Furnace Repair in North Platte, NE
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Lincoln County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights near zero
From October through May your furnace is the thing keeping the house livable. That is eight months of the year it has to work, and on a lot of those nights the temperature outside sits around 16°F. A furnace running that hard, that often, cycles on and off many times a day, and every cycle puts wear on the igniter and the parts that get the burner lit.
Lincoln County has seen 18 winter storms and 248 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind like that can knock out power, and across Nebraska a quarter of households went at least a day without it in 2024. Most gas furnaces need electricity to run the blower and controls, so when the power drops, so does your heat, even with gas still in the line. Most of these systems come back on their own once power is restored, but if yours does not relight, or the house stays cold after a storm passes, that points to a problem worth having looked at.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 16°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 62%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 18 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 Lincoln County home.
Estimates for a typical Lincoln 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 Nebraska Department of Labor. It does not mean anyone tested the contractor's gas or furnace work, because Nebraska does not test for that. There is no trade exam behind the number on file, so the registration tells you the business exists and is on record, nothing about whether they know furnaces.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters is the gas connection, since that is where a bad repair turns dangerous. Nebraska's registration does not cover that. In Lincoln County, 61.7% of homes heat with gas, so a furnace like this one is doing the work most homes here depend on to get through the winter.
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 set above room temperature, and that the batteries aren't dead. If the thermostat looks fine, check the breaker for the furnace and the switch that looks like a light switch near the unit, since that shuts the furnace off for service and gets left off by accident. Gas furnaces also need the pilot lit or the igniter working, and a dirty flame sensor can stop the burners from staying on even when everything else is fine. If power and settings check out and it still won't run, a contractor can find the failed part.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the blower is running but the burners haven't lit. Check that the thermostat fan setting is on auto, not on, since a fan set to on will blow air between heating cycles and that air will feel cold. If the fan is on auto and you're still getting cold air, the igniter, flame sensor, or gas supply may be keeping the burners from firing, and a contractor will need to check those. A dirty filter can also cause the furnace to overheat and shut the burners off while the blower keeps running.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This is usually the thermocouple, the small part that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to stay open. When it wears out or sits out of position, the gas valve shuts the pilot off soon after you light it. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same problem. This isn't something to keep relighting on your own since it means the safety system is doing its job, so have a contractor check the thermocouple and the pilot assembly.