HVAC Repair in Amherst Town, MA
Homes here need heat from October through May and cooling from July through August. If your system quits, tell us what it's doing and a licensed contractor who covers Hampshire County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of work, most of it in the cold
Amherst Town asks for heat from October through May and cooling in July and August. That is ten months a year your system is running, and only two of them are easy on it. Winter nights average 18°F, and on those nights the furnace cycles on and off for hours to hold the house steady. Each start puts a load on the igniter and the heat exchanger, and that wear adds up over an eight month heating season.
Summer asks less, but 80°F afternoons still put a real load on the condenser and the refrigerant lines for two straight months. The bigger risk here is the power. Storm records show 53 winter storms and 218 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and one in ten Massachusetts households lost power for a day or more in 2024. A furnace or heat pump with no power does not run, no matter how sound the parts are.
- 8 months
- October through May, your system heats
- 2 months
- July through August, it cools
- 18°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- Why is my heat not working?
- Start with the thermostat. Check it is set to heat, the temperature is above room temperature, and the display is lit. If the display is blank, a breaker may have tripped or a switch got bumped, since the furnace runs on electricity even if it burns gas or oil. If the thermostat looks fine, check the filter. A filter clogged with dust can choke off airflow badly enough that a furnace shuts itself down to protect the heat exchanger. With nights here averaging 18°F in the winter, a furnace that will not stay lit needs a contractor to look at it soon.
- Why is my system running but not cooling the house?
- Check the filter first. A dirty filter starves the coil of airflow, and when that happens the coil can ice over, so the blower keeps blowing but the air coming out is not cold. Check the outdoor unit too. If the fan is not spinning or the coil is caked with grass clippings and dirt, it cannot release the heat it is pulling out of the house. If the filter is clean and the outdoor unit looks fine but the air is still warm, the system likely needs a contractor to check the refrigerant charge.
- What can I check before calling for HVAC repair?
- Check the thermostat settings, the batteries in it if it has any, and the breaker for the system. Check the filter next, since a clogged filter causes problems in both heating and cooling and is the easiest thing to fix yourself. Look at the vents around the house and make sure none are closed or blocked by furniture. If everything there checks out and the system still is not heating or cooling right, a contractor will need to look at what is actually wrong with it.