Furnace Repair in Kenosha, WI
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kenosha County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts real wear on a Kenosha County furnace
From October through May your furnace is the thing standing between you and 18°F nights. That is eight months of the burner lighting, running, and shutting off, night after night. Every one of those cycles asks something of the igniter and the flame sensor, and over enough winters they wear out. When the igniter finally gives up, the furnace won't light at all.
Most furnaces here run on gas, and a gas furnace still needs power to run the blower and the control board. Kenosha County has seen 19 winter storms and 43 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and statewide, 18% of households went at least a full day without power in 2024. When the power drops on a cold night, the furnace stops pushing warm air through the house until it comes back on.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 18°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 75%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 19 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $100 a year off heating for a typical Kenosha County home.
Estimates for a typical Kenosha County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Wisconsin 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.
Wisconsin requires contractors to register with the state.
Wisconsin puts the contractor's business on file with the Department of Safety and Professional Services. Nobody tested their furnace work to get on that list. The registration means the business exists on state record and can be traced, not that the state checked how they repair a furnace. Counties and cities in Wisconsin can't add their own HVAC license on top of this, so wherever you are in Kenosha County, this registration is the only state record there is.
Most homes in Kenosha County heat with gas, and the gas connection is the part of a furnace repair that matters most. No state exam covers that work here. The registration doesn't reach it either, since it was never a test of the contractor's skill to begin with.
Sources: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way it should, or power isn't reaching the furnace. Check that the thermostat is set below room temperature and has fresh batteries if it takes them. Next check the furnace switch, which looks like a regular light switch near the unit, and the breaker it's on. If those are fine, a safety switch inside the furnace may be holding it off, and that calls for a contractor to find out why.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- A furnace blows cold air for a few seconds when it first starts, while it clears cool air out of the ducts before the burners kick in. If it keeps blowing cold, check the thermostat fan setting. Set to "on," the fan runs all the time, even between heating cycles, which feels like cold air. Set to "auto," it should only run when the furnace is actually heating. If it's already on auto and still blows cold, the igniter or burners may not be lighting, and a contractor needs to look at it.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that won't stay lit usually means the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small part that sits in the pilot flame and tells the gas valve the flame is really there. When it fails, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure, even though the pilot was lit a moment ago. It can also mean a draft is blowing the flame out, or the pilot tube is partly clogged. A contractor can test the thermocouple and replace it if that's the cause. Homes here rely on gas heat through eight months of the year, so getting this fixed matters more once the cold sets in.