Furnace repair in Boonville, IN

A cold house doesn't always mean a broken furnace, so run through a few checks before you pick up the phone. None of them need tools.

If nothing happens at all, start at the thermostat. Make sure it's set to heat and turned up a few degrees past the room temperature. If the screen is blank, put in fresh batteries.

If the furnace runs but the house won't warm up, pull the air filter and hold it up to a light. If you can't see through it, it's choking the airflow. ENERGY STAR says to check the filter once a month, because a dirty one raises your energy bill and can wear the furnace out early.

Starts, runs a few minutes, then shuts off? Try a clean filter first. If it keeps cycling after that, stop resetting it and call someone who can test the burner and the venting.

While you're down there, move anything that can burn at least 3 feet away from the furnace. That's NFPA advice, and it's easy to forget once the furnace corner turns into storage.

Call for help if it still won't run after those checks, if it has gotten loud, or if some rooms stay cold while others are fine. Strange noises and uneven heat are on ENERGY STAR's list of trouble signs too. And if nobody has looked at it in a year, it's due anyway. The CPSC urges a yearly inspection of every fuel-burning heating system, flue and vents included.

About seven in ten homes inside Boonville's city limits heat with natural gas (Census). That's a higher share than Evansville, Newburgh, Mount Vernon or Princeton, and most of the remaining homes use electric heat. Out in the rest of the 47601 ZIP, gas is a little less common and a few more homes burn propane (Census). If you live on a county road, check what your furnace runs on before you call, because it changes the repair and which rebates apply.

The houses here are old. Half of the homes in town were built before 1965, and about seven in ten went up before 1980 (Census). An old house doesn't mean an old furnace, but it's worth knowing what's in your basement. Virginia Cooperative Extension says older furnaces often rate in the fifties or sixties for efficiency (AFUE), which means a big share of the heat goes up the vent instead of into your rooms. A modern condensing furnace is at least 90 AFUE, according to the EIA.

October is the easy month. The Boonville 1S weather station just outside town logs only a couple of freezing nights in a normal October, then close to a dozen in November (NOAA normals). By January the average low is about 25°F, and more nights freeze than don't.

ENERGY STAR suggests booking the heating check-up in the fall, because contractors get busy once winter comes. It's a lot easier to get someone out before the first cold snap than in the middle of one. January is also the peak month for home heating fires, about one in five of them nationwide (U.S. Fire Administration).

When the clocks change in the fall, check the batteries in your CO alarms too. The CDC suggests doing it every spring and fall.

ENERGY STAR says a furnace that's 15 years old or more may be due for replacement, especially if it needs repairs more often while your gas bills keep creeping up. Rooms that never get comfortable, extra dust and a noisy system point the same way.

Age alone shouldn't decide it, though. A furnace past 15 that starts every time and passes its yearly check-up can keep going. A younger one that needed several repairs last winter may not be worth another.

If you do replace it, an ENERGY STAR gas furnace for the northern U.S. has to be at least 97% AFUE (ENERGY STAR criteria). According to ENERGY STAR, those models can save about $160 a year in energy costs over a baseline furnace (ENERGY STAR). The repair-or-replace tool on this page walks through the same questions with your own furnace's age and repair quote.

The prices in the table come from national cost guides like HomeAdvisor and Fixr. They're ballparks to help you judge a quote, not prices from Boonville companies.

Expect a diagnostic fee first, often $75 to $150 just to find the problem. By HomeAdvisor's numbers, a typical repair runs $133 to $505. A whole new furnace runs roughly $2,800 to $6,900 installed.

If CenterPoint gas is your main heat, its 2026 rebates take some of the sting out of a replacement. A gas furnace rated 96% AFUE gets $200 back. Step up to 97% or better and it's $250. A furnace tune-up earns $50. The program only covers equipment installed before December 31, 2026, and you have to apply within 60 days of the install (CenterPoint 2026 rebate sheet). Some participating contractors take the furnace rebate off the bill up front, so ask.

For a new furnace, yes. Warrick County requires a permit to install any furnace, and also for any mechanical work costing more than $750, so a big repair can need one too. The fee on the county fee table is $30.

The county Building Department is at 107 West Locust Street in Boonville. It's open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Inside city limits, the city building office also takes applications through the city's online iWorQ portal. Ask your installer who's pulling the permit and whether the fee is in the quote.

• What's the diagnostic fee, and does it come off the repair bill if I go ahead?
• Will the check-up cover the gas connections, gas pressure, burner and heat exchanger? Those are the items ENERGY STAR lists.
• Will you pull the Warrick County permit, and is the fee in your price?
• If I replace it, will the new furnace qualify for the CenterPoint rebate, and can you take it off the bill?
• Can I get the quote in writing, with parts and labor listed separately?

Ask whether the company is licensed and insured, and ask to see proof before work starts.