Furnace Repair in Lafayette, IN
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Tippecanoe County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat puts real wear on your furnace
From October through May your furnace is the thing standing between your house and 21 degree nights. That is eight months of the burner cycling on and off, night after night, and every one of those starts puts a little more wear on the igniter and the parts that control the flame. Most homes in the county run on gas, so when the igniter finally gives out, the furnace won't light at all.
Winter here also brings storms. Tippecanoe County has seen ten winter storms and 83 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and statewide, 17% of households lost power for a full day or more in 2024. A furnace that was already struggling to light can fail outright once the power drops and comes back.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 21°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 54%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 10 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 Tippecanoe County home.
Estimates for a typical Tippecanoe County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Indiana 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 Indiana, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties and cities.
Tippecanoe County sets its own rule for who can do this work. Indiana does not issue a state HVAC license, so there is no state record of testing or standing behind a contractor here. Whatever requirement exists, whether that is a local license or nothing at all, it comes from the county or city, not from Indianapolis.
For a furnace repair, the part that matters most is the gas connection, since a bad one is what makes this job dangerous. With no state license behind this work, whatever check exists on that connection would have to come from Tippecanoe County or the city itself. Gas heats 54% of the homes in this county, so this is not a rare repair here.
Sources: Indiana Department of Workforce Development · State of Indiana
- Why won't my furnace turn on?
- Most likely the thermostat isn't calling for heat the way it should, or power isn't reaching the furnace. Check that the thermostat is set above room temperature and has fresh batteries if it uses them. Next check the furnace switch, which looks like a regular light switch near the unit, and the breaker at your panel. If those are all fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that calls for a contractor to check.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Air blows before it heats, so a minute or two of cool air at startup is normal. If it stays cold, the burners may not be lighting even though the blower is running, often because of a dirty flame sensor. A clogged filter can also starve the burners of air and trip a safety switch that shuts off the flame but leaves the blower going. With eight months of heating season here, a filter that's overdue causes this more than most people expect.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot that won't hold usually means the thermocouple has worn out. That's the small rod that sits in the flame and tells the gas valve it's safe to stay open. Wind drafts or a dirty pilot orifice can also blow the flame out or keep it too weak to trigger the thermocouple. A standing pilot burns without any electricity, so if this happens during a power outage that's not the cause.