The Census counts zero owner homes in ZIP 20144 heating with utility gas, so a gas furnace in Delaplane burns propane from a tank the supplier fills. Most furnaces leave the factory set up for natural gas and get a conversion kit for propane, with a tag on the cabinet saying it was done. The tune-up reads the pressure at the burners against the propane figure on that tag, then follows the furnace from ignition to shutdown.
More of Delaplane went up in the 1980s than in any other decade: 165 owner homes, close to four in ten. A furnace from that build would be near forty now, so the one heating those houses is usually the second or third, set onto ductwork sized for the first. When a newer furnace and older ducts don’t agree, it shows in temperature rise, the gap between the air coming back to the furnace and the air leaving it. The rating plate lists the right range, and the tech writes down where yours lands.
The village sits about 450 feet up on Goose Creek, between Lost Mountain to the north-northwest and Little Cobbler Mountain to the south-southwest, and the ZIP climbs from there toward Sky Meadows State Park on the east side of the Blue Ridge. NOAA’s nearest long record, a Warrenton station at 500 feet, averages about 13 days a year when the high stays at freezing or below. Mount Weather, on the ridge ten miles north, averages a January low of 22 and a last spring freeze near April 17, about a week behind the valley. A house up the slope heats longer than one by the creek.
Last winter tested all of it. Late January 2026 brought Extreme Cold Warnings to Northern Fauquier, and at 5:51 on the morning of February 1 a station the Weather Service lists as Delaplane logged a wind chill of zero. Wind takes the power out here too: NOAA’s records list trees and wires down near the village in 2012, 2023 and 2025. If the lights come back after an outage and the furnace doesn’t, check the thermostat screen, the breaker and the switch on or beside the furnace. If it still won’t light, call us after the storm and we’ll check the whole system.