Furnace Repair in St. Paul, MN
Furnaces here run from October through May. If yours quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Ramsey County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, nights near 10 below
Your furnace in St. Paul works from October through May, eight months of the year, holding the house through nights that average 10°F from December through February. Every time it fires, that cycle puts wear on the igniter and the ignition control, and a furnace that will not light on a night that cold leaves a house getting colder fast.
Most homes here heat with gas, but the furnace still needs electricity to run its blower and controls. Ramsey County has seen 31 winter storms and 42 damaging wind events over the last ten years, and storms like that take out power along with the heat. Across Minnesota, 13% of households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024. When the power drops, so does the heat, even with gas in the line.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 10°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 70%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 31 winter storms
- in ten years, the nights a failure hurts most
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A new furnace would cut about $120 a year off heating for a typical Ramsey County home.
Estimates for a typical Ramsey County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Minnesota 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.
Minnesota has no state license for HVAC contractors.
Minnesota leaves HVAC work off its state license list entirely. There is no exam, no state number, and no registry to check a contractor against, whether the job is a furnace repair, an install, or anything else in the trade. That is different from a state that registers businesses without testing them. Here there is no state record of any kind, tested or untested.
So the protection on a furnace repair comes from somewhere other than a license, because there isn't one. Furnace repair is gas work, and the part that matters most is the gas connection itself, since a poor seal or a bad joint is what turns a repair dangerous. Minnesota does not have a state credential standing behind that work. In Ramsey County, 70.4% of homes heat with gas, which is the fuel running through that connection in most furnace repairs done there.
Source: Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- 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 below room temperature and has fresh batteries if it uses them. Next check the furnace switch, the one that looks like a light switch near the unit, and the breaker at your panel. If those are fine, the igniter or the flame sensor may have failed, and that's a job for a contractor to test and replace.
- Why is my furnace blowing cold air?
- Air blowing before it warms up is normal, the blower often starts before the burners fully heat the air. If it stays cold for more than a few minutes, the burners may not be lighting even though the fan runs. A dirty flame sensor is a common cause of that. A clogged filter can also starve the burners of air and cause them to shut off, so check the filter first.
- Why won't my furnace pilot light stay lit?
- A pilot light that won't stay lit is usually a thermocouple problem. That's the small sensor that sits in the flame and tells the gas valve the pilot is burning. When it wears out or sits out of position, the valve shuts the gas off as a safety measure, even though the pilot lit fine a moment ago. A contractor can test the thermocouple and replace it if it's reading weak.