Furnace Repair in Alliance, NE
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Box Butte County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat, and nights averaging 15 degrees
Alliance homes need the furnace running from September through May, nine months of the year. On winter nights that average 15 degrees, the burner cycles on and off for hours to keep up. Each cycle puts wear on the igniter and the flame sensor, and after enough winters one of them gives out. The furnace tries to start, clicks, and shuts back down. No heat.
Most homes here heat with gas, and a gas furnace still needs electricity to run its blower and control board. Box Butte County has logged 38 winter storms and 72 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. A quarter of Nebraska households went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. Most furnaces restart on their own once power is back. If yours does not, that is worth a call.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 15°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 69%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 38 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 Box Butte County home.
Estimates for a typical Box Butte County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Nebraska 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.
Nebraska requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the state. There's no trade exam behind it, so it tells you the business exists, not that anyone checked its gas or furnace work.
For a furnace repair, the gas connection is the part that matters most, since that's where a mistake turns dangerous. In Box Butte County, most homes heat with gas, so that connection is doing real work in most furnaces here. Nebraska's registration doesn't test for that. It's a record, not a check on the work.
Source: Nebraska Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check it's set to heat and the set temperature is above room temperature, and check the batteries if it has a screen that looks dim. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for the furnace. Also check the panel on the front of the furnace. It has to sit flush or a safety switch keeps the unit from running. If all of that checks out and it still won't start, something inside needs a contractor to look at it, and with lows around 15°F here that's not something to sit on.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit. That points to an ignition problem, a flame sensor that needs cleaning, or a safety switch that's shutting the burners down before they can heat the air. It can also mean the thermostat fan is set to "on" instead of "auto", which pushes air through the ducts between heating cycles even when nothing's burning. If the fan setting isn't it, the furnace needs a contractor to check why the burners aren't firing.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- The usual cause is a worn thermocouple, the small sensor that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to stay open. When it wears out, it can't hold that signal, so the valve closes and the pilot goes out even though the flame looked fine. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing. Either way it's a gas valve part, not something to keep relighting on your own. Have a contractor replace it.