Furnace Repair in Oswego, IL
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kendall County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, on nights near 19 degrees
Your furnace works from October through May here, and on the coldest nights it's cycling on and off against an average low of 19°F. Each start puts a load on the igniter and the parts that get the burner lit. Over enough winters, that wear catches up, and the furnace either won't light or shuts off before the house warms up.
Kendall County has also seen its share of winter storms and wind, the kind that knock out power. Most gas furnaces need electricity to run the blower and controls, so when the power drops, so does your heat, even with gas still feeding the burner.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 87%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 10 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $140 a year off heating for a typical Kendall County home.
Estimates for a typical Kendall 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 HVAC licensing to cities and towns, and Kendall County has no county-wide license of its own. Whether a contractor needs a local license to repair your furnace depends on which town or township the house is in, since that decision is made by each municipality, not the state or the county. Some require one, some do not, and there is no single record covering the whole county.
With most Kendall County homes heating with gas, the part of the job that matters most is the gas connection, since that is where a mistake turns dangerous. Whether that connection gets checked by anyone outside the contractor depends on the same town-by-town rule, not on a license that does not exist here. In a town with no local requirement, there is no local record of who did the work.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- 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 above room temperature and has fresh batteries if it uses them. Next check the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker in your panel. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch inside the furnace may be the problem, and that needs a contractor to open the unit and test it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- When a furnace runs but only pushes cold air, it usually hasn't started burning gas yet even though the blower is on. That points to the igniter, the flame sensor, or the gas valve not doing its job. A dirty filter can also make the air feel cooler than it should because less warm air is moving through it. If changing the filter doesn't fix it, the furnace needs a contractor to check the ignition system.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that won't stay lit is almost always the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is real. When it wears out or sits out of position, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure even though the pilot was burning. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out on its own. Either way, a contractor needs to inspect and likely replace the part rather than relight it repeatedly.