Heating
Furnace and heater repair
Valley winters are short, but mornings in the high 30s are normal from December into January. A furnace that will not start is worth a call.
How cold it gets
The normal low at the Bakersfield airport station is 39.6°F in December and 40.5°F in January, based on 1991–2020 averages. The station records about ten nights a year at or below freezing. Places farther from town, with open farmland around them, often run colder at night.
The Shafter page shows how much colder the farm country can be.
Temperature normals: NOAA data via the National Weather Service Hanford climate pages.
Common furnace faults
A gas furnace may stand upright in a garage or hall closet, or lie on its side in the attic. Either way, a handful of problems come up again and again:
- The inducer motor runs but the burners never light
- The burners light for a few seconds, then shut off
- The blower runs constantly, or never comes on
- The furnace starts and stops many times an hour
- A blinking light on the control board, with a code on the door label
A dirty flame sensor, a failed igniter and a clogged filter account for a large share of no-heat calls. Testing them takes a meter and some care around gas and line voltage, so they are a job for the contractor.
Safety first
If you smell gas, leave the house and call the gas utility or 911 from outside. Do not switch lights or appliances on or off on the way. Around Bakersfield, gas service comes from Southern California Gas Company, according to the Energy Commission's service area map.
If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call 911. A cracked heat exchanger or a blocked flue can let combustion gases into the house, which is why a technician who mentions either will usually recommend shutting the furnace down.
Before you call
Check that the thermostat is set to heat and the set point is above the room temperature. Make sure the furnace switch, which often looks like a light switch on the wall nearby, is on. Look at the filter. Note any blinking light pattern on the control board before calling.
Common questions
The furnace runs but the air is cool. Why?
The blower may be running while the burners are not lit, often from an ignition or flame-sensing fault. It can also be a thermostat set to fan only.
Is it safe to keep resetting the furnace?
A single reset is fine. If it keeps locking out, leave it off and call. Repeated lockouts are the control board protecting the house.
Talk it over with a contractor
Say what the system is doing and where the house is. You will be speaking with an independent HVAC contractor who works in Bakersfield and the towns around it.