HVAC Repair in Newcastle, WY
Homes here need heat from September through May and cooling from July through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Weston County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, two of cooling, and not much break in between
Winter nights in Newcastle average 12°F, and the furnace carries the house from September through May. That is nine months of burners lighting, shutting off, and lighting again, and each cycle puts wear on the igniter and the ignition control. When one of those parts finally gives out, the furnace won't light at all and the house goes cold fast at that temperature.
Summer is short here, just July and August, with afternoons averaging 83°F. The air conditioner does not run long each year, but it has to start reliably on demand, and a unit that sat idle for ten months is more likely to show a weak capacitor or a stuck contactor the first hot day it is asked to work. Weston County has also logged 60 winter storms and 102 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and power loss during a cold snap means the furnace shuts down with it. Most systems restart on their own once power is back, but if the cold has already set in, that gap matters.
- 9 months
- September through May, your system heats
- 2 months
- July through August, it cools
- 12°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 $150 a year off heating and cooling for a typical Weston County home.
Estimates for a typical Weston County home, compared with an older unit built to the previous federal minimum, from EIA household energy data, Wyoming 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.
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Make sure it is set to heat and the temperature is set above the room temperature, since a setting bumped a degree or two low will keep the furnace from firing. Check your breaker panel next, since a tripped breaker will shut the whole system down with no warning at all. If those are fine, look at the furnace filter. A filter clogged with dust chokes off airflow, and some furnaces will shut themselves down rather than run that way. With winter lows here dropping to around 12°F, a furnace that won't stay lit needs a contractor out soon rather than later.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- The blower can run without the compressor coming on, which gives you moving air that never gets cold. Check the outdoor unit and see if the fan out there is spinning. If it is silent while the indoor blower runs, the compressor likely isn't starting, and that's a repair for a contractor, not something to fix yourself. A dirty filter can also starve the system of airflow badly enough that the air coming out feels barely cool, so check that first since it takes a minute. On an 83°F afternoon a struggling system will fall behind fast, so don't wait too long to have it looked at.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat first. Confirm it's set to heat or cool as needed, the temperature is actually set past the room temperature, and the batteries aren't dead. Go to your breaker panel and look for anything tripped, since both furnaces and air conditioners will simply not run if their breaker has flipped. Pull the filter and hold it up to the light. If you can't see through it, replace it, since a blocked filter causes problems that look like bigger failures. If the system still won't run right after that, tell the contractor what you checked. It saves them time and gets you a faster diagnosis.