Furnace Repair in North Plainfield, NJ
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Somerset County will get in touch.
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Eight months of heat puts a lot of hours on your furnace
From October through May your furnace is the thing standing between your house and a 24°F night. That's eight months of the year it has to start, run, and shut off again, over and over, and every one of those starts puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that get it burning.
Most homes here heat with gas, so when the power goes out, the furnace usually doesn't come back on its own until it's restored. New Jersey saw 11% of households lose power for at least a day in 2024, and the last ten years brought 21 winter storms and 153 damaging wind events to the area. A furnace that was already struggling doesn't always start back up clean after an outage, and that's often when the real problem shows itself.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 79%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 21 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $160 a year off heating for a typical Somerset County home.
Estimates for a typical Somerset County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, New Jersey 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.
New Jersey requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The state board tests contractors before issuing that license, and it keeps a record of who holds one. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job, so it stands behind a furnace repair the same as any other work they do. Because New Jersey licenses at the state level, no town in Somerset County can add its own license requirement on top of it. Wherever you are in the county, the same license is what you are checking.
Most homes in Somerset County heat with gas, and a furnace repair usually means someone working on a gas connection. That connection is the part of the job where a mistake turns dangerous, and here the state license is what answers for that work. It is not a certification tied to one piece of equipment. It is the state's own record that this contractor was tested and is accountable for the repair in your home.
Sources: New Jersey Legislature · New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it comes down to power, gas, or the thermostat not telling it to run. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, since a low battery or a wrong setting will keep the furnace from getting the signal at all. Next check the breaker and the furnace's power switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit and gets bumped off more than people expect. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to test.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it is not warm, the furnace is either in a delay before the burners light or the burners are not lighting at all. A few minutes of cool air at startup is normal while the system purges the vent and gets the igniter ready. If it keeps blowing cold with no warm-up at all, the igniter or the gas valve likely is not doing its job, and with lows around 24 degrees here through the winter that is not something to leave for long. A clogged filter can also starve the system and trip a safety switch that shuts the burners off while the blower keeps running.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't stay lit is almost always the thermocouple, a small sensor that sits in the flame and tells the gas valve it is safe to keep the gas open. When it wears out or sits out of position, the valve reads no flame and shuts the gas off, even though the pilot lit fine a second ago. Wind drafts from a blocked or damaged vent can also blow the pilot out, which matters more in a house that gets 21 winter storms across a decade like this area has. A contractor can check the thermocouple's position and replace it if it has worn out.