Furnace Repair in Albany, NY
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Albany County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat puts a lot of hours on your furnace
From October through May your furnace is what stands between you and a 17°F night. That is eight months of the burner lighting and shutting off, over and over, to hold the house at temperature. Most homes here run on gas, so it is the igniter and the flame sensor doing that work night after night, and those are the parts that wear out first from the repetition.
Albany County gets its share of winter storms, and across New York, about 11% of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. A furnace does not restart on its own once the power comes back the way some other systems do. If your heat cuts out during a storm and stays out after the lights are back on, that is usually why.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 17°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 65%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 46 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $180 a year off heating for a typical Albany County home.
Estimates for a typical Albany County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, New York 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.
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Start with the thermostat and the power. If the display is blank, check the breaker and the switch that looks like a light switch near the furnace, sometimes it gets bumped off. If it has power but still won't start, the igniter may have failed, or a safety switch is holding it off because of a clogged filter or a blocked vent. With winter lows here averaging 17°F, a furnace that won't start needs a contractor out quickly rather than waiting to see if it fixes itself.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Most of the time this means the blower is running but the burners never lit. That happens when the igniter is worn out, the flame sensor is dirty, or gas flow to the burners is interrupted. It can also mean the thermostat fan is set to "on" instead of "auto", which pushes air through the ducts even when the furnace isn't heating it. Check that setting first, then call for a repair if the air stays cold.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit usually points to the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the gas valve the flame is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, it shuts the gas off even though the pilot is lit. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can cause the same thing. Since a standing pilot doesn't need power to run, this isn't an outage problem, it's a part that needs a contractor to check or replace.