Furnace Installation in Washington, PA
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Washington County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, on nights near 23 degrees
Washington County needs a working furnace from October through May. That's eight months of the year, and winter nights average 23°F. A new furnace here has to hold up to that long a season, not just the coldest weeks of it.
Most homes in the county heat with gas, and any non-weatherized gas furnace built since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE. That's the floor, not a feature, so it's worth knowing where the unit going into your house stands above it. The county has also seen its share of winter storms and wind events over the past ten years, and a share of Pennsylvania households lost power for a full day or more last year. Worth asking how your new furnace starts back up once the power does.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 67%
- 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 $120 a year to run in Washington County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Washington 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 a contractor's business on file with the state and nothing more. There is no trade exam behind it and no license number tied to tested skill. Pennsylvania also keeps cities and towns from layering on their own HVAC license, so this is the only state-level record that exists anywhere in the state.
For a furnace installation, the protection that matters comes from the local building office instead. In most cities and counties, putting in a new furnace needs a permit and an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what checks the gas connection and venting, the part of this job where a mistake is dangerous. In Washington County, 66.5% of homes heat with gas, and that inspection is doing the job the state registration doesn't.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- It depends on your home's square footage, insulation, window count and layout, so there's no single number that fits every house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a tape measure and a guess. Going too big wastes fuel and wears out the furnace faster from short cycling. Going too small means it runs constantly and still can't keep up on the coldest nights, and winter nights here average 23°F.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is the first thing to check. Furnaces have a normal service life, and an older unit starts making repairs a bigger gamble than replacement. Watch for other signs too. Rising gas bills with no change in usage, rooms that heat unevenly, a burner flame that's flickering or yellow instead of steady blue, or a contractor telling you the heat exchanger is cracked. A cracked heat exchanger means replace it, no question, since that's a safety issue, not a repair. Homes here need heat from October through May, so a furnace that's struggling has more months of the year to prove it.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and what your current furnace costs to run. A high-efficiency furnace burns less gas to make the same heat than a standard model built to the minimum 80.0 percent AFUE now required. Homes here need heat for 8 months of the year, October through May, so that difference in gas use adds up over a winter. High-efficiency models also cost more upfront and need a condensate drain for the moisture they pull out of the exhaust. A contractor can walk you through what your specific furnace would use against a higher-efficiency model, so you're comparing real numbers instead of a general rule.