Furnace Repair in Dickinson, ND
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Stark County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat, nights near 7 below
Your furnace in Dickinson runs from September through June. That is ten months of the year with almost no rest in between. Winter nights average 7°F from December through February, so the burner is cycling on and off all night long to hold the house steady.
All that cycling wears on the igniter and the burner assembly first. More than half the homes here heat with gas, and a furnace that starts and stops this often will show its age sooner than one running a few months a year. When the power goes out in a storm, a gas furnace with a standing pilot can still light on its own, but the blower still needs electricity to move that heat through the house.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 7°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 51%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 23 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $110 a year off heating for a typical Stark County home.
Estimates for a typical Stark County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, North Dakota 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.
North Dakota requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
North Dakota licenses HVAC contractors through the Secretary of State, and the license covers the contractor, not each individual job. That means the record follows the person or business doing the work, not the paperwork for this particular repair. Work under $4,000 falls outside that requirement, so a small repair can be done without a licensed contractor. That is a threshold the state set, not a gap in what the license means once a job is above it.
A furnace repair is gas work, and gas work is where a bad connection becomes the dangerous part of the job. In Stark County, just over half of homes heat with gas, so this kind of repair is a regular part of the work here. Where the job falls above the state's $4,000 threshold, the license is what stands behind whoever is doing it.
Sources: North Dakota Legislative Branch · North Dakota Secretary of State
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way you think it is, or the furnace isn't getting power or gas. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above the room temperature. Check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which is usually a light switch on or near the unit. If those are fine, the igniter, the flame sensor, or a safety switch may be stopping it, and that needs a contractor to check.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If the air feels cold but the furnace is running, it may just be starting up. The blower often kicks on before the burners warm up, so you get a few seconds of cool air first. If it stays cold longer than that, the burners aren't lighting, and the blower is moving unheated air through the ducts. With winter lows around 7°F here, that's worth having looked at the same day.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that won't stay lit is usually the thermocouple, the small sensor that tells the furnace the flame is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, it reads no flame even when there is one, and shuts the gas off. A draft blowing across the pilot can do the same thing. Either way it's a repair for a contractor, not something to keep relighting on your own.