It’s midwinter in Cabell County, below freezing, and your furnace has just stopped working. Hopefully, you discovered this during the daytime and heating contractors are just a phone call away. If your furnace stopped working at night, though, you very possibly have a very chilly evening ahead of you or an expensive service bill for a house call after business hours.Most homeowners probably don’t put a lot of thought into their furnaces … until they stop working. When that happens, that seemingly benign appliance sequestered away in a corner of your basement or garage can potentially become a massive headache for you and your family. You may find yourself peering under your furnace with a flashlight trying to figure out how to fix it yourself because you can’t reach any heating contractors in Cabell County who make house calls at three in the morning.To avoid this type of inconvenience and headache, it is recommended that homeowners hire a reputable heating contractor to check your furnace for potential problems. How frequently the furnace needs to be serviced depends on the age of the furnace and the environment the furnace is working in. Heating contractors familiar with Cabell County environmental and climate demands can help you establish the ideal schedule.The likelihood of your furnace leaving you stranded in the middle of winter with no heat is lower if it is less than ten years old. However, if your furnace is more than ten years old (as many furnaces are, especially in older homes) or if you have pets or live on a gravel road, the likelihood that it will fail is higher. The chance that a furnace will fail increases if the furnace is running in an environment that contains substantial dust or animal hair. If...