Furnace Repair in Coeur d'Alene, ID
Furnaces here run from September through June. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Kootenai County will get in touch.
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Ten months of heat wears a furnace down fast here
Coeur d'Alene homes need heat from September through June. That's ten months of the year the burner is cycling on and off, lighting and shutting down, over and over. On winter nights averaging 25°F, it runs long and hard to keep up.
All that cycling wears on the parts that start the burner. An igniter that's worked fine for years can fail after enough cold nights in a row, and the house goes cold with no warning. Kootenai County has logged 655 winter storms and 68 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and when the power drops, most furnaces need it back to fire up again.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 25°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 53%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 655 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $80 a year off heating for a typical Kootenai County home.
Estimates for a typical Kootenai County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Idaho 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.
Idaho requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is held by the contractor, not by the furnace or the job itself. Idaho tests and records the person or business through the HVAC Board, so the credential follows them from house to house rather than being issued per repair.
For a furnace repair, that license is what stands behind the work. A gas furnace depends on a tight, correct connection at the burner and the venting, and that is the part a licensed contractor is trained and accountable for getting right. In Kootenai County, where just over half of homes heat with gas, that is exactly the kind of job this license was built to cover.
Sources: Idaho Legislature · Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most of the time it's the thermostat, the power to the unit, or the igniter not lighting the gas. Check that the thermostat is set below room temperature and has working batteries, and check the breaker for the furnace. If those look fine, the igniter may have failed, or the flame sensor may be telling the furnace not to run because it doesn't see a flame. With nights here averaging 25°F through the winter, this isn't one to leave for long. A contractor can test the igniter and sensor and tell you which one it is.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is running but it's not warm, the burners likely aren't lighting even though the blower is. That points to the igniter, the flame sensor, or the gas valve not getting power or gas the way it should. It can also mean the furnace is stuck in fan-only mode from a thermostat setting or a control board issue. Either way, it needs a contractor to find which part in that chain has failed.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually means the thermocouple has worn out and can no longer sense that the pilot is burning, so the gas valve shuts it off. It can also mean a draft is blowing the flame out, or the pilot orifice is dirty and the flame is too small to hold. A standing pilot doesn't need power to run, so a power outage isn't the cause here. A contractor can test the thermocouple and replace it if that's the issue.