Those are the parts most likely to fail first, and when they do, the burner won't light at all.
Most homes in Granite City heat with gas, so a furnace that won't fire means no heat, not a cold spot. Madison County has also seen its share of winter storms and wind events over the past ten years, and power blips during a cold snap can trip a furnace's control board or keep it from restarting on its own. If yours stopped working after the lights flickered, that is often where to look.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 25°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 61%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 11 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $110 a year off heating for a typical Madison County home.
Estimates for a typical Madison County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Illinois fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Repair makes sense when one part has failed and the heat exchanger is sound.
Replacement makes sense when the heat exchanger is cracked or the furnace keeps needing parts.
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
Illinois leaves this to local government, so what applies to a furnace repair depends on whether the house sits inside a city or town with its own licensing rule, or out in the unincorporated part of Madison County. Some municipalities require a contractor license to do this work inside their limits. Others have no such rule at all. There is no statewide test or state record to check either way, only whatever the local rule happens to be where the house sits.
For a furnace repair, the part worth caring about is the gas connection, since that's where a mistake turns dangerous. Whether that connection gets checked by anyone besides the contractor depends on the same local rule, and in places with no licensing rule, nothing outside the contractor's own work checks it. In Madison County, 60.7% of homes heat with gas, which is exactly why that connection is the part of the job that matters most here.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the temperature is set above the room temperature, since a setting bumped by accident is the simplest explanation. If that's not it, check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit. Many furnaces also have a door that has to be seated shut against a safety switch, so make sure it's latched all the way. If none of that gets it going, the igniter or a safety switch inside may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to check.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- First check the thermostat fan setting. If it's set to "on" instead of "auto", the blower runs all the time, including between heating cycles when the air coming out hasn't been warmed yet. If it's already set to auto and you're still getting cold air, the furnace may be failing to ignite even though the blower still runs. A dirty filter can also cause the furnace to overheat and shut off its burners while the fan keeps going. Either way, a contractor can tell you which it is.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually comes down to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the furnace the pilot is actually burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, the furnace reads no flame and shuts the gas valve even though the pilot lit fine. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out, so check that any nearby vents or doors aren't sending air across it. If it keeps going out after you relight it, the thermocouple needs to be adjusted or replaced by a contractor, since it's part of the gas safety system.