HVAC Repair in Muncie, IN
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from June through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Delaware County will get in touch.
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Eleven months of work, most years
Your furnace and your air conditioner are both working almost all year here. Heat runs October through May, eight months. Cooling holds from June through August. There is not much room left over.
Winter nights averaging 22°F mean the burner is cycling on and off for hours at a stretch, and every start puts load on the igniter. Summer afternoons near 83°F push the compressor to run long and often, which is what wears out a capacitor or a contactor before its time. Delaware County has seen 12 winter storms and 54 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. Most furnaces and air conditioners restart on their own once power is back, but a control board or an igniter that was already weak may not.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 3 months
- June through August, it cools
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 83°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace and air conditioner would cut about $120 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Delaware County home.
Estimates for a typical Delaware 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.
Replacement makes sense when the furnace's heat exchanger is cracked, the air conditioner's compressor has failed, or repairs keep coming.
In Indiana, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties and cities.
Indiana has no state license for HVAC contractors. That question is left to counties and cities, so whether a license is required for this repair depends on whatever rule is in place in Delaware County, not on anything the state tracks. There is no state exam behind the work and no state record to check, only a local one, if one exists at all.
What protects this repair, then, comes from whoever holds authority over it locally. If the job touches gas piping or a gas connection, that is the part worth attention, since a bad joint is where the danger sits. Whatever oversight exists on that part of the work is whatever Delaware County or its municipalities have chosen to require, not a state rule.
Sources: Indiana Department of Workforce Development · State of Indiana
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat and the filter, since those cause more no-heat calls than anything inside the furnace. Check that the thermostat is set to heat and a few degrees above room temperature, and check that batteries aren't dead if it uses them. A filter clogged with dust chokes airflow and can shut the furnace down on its own safety switch. If the thermostat looks right and the filter is clean, check the breaker for the furnace next. Past that point you're looking at the igniter, the flame sensor, or the pilot, and those need a contractor to test. With winter nights here averaging 22°F, a furnace that won't stay running isn't something to leave for later.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- The blower runs even when the air conditioner itself has stopped doing its job, so a running system doesn't mean a working one. Check the filter first, since a dirty one starves the coil of airflow and can cause it to ice over. If you can see the outdoor unit, make sure the fan is spinning and nothing is packed against it like grass clippings or leaves. Ice on the indoor coil or the copper line means the system needs to be shut off and left to thaw before it can be checked further. A system low on refrigerant or with a failing compressor will keep running fans without cooling, and that repair takes a contractor with gauges to diagnose.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings, the batteries if it has them, and the breaker for the system before anything else. Pull the filter and hold it up to a light. If you can't see light through it, it's blocking airflow and needs to be replaced. Look at the outdoor unit for anything blocking it, and look at the vents inside to make sure furniture or rugs aren't covering them. If the system trips a breaker more than once, stop resetting it and let a contractor find out why. Telling the contractor what you found, whether it's a tripped breaker or ice on a coil, helps them get to the actual problem faster once they're there.