Furnace Repair in Charlotte, MI
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Eaton County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on your furnace
Charlotte homes need the furnace running from October through May, eight months of the year. On winter nights that average 19°F, it doesn't cycle lightly. It runs long and often to keep the house warm, and every one of those starts wears on the igniter.
Charlotte has seen 11 winter storms and 11 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and outages that come with them can stop a furnace cold even when nothing inside it is broken. If your furnace won't fire back up after the power blinks, or it's running rough after a long stretch of cold, that's worth a look before the next storm.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 63%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 11 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 Eaton County home.
Estimates for a typical Eaton County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Michigan 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.
Michigan requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Michigan licenses HVAC contractors through the Board of Mechanical Rules. The license belongs to the contractor, not to each job, so it is the contractor's own record and it does not mean the state inspects every repair separately.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the person doing the work. A gas furnace depends on a sound connection to the gas line, since a bad one is the dangerous part of the job, and in Michigan the contractor's license is what accounts for the person making that connection. In Eaton County, 63% of homes heat with gas, so this is the rule doing the work on most furnaces here.
Sources: Michigan Legislature · Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
- 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, then check the breaker for the furnace and the switch that looks like a light switch near the unit, often mounted on the side or on a nearby wall. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, or the flame sensor may be dirty and telling the system not to fire. A furnace that won't start at all after a power outage sometimes just needs to be reset, but if it trips again, that points to a real fault a contractor needs to check.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the blower is running but the burners aren't lighting. That can be a bad igniter, a dirty flame sensor, or a gas valve that isn't opening. It can also mean the thermostat fan is set to "on" instead of "auto", which runs the blower between heating cycles and feels like cold air. If the burners are lighting but the air still isn't warming up, a contractor should check the heat exchanger and gas pressure.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit usually means the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small part that sits in the flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to keep the gas flowing. When it fails, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure, even though the pilot lit fine a moment earlier. It can also be a draft blowing the flame out, or a buildup of soot on the pilot assembly. This isn't something to keep relighting on your own for long. A furnace with a pilot problem in a Charlotte winter needs a contractor out soon, since nights here average 19°F this time of year.