HVAC Repair in Bronx, NY
Homes here need heat from October through April and cooling from June through September. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Bronx County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eleven months of work, most years
Your system in the Bronx gets a break of about one month a year. Heat runs October through April, and on nights near 28°F the burner or the heat pump cycles on again and again to hold the house steady. Come June the same system switches jobs, and it runs all summer against afternoons near 83°F. That kind of load year round wears on the parts that start the system up, the igniter in a gas furnace or the contactor and capacitor in a condenser. When one of those goes, you will notice heat that will not start on a cold night or air conditioning that will not kick on when it is 83 outside.
The Bronx also sees its share of winter storms and high wind, and power drops with them. Across New York, 11 percent of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. A furnace with a standing pilot will relight on its own once power is back, but most furnaces and every heat pump need the power on to run at all, so a long outage on a cold night is worth planning for.
- 7 months
- October through April, your system heats
- 4 months
- June through September, it cools
- 28°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $150 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Bronx County home.
Estimates for a typical Bronx 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.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to heat and the temperature is set above room temperature, since a setting bumped a degree or two can look like a dead furnace. Check your breaker panel next, because a tripped breaker will shut the whole system down with no warning at the thermostat. If the furnace runs on gas, check that the gas valve is open and, if you have a standing pilot, that the pilot light is lit. Winter nights here average 28°F, so a furnace that will not fire is not something to wait out. If power and gas are both fine and the furnace still will not start, the igniter or the flame sensor is a common point of failure and a contractor will need to check it.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- Check the air filter first. A filter clogged with dust blocks airflow across the coil, and when air cannot move past it the coil can ice over and stop cooling the air at all. Check that the thermostat is set to cool, not just fan, and that the temperature is set below room temperature. Outside, make sure the outdoor unit is not blocked by grass, leaves, or anything sitting close to it, since it needs open air to release heat. If the filter is clean and the airflow is clear but the air coming from the vents is not cold, the system is likely low on refrigerant or has an electrical problem, and that needs a contractor to diagnose.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings, the batteries in it if it uses them, and the breaker for the system. These account for a lot of no-heat and no-cool calls and take a minute to rule out. Check the air filter and replace it if it is visibly dirty, since restricted airflow causes problems on both the heating and cooling side. If the outdoor unit is involved, look for anything blocking it, like leaves, snow, or debris. Storms are common here, with 16 winter storms and 20 damaging wind events recorded over the last ten years, so after any rough weather it is worth checking that the outdoor unit was not hit by debris or knocked out of level before assuming the problem is mechanical.