Natural gas is rare in this corner of Fauquier. Of the 589 owner homes the Census counts in ZIP 20198, 349 heat with electricity, 134 with propane and just 16 with a gas line. Electric heat out here usually means a heat pump, so the unit beside the house cools all summer and heats the rest of the year. A contactor with pitted points gets no season off; a new one runs $290 to $425.
In the propane houses, the air conditioner outside usually shares the furnace’s blower inside. A blower wheel packed with dust starves the coil in July, one of the usual reasons a coil ices over, and weakens the heat in February. Pulling it and cleaning it is $300 to $440.
NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals for its Warrenton 3 SE station, about 12 miles south, put the average July high near 85, with around 21 days a year at 90 or above. Heat waves are when weak parts give out: the Weather Service estimated heat indices above 115 across northern Fauquier on July 22, 2011, and above 110 on July 20, 2019. A run capacitor that’s been fading all season tends to quit on afternoons like those, $240 to $370 to replace.
On July 12, 2022, a thunderstorm blew down numerous trees in The Plains, Bunker Hill Road near Featherstone Lane among them, and on August 7, 2023, gusts estimated at 65 knots took down dozens of trees and wires along Halfway Road and The Plains Road north of town. After a storm like those, look the unit over before the cooling goes back on: a branch across the top grille, a copper line kinked where it leaves the cabinet, the cover knocked off the disconnect box. A surge when the power returns can also damage a capacitor or the control board. Call us after a storm and we’ll check it all before it runs.