Furnace Repair in Norfolk, NE
Furnaces here run from October through May. 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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Eight months of heat puts real wear on a furnace
From October through May your furnace is the thing standing between you and 15 degree nights. That is eight months of the burner lighting, running, and shutting off, night after night. Each cycle puts a load on the igniter and the parts that control the flame, and over years that wear catches up.
More than half the homes in Madison County heat with gas, so when the furnace goes out on a cold night, there is no backup warming the house. Winters here also bring storms, 23 of them over the past ten years, along with 71 damaging wind events. Power loss is common enough that a quarter of Nebraska households went at least a day without it in 2024, and a furnace that loses power will not fire back up on its own until something resets it or a contractor checks it.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 15°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 53%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 23 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, 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.
Registration puts the business on file with the Nebraska Department of Labor. It confirms the company exists and can be traced if something goes wrong. It does not mean anyone tested the person doing the work, and there is no exam behind the number.
For a furnace repair, that means the registration is not what stands between you and bad work. What matters more is the gas connection itself, since that is the part that can hurt someone if it is done wrong. In Madison County, where more than half of homes heat with gas, that connection is the part of the job where a mistake matters most, and no state exam covers it.
Source: Nebraska Legislature
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat. Check that it's set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and change the batteries if it uses them. If the thermostat looks fine, check the furnace switch, usually a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for the furnace. Many furnaces also stop running if the air filter is badly clogged, since the system senses restricted airflow and shuts down to protect itself. If power and airflow both check out and it still won't start, the igniter or a safety switch inside the furnace may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to look at it.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- In most cases the burners aren't lighting even though the blower is running, so you get moving air with no heat behind it. This can happen when the igniter has worn out, the flame sensor is dirty, or gas isn't reaching the burners. A clogged filter can also cause this, since it can trip a safety limit that shuts off the burners while letting the fan keep blowing. If you've checked the filter and the thermostat setting and it's still blowing cold, the furnace needs a contractor to find out why the burners aren't lighting.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has failed. That's the small part that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to stay open. When it wears out, it reads the flame as out even when it's lit, and the gas valve shuts off the pilot as a safety measure. A draft blowing out the flame or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same problem. Either way, a furnace with a pilot that won't hold needs a contractor to check the thermocouple and the pilot assembly rather than being relit over and over.