Furnace Repair in Sturgis, SD
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Meade County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat wear on a Sturgis furnace
Your furnace runs from September through May here, nine months out of twelve. On nights that average 12°F through December through February, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch to keep up. Every start puts load on the igniter and the parts that get the burner going, and that kind of wear adds up over a winter this long.
Meade County has also logged 146 winter storms and 373 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind that strong pushes cold air into a house and forces the furnace to run harder and longer to hold temperature, and a hard freeze during a storm is when a weak igniter or a strained blower motor tends to quit.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 12°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 146 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $90 a year off heating for a typical Meade County home.
Estimates for a typical Meade County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, South 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.
In South Dakota, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
Meade County does not run its own contractor licensing program, and South Dakota leaves that decision to each city and town. So whether a furnace repair contractor needs a local license depends on the address, not the county line. There is no state list behind this, because South Dakota is not the one keeping it.
Gas furnace repair carries real risk no matter what licensing exists locally. A loose or bad connection at the gas line is the dangerous part of the job, and in a town with no licensing rule, nothing at that level is checking the person who makes that connection. Close to half the homes in Meade County heat with gas, so that connection is a common one here.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- 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 to heat and the temperature is above room temperature, and check the breaker and the furnace's own power switch, which looks like a light switch on or near the unit. If those are fine, the igniter may have failed, or a safety switch is holding the furnace off because of a clogged filter or a blocked vent. A furnace won't run if it senses an unsafe condition, so it's doing what it's supposed to do.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is moving but it's not warm, the furnace may be stuck in fan mode, or the burners aren't lighting even though the blower is running. Check the thermostat fan setting is on auto, not on. If that's set right, the igniter or the flame sensor is a common cause of burners not lighting while the blower keeps pushing air through the vents. Nights here get down to 12°F in the middle of winter, so cold air where you expect heat is worth calling about the same day.
- 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 reads no flame even when there is one, and the gas valve shuts off to be safe. A draft blowing across the pilot or a dirty pilot orifice can also do it. Since homes here need heat from September through May, a pilot that keeps going out is worth having a contractor look at rather than relighting it over and over.