Furnace Repair in Bangor, ME
Furnaces here run from September through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Penobscot County will get in touch.
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Nine months of heat, and nights near zero
Furnaces in Bangor run from September through May. That is nine months of the burner cycling on and off, day after day, with winter lows that average 10°F. Most homes here still heat with fuel oil, and a furnace working that hard for that long puts real wear on the igniter and the blower motor.
Penobscot County has logged 134 winter storms and 188 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Storms like that knock out power, and across Maine over half of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. When the power drops on a cold night, the furnace stops with it, and the house starts losing heat fast.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 10°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 134 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most often the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way you think it is, or power to the furnace has been cut off somewhere. Check that the thermostat is set below room temperature and has fresh batteries if it uses them. Next check the furnace switch, which looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker for it. If those are fine, the igniter or a safety switch may be at fault, and that's a job for a contractor to check with the panel open.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- If air is running but not warm, the burners may not be lighting even though the blower is. That happens when the igniter has failed, the flame sensor is dirty, or the gas valve isn't opening. It can also mean the furnace is in its fan-only cycle, so check the thermostat is set to heat and not just fan. A furnace that never gets past this needs a contractor to find which part in that ignition sequence is failing.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- This usually points to the thermocouple, the small part that senses the pilot flame and tells the gas valve to stay open. When it wears out or sits out of position, the valve reads no flame and shuts the gas off even though the pilot was lit. A draft blowing out the flame is possible too, worth checking on a windy night here. If relighting it doesn't hold, the thermocouple or the gas valve needs a contractor's attention rather than repeated relighting.