Furnace and heating repair in Remington.

The nearest NOAA station with long-term normals, three miles southeast of Warrenton, averages a January low of 24.8 degrees and about 98 nights a year at or below freezing. Its median first freeze is November 1 and its last April 9, about 4,680 heating degree days a year.

Fauquier County’s building criteria size heating for a winter design temperature of 17 degrees. Real winters dip under it: that station read 3 degrees on January 7, 2014, and 2 on February 20, 2015, and late January 2026 brought Extreme Cold Warnings with wind chills of zero to ten below across the Piedmont. As the air gets colder a heat pump’s output drops, and the electric strips carry more of the house. That’s normal on those mornings; strips running on a 45 degree afternoon aren’t.

Across ZIP 22734, 639 of the 858 owner homes heat with electricity, mostly heat pumps with backup strips. Another 92 run on propane, usually a furnace whose flame sensor and igniter wear out the way a natural gas furnace’s do, at the same book prices. And 81 heat mainly with wood. There the furnace or heat pump is often the backup, so run it for an hour in October, while a dead igniter is an easy fix and not a 3 degree emergency.

Winter storms here bring ice and wind as often as snow: 30 inches at Opal in the January 2016 blizzard, up to a half inch of ice there in December 2020, and about 1,100 reports of trees and wires down to Fauquier’s 911 center in the March 2018 windstorm. A power cut stops every furnace and heat pump, propane included, since the igniter and blower need electricity. If the heat doesn’t come back a few minutes after the lights do, or the outdoor unit is locked in ice, call us after the storm and we’ll check it all.