Furnace Installation in Pittsburgh, PA
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Allegheny County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights near 24 degrees
In Allegheny County, furnaces run from October through May. That is eight months a year the burner has real work to do, not just a few cold weeks. Winter nights average 24°F, so it is cycling on and off most nights of that stretch.
Most homes here heat with gas, and any new gas furnace has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE under federal rule. That is the floor, worth knowing when you compare what a contractor quotes you. The county has also seen 12 winter storms and 548 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and storms like that knock out power. It is worth asking how a new furnace and its thermostat come back on once power returns.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 81%
- 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 $130 a year to run in Allegheny County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Allegheny 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 and nothing more. Nobody tested this contractor on furnace work to get that number, and Pennsylvania doesn't let Allegheny County or any city add a license requirement on top of it. So the registration tells you the business is on record. It doesn't tell you who is good at the job.
What actually stands behind a furnace installation here is the permit. Most local building offices require one for a furnace replacement, and an inspector checks the completed work, including the gas connection, which is the part that can hurt someone if it's done wrong. With most homes in Allegheny County heating with gas, that inspection is the real check on this job, not the state registration.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- It depends on your square footage, your insulation, your ceiling height, and how many windows you have, so there is no single number that fits every house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on home size alone. Two houses of the same size can need different furnaces if one has more windows or less insulation. With winter lows here averaging 24°F, a furnace that is undersized will run constantly and still not keep up, while one that is oversized will cycle on and off and wear out sooner.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Look at the age first. Furnaces have a typical service life, and past a certain point, repairs get more frequent and less worth it. If yours is shutting off on its own, short cycling, or you are calling for repair more than once a season, those are signs the furnace is wearing out rather than just having a bad week. Rising gas bills with no other explanation are another sign, since a furnace loses efficiency as it ages. Homes here need heat from October through May, so a furnace that cannot make it through that stretch reliably is one worth replacing before the next cold snap.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and how much you run the furnace. Since homes here need heat 8 months a year, a more efficient furnace has a lot of months to earn back the difference in what it costs to run. Every furnace made since November 2015 has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so the real choice is between that baseline and the higher-efficiency units above it. A contractor can look at your current furnace, your gas bills, and how your house holds heat, then tell you whether the jump to high-efficiency makes sense for your situation.