Heating questions Ottawa homeowners ask, answered plainly

A diagnostic visit in Ottawa runs $109 to $159 in 2026 and comes off the bill when you go ahead with the repair. Typical repairs, parts and labour together: hot-surface igniter $220 to $380, flame sensor $160 to $270, capacitor $160 to $270, pressure switch $220 to $380, inducer motor $480 to $850, blower motor $550 to $1,000, control board $480 to $900. The number is written down and agreed before a part is fitted, so the invoice matches the quote. The phone is answered every day of the year, and if the call comes in late you are told when a technician can be there before anything is booked. The ranges and what moves them are on the furnace repair page.

Start with the two things you can check yourself: a filter so blocked that the furnace overheated and tripped its limit switch, and a thermostat with the fan set to On instead of Auto, which runs the blower between heating cycles. If the filter is clean and the fan is on Auto, the burner is not lighting. That is usually a cracked hot-surface igniter, a flame sensor coated in silica, a pressure switch that will not close because the vent is blocked, or a condensate line that froze overnight. Those need a repair visit. The full order of checks, with what each symptom means, is in why is my furnace blowing cold air?

Short cycling has four usual causes, in order of how often we find them: a furnace that is too big for the house and satisfies the thermostat before the cycle is done, a clogged filter that overheats the heat exchanger and trips the limit, a dirty flame sensor that drops the flame a few seconds after ignition, and a thermostat mounted somewhere warm or wired wrong. It wastes gas, wears out the igniter and the blower, and in an Ottawa cold snap it leaves the house behind. It is a service call, not something to put up with.

For a typical Ottawa house in 2026: roughly $4,800 to $6,300 installed for a 96 percent single-stage gas furnace, $5,800 to $7,800 for a two-stage model, and $7,400 to $9,900 for a modulating furnace with a variable-speed blower. What moves the price is the output the house needs, the length and route of the PVC venting, any ductwork or gas line changes, and the thermostat. The quote is the installed price in writing, with removal of the old unit, the start-up combustion test and the inspection included, and nothing added on the day. The breakdown is in what a new furnace costs in Ontario.

Fifteen to twenty with annual service, and some reach twenty-five. Ottawa winters are long, so a furnace here runs more hours a year than one in Toronto, and three things cut the life short: skipped maintenance, an oversized unit that short-cycles all winter, and a filter left in until it starves the heat exchanger of air. A mid-efficiency furnace from the 1990s is finished now, and the first wave of high-efficiency units from around 2005 to 2010 is getting close. The one fault that ends a furnace at any age is a cracked heat exchanger. We say plainly which side of the line yours is on; the reasoning is in how long does a furnace last?

By measuring the house, not by reading the old label. A heat-loss calculation takes the floor area, ceiling heights, insulation, window area and orientation, air leakage and the local design temperature, which for Ottawa is around minus 25 C, and gives the output the furnace has to deliver on the worst night. Most older Ottawa homes have furnaces one or two sizes too big, chosen when the house had single-pane windows and no attic insulation, and the oversize is why they short-cycle. We run the calculation on the quote visit for every replacement and show you the number.

For most houses, yes, and faster here than in milder cities because the furnace runs so many hours. Going from an 80 percent mid-efficiency unit to a 96 percent condensing furnace cuts gas use for heating by roughly a sixth, and in a house burning $1,500 of gas a winter that is a real sum every year for the life of the furnace. The venting changes from the chimney to PVC through the wall, which is included in the installation price. An 80 percent furnace is no longer a sensible purchase in Ontario; we do not sell them.

In most Ottawa homes, yes. The ducts are inspected for leaks, sizing and condition as part of the installation quote, the joints in the basement are sealed, and the blower on the new furnace is set to match what the ducts can carry. Where the trunk lines are genuinely too small, which happens in century homes converted from gravity heat, we say so and price the change separately. Sealing and balancing is a much smaller job than new ducts and fixes most of the complaints people blame on the furnace.

Yes. Cold-climate air-source heat pumps, ductless mini-splits and hybrid (dual-fuel) systems that pair a heat pump with a gas furnace are installed, serviced and repaired. In Ottawa the hybrid is the usual recommendation: the heat pump carries the shoulder seasons and most of the winter, the furnace takes over on the coldest nights, and the same outdoor unit cools the house in summer. Straight air conditioning without a heating side is a question to ask when you call. See heat pumps and hybrid systems and the comparison in heat pump vs furnace in Ontario.

Ask when you request the quote. Financing terms and the rebate programs that sit beside them change through the year, and we go through what applies to your installation before you sign anything. Financing is a loan with interest, so compare the monthly figure against a line of credit before deciding. The rebates currently open in Ontario are summarised in the rebates guide.

A cold-climate model can carry most of it. Current cold-climate air-source heat pumps hold their rated output to about minus 15 C and still produce heat, at reduced capacity, at minus 25 C and below. Ottawa averages close to minus 10 C in January and sees a handful of nights each winter at minus 25 C to minus 30 C, and those nights are why we recommend a hybrid system that switches to the gas furnace automatically when the heat pump stops being the cheaper source. The heat pumps that earned a poor reputation here years ago were not cold-climate units.

In Ottawa, keeping it is usually the better money. A hybrid runs the heat pump when electricity is the cheaper way to make heat, which is most of the season, and the gas furnace on the deep-freeze days when it is not. A heat pump on its own works in a tight, well-insulated house with a correctly sized cold-climate unit and electric backup, but the January hydro bill is higher and the backup strips are expensive to run. We cost both for your house before quoting; the comparison is in heat pump vs furnace in Ontario.

Typical 2026 installed prices: a single-zone ductless mini-split from about $4,500, and a whole-home cold-climate heat pump on the existing ducts, paired with the furnace as a hybrid or with a new air handler, $7,500 to $14,000. A 240-volt circuit is normally needed and a panel upgrade sometimes is, and those are priced in the quote rather than discovered on the day. Rebates can take a meaningful share off the hybrid figure when a program is open. The breakdown is in what a heat pump costs in Ontario.

Once a year, in September or early October before the first cold snap. That is what every manufacturer specifies, what most parts warranties require, and what keeps a furnace burning cleanly through an Ottawa winter of 2,000 running hours. An annual tune-up cleans the burners and flame sensor, tests the heat exchanger and safeties, and finds the part that would otherwise fail in February. Between visits, change the filter every one to three months and keep the outdoor vent pipes clear of snow. The full checklist is in how often should you have furnace maintenance?

Burners cleaned and the flame checked; flame sensor cleaned and its signal measured; igniter inspected; heat exchanger inspected for cracks with a carbon monoxide reading in the supply air; a combustion analysis of the flue gases; gas pressure measured at the manifold; every safety switch tested; venting checked end to end; the condensate trap and drain flushed; blower inspected, motor amperage and capacitor tested; filter replaced; thermostat checked; and a written report. It takes about an hour and runs $139 to $219 in Ottawa. Book a tune-up in the fall.

Once a year at minimum, and twice for a unit that both heats and cools, because it never gets a season off. The visit covers the outdoor and indoor coils, refrigerant pressures, the defrost cycle, the condensate drain, the electrical connections and capacitor, and the filters. In an Ottawa winter the outdoor unit also needs you to keep it clear of drifted snow and ice so the defrost cycle can do its job. We book the heat pump service in the same visit as the furnace tune-up on a hybrid system.

Find the buy-out clause in the rental contract. Most Ontario agreements let you buy the tank at a price that falls with its age, or return it at your cost. At $30 to $55 a month, an owned tank at $2,000 to $3,200 installed pays for itself in three to five years, and a tankless unit at $4,200 to $6,000 takes longer but removes the tank altogether. If the rental tank is past eight years, return it rather than buy it. We install the owned unit, disconnect the rental for pickup and handle the paperwork. The steps are in getting out of a water heater rental in Ontario.

Check that the wall switch or remote has power and that the gas valve on the supply line is open. If the pilot is out and will not stay lit, the thermocouple or thermopile has usually weakened and cannot hold the valve open, or the pilot assembly is clogged with dust after a summer idle. Those are a short fireplace service visit: the pilot assembly is cleaned, the thermopile output measured and replaced if low, the burner and logs reset and the glass cleaned. Book it in early fall; the calls pile up in November.

Yes. The rural edges of Stittsville and Manotick, and the lots between the villages south and west of the city, are beyond the Enbridge mains and heat with propane. We install, convert and repair propane furnaces, boilers, water heaters, fireplaces and workshop heaters, and converting an old oil furnace to propane is routine. Say propane when you call so the technician brings the regulators and orifices for it.

A cast-iron boiler often runs 25 to 35 years, and some in the older Ottawa neighbourhoods are older than that. A wall-hung condensing boiler lasts 15 to 20 with annual service. Replacement makes sense when a cast-iron unit needs a major repair, such as a section or a failed control, because the condensing boiler that replaces it uses a quarter less gas, takes a fraction of the floor space and modulates to match the radiators instead of running flat out.

Often, when the house already has radiators or in-floor heat. A combination boiler supplies the heating and the domestic hot water from one wall-hung appliance, which removes the tank and any rental on it. It suits a household with ordinary hot-water demand; a large family running two showers and a dishwasher at once is usually better served by a boiler with a separate indirect tank. We size it from your hot-water use as well as the heating load. See boilers and radiant heating.

The gas piping itself does not take a City of Ottawa building permit, but under Ontario law it must be installed by a TSSA-certified gas technician, pressure-tested, and inspected when it serves a new appliance. The appliance on the end of the line sometimes brings its own permit: a standby generator needs an electrical permit, and a pool heater or an outdoor fireplace may need a building permit. We handle the gas side and tell you what else applies before the work starts. See gas lines.

A straightforward run from an existing basement supply to a quick-connect on the deck is typically $450 to $900 installed in Ottawa in 2026. A long run, a pool heater, a garage heater or a standby generator needs larger pipe and is quoted in writing after a look at the house. Every run is pressure-tested, and the quick-connect is fitted with a shut-off so the barbecue can be disconnected for winter. See gas lines.

No. We seal, balance, repair and extend ductwork and fit media filter cabinets, but duct cleaning is not a service we offer. In most houses a sealed duct system and a four-inch filter do more for the air and the furnace than cleaning the ducts does, and the cleaning is rarely worth the price on its own. See ductwork and indoor air.