Across 20151 the heat splits close to down the middle: about half the homeowners burn gas, and most of the rest are on electric heat, in a 1980s or 90s Chantilly house most often a heat pump. From a utility room doorway you can’t always tell them apart, and for the price it doesn’t matter: a furnace with burners and a flue pipe or an air handler with heat strips, either one is $99 a system.
On a gas furnace the tech takes the panel off, fires it through a whole heating cycle and makes each safety prove it works: the high limit that cuts the burners if the furnace overheats, the rollout switches beside the burners, and the pressure switch that keeps the gas closed until the exhaust is moving.
South Riding, across the county line in 20152, is gas country: about 8 in 10 homeowners heat with it, in houses mostly built after 2000. In the townhouses, nearly half the homes there, the furnace often sits in the attic, out of sight. Its filter is often out of reach too, behind a ceiling grille on the top floor: the easiest filter in town to forget.
Greenbriar, the older corner of 20151, leans further toward gas: close to 7 in 10 owners there burn it, in houses from around 1970, most likely on their third furnace. On both sides of the line about 2 in 100 heat with propane, and those furnaces are tuned up the same way, with the pressure read against propane’s numbers. No heat today? Call it in as a repair; our Chantilly furnace repair page lists what those cost.