Furnace Installation in Philadelphia, PA
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Philadelphia County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heat, Philadelphia winters ask a lot of a furnace
From October through April your furnace is what keeps the house warm. Winter nights here average 27°F, and that's the working condition a new furnace has to be sized and installed for, not just the occasional cold snap.
Most homes in Philadelphia County heat with gas, and any new non-weatherized gas furnace has to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE under federal rules. Power is part of the picture too. Pennsylvania saw 15 winter storms and 151 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and 15% of households in the state went at least 24 hours without power in 2024. A furnace needs electricity to run even when the fuel is gas, so what happens to it during an outage is worth asking about before you install one.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 27°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 70%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A high-efficiency gas furnace would save about $100 a year to run in Philadelphia County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Philadelphia County home, from EIA household energy data, Pennsylvania fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Pennsylvania requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the business on file with the state. There is no trade exam behind it, and no state inspection of the furnace or gas work afterward. Pennsylvania also blocks Philadelphia from adding its own HVAC license on top, so this registration is the only state-level record that exists for whoever installs your furnace.
In most cities and counties, a furnace install needs a permit from the local building office and an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what catches a bad gas connection before it becomes dangerous. In Philadelphia County, 69.6% of homes heat with gas, so that inspection is checking the part of the job that matters most here.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor measures your windows, insulation, ceiling height and layout and runs those numbers to find out how much heat you actually lose on a cold night. A furnace that's too big will short cycle and wear out early. One that's too small will run constantly and still leave rooms cold when it's 27 degrees outside. Ask whoever quotes the job to show you the calculation, not just a guess based on the old unit.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is one sign, and so is how often you're calling for repairs. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a burner that cycles on and off more than it used to, or a gas bill that keeps climbing without a reason. If a contractor is telling you the same part is failing again, or the heat exchanger is cracked, that's a replace, not a repair. Since homes here need heat from October through April, a furnace on its way out is worth replacing before the cold months, not during them.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to run it and what you're comparing it to. Every new non-weatherized gas furnace sold today has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so that's your floor either way. A high-efficiency furnace burns less gas to make the same heat, and with 7 months of heating season here that difference adds up over a winter. The tradeoff is a more complex venting system, since these furnaces vent through PVC pipe instead of a metal flue. A contractor can walk you through what that means for your specific house before you decide.