HVAC Repair in Port Huron, MI
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers St. Clair County will get in touch.
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It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, three of cooling, and not much rest between
Port Huron only gets about a month off from running the furnace or the AC. Heat comes on in October and stays on into May, and on the nights that average 20°F the burner is cycling on and off for hours to keep up. Every cycle puts a little more wear on the igniter and the flame sensor, and when one of those finally gives out, the house goes cold on the coldest nights, not the mild ones.
Summer is shorter here but the afternoons still push into the 80s, and the AC has to work through them with no real break before heating season starts again. Add in the storms, thirteen winter storms and eighty-two damaging wind events over the last ten years, and the power drops that come with them. More than a third of Michigan households lost power for at least a day in 2024. When the power comes back, most systems restart on their own, but a furnace or AC that was already struggling before the outage can come back working harder than it should.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $160 a year off heating and cooling for a typical St. Clair County home.
Estimates for a typical St. Clair 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.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
Michigan requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license comes from the Board of Mechanical Rules, and it belongs to the contractor, not the job. That means the board has tested this contractor and keeps a record of them, separate from whatever job they take on next.
For a repair to a heating and cooling system, that license is the thing standing behind the work. It is the state's record that this contractor was tested, and it stays with them from one job to the next.
Sources: Michigan Legislature · Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to heat and set a few degrees above room temperature, and check that it has power if it uses batteries. If the thermostat looks fine, check your breaker panel for a tripped breaker, since a furnace on its own circuit can trip without affecting anything else in the house. Gas furnaces also have a flame sensor that dirties over time and will shut the burners off as a safety measure. If none of that brings the heat back, especially with nights averaging 20°F here in the winter, a contractor should look at it soon.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- If the blower is running but the air is not cold, the first thing to check is the filter. A clogged filter starves the coil of airflow, and a coil that cannot get enough air across it will ice over and stop cooling. Check the outdoor unit too. If the fan out there is not spinning or the coil looks caked with grass and debris, it cannot move heat outside where it needs to go. If the filter is clean and the outdoor unit is running normally, the system may be low on refrigerant, and that is a repair a licensed contractor needs to handle.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat first. Look at the setting, the mode, and the batteries if it takes them. Next check your breaker panel for anything tripped, and check that any furnace switch near the unit, it looks like a light switch, is turned on. Replace the filter if you cannot remember the last time it was changed, since a clogged filter causes problems on both the heating and cooling side. If the outdoor unit is covered in leaves or debris, clear the area around it. If you have gone through all of this and the system still is not working right, a licensed contractor can diagnose what these steps cannot fix.