Natural gas heats under 1 percent of Marshall’s owner homes. About six in ten use electricity, mostly heat pumps with electric strips behind them, and one in five propane. A January heat pump call usually comes down to an outdoor unit that won’t defrost, airflow choked by a filter or coil, or a thermostat left on emergency heat. Check that last one yourself: if the display says EM or emergency heat and nobody set it, the strips are doing all the work.
In some propane houses the furnace backs up a heat pump, which runs most of the winter while the furnace takes the cold nights. If the two fight, with the furnace firing on a mild afternoon or the heat pump straining through a cold night, the switchover point on the thermostat or control board is usually set wrong: a settings fix, not a part.
About three households in ten in 20115 rent. In a rental the heat pump or furnace is usually the owner’s, and so is the call on a repair, so a tenant’s request moves faster with the landlord’s number in hand, and the written price goes to whoever approves it. When a system quits for good rather than needing a part, we can price what replaces it, a heat pump or a propane furnace, and the HVAC estimator shows the installed range first.
Wood is the main heat in about one owner home in thirteen, often with a furnace or heat pump standing by. Marshall has no town building office: a fuel-burning furnace, propane included, needs a Fauquier County permit when it’s replaced, even as a straight swap, and the County issues trade permits at its Courthouse Square counter in Warrenton the day you apply.