Furnace Repair in Park City, UT
Furnaces here run from August through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Summit County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of heat wears a furnace down fast
In Park City, your furnace runs almost year round, from August through June. Winter nights average 12°F, so on the coldest ones the burner is lighting and shutting off over and over to keep up. Every one of those cycles puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor, and those are usually the first parts to fail.
Most homes here heat with gas, and a gas furnace still needs power to run its blower and controls. Summit County has logged 113 winter storms over the past ten years, along with 35 damaging wind events. When the power drops during one of those, the furnace stops moving air until it comes back on, and you will notice the house cooling fast on a night that is already near 12°F.
- 11 months
- August through June, your furnace is on duty
- 12°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 84%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 113 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $160 a year off heating for a typical Summit County home.
Estimates for a typical Summit County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Utah 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.
Utah requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
That license comes from the Division of Professional Licensing, and it covers the contractor, not the job in front of them. It is the same license whether this is the first furnace they have repaired or the thousandth. Utah draws a line at $7,000. Work under that amount does not need a licensed contractor at all.
A furnace repair means gas is involved, and a bad connection is the dangerous part of the job. Where the job costs $7,000 or more, the license is what stands behind the person making that connection. In Summit County, 83.7% of homes heat with gas, which makes that connection the part of the job worth caring most about here.
Sources: Utah State Legislature · Utah Department of Commerce
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it is set to heat and the temperature is set above the room temperature, and check the batteries if it uses them. If that is not it, check the breaker and the furnace switch, which looks like a regular light switch near the unit. Many furnaces also have a door that has to be seated correctly against a safety switch, so a loose panel can shut the whole thing down. If none of that brings it back, the igniter or the control board may have failed, and a contractor will need to check it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most often the furnace is still catching up, since it takes a few minutes for the air coming out of the vents to warm up once it starts. If cold air keeps coming after that, check the thermostat fan setting. Set to "on," the fan runs all the time, even between heating cycles, and that feels like cold air. If it is set to "auto" and you are still getting cold air, the igniter may be failing to light the burners, or the flame sensor may be shutting the burners off right after they start. Either one needs a contractor to look at it.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually points to the thermocouple, the small part that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the flame is lit. When it wears out or sits out of position, the gas valve shuts the pilot off as a safety measure, even though the flame was burning fine. A draft blowing across the pilot can also blow it out. If you have relit it and it goes out again within a minute or two, the thermocouple needs to be checked or replaced, which is a job for a contractor since it involves the gas line.