Furnace Installation in Wilkes-Barre, PA
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Luzerne County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, one furnace to carry it
In Wilkes-Barre, furnaces run from October through May. That's 8 months a year, with winter nights averaging 19°F. There's not much of a break between seasons for a furnace to sit idle and forgive a bad install.
Any new non-weatherized gas furnace has to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE under federal rules, so that floor is set no matter who installs it. 50.3% of homes here heat with gas. Pennsylvania has recorded 13 winter storms and 151 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and in 2024, 15% of households in the state went at least 24 hours without power. A furnace that starts reliably matters most on the night the power and the cold both hold on.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 50%
- 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 $150 a year to run in Luzerne County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Luzerne 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.
Registration puts the business on file with the Bureau of Consumer Protection. Nobody at the state tests the contractor's trade knowledge first, and no license is issued. Since cities and towns in Pennsylvania cannot layer their own HVAC license on top, that state record is the only one that exists here.
For a furnace install, the protection that matters comes from the local building office, not from any license. In most cities and counties, replacing a furnace needs a permit and an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what checks the gas connection, since a bad one is the dangerous part of the job. In Luzerne County, just over half of homes heat with gas, so that inspection is doing real work here.
Source: Pennsylvania General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- It depends on your home's square footage, how well it's insulated, how many windows you have, and your ceiling height. A furnace that's too big cycles on and off too often and wears out faster. One that's too small runs constantly and still can't keep up on the coldest nights, and here that means nights averaging 19°F through the winter. A contractor will do a load calculation on your actual house rather than guess from square footage alone.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is the first sign. Past 15 years, parts wear out faster than they're worth fixing. Rising repair calls, uneven heat between rooms, and a furnace that runs longer to do the same job are all signs the heat exchanger or blower is on its way out. Homes here need heat from October through May, so a furnace that fails mid-winter leaves you without heat for months, not weeks, which makes it worth replacing before it quits rather than after.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and how many months a year you run the furnace. Homes here need heat 8 months of the year, so a furnace that turns more of its fuel into heat instead of losing it out the flue pipe runs a lot in that stretch. Furnaces made after November 2015 have to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, and high-efficiency models are built to clear that mark by a wider margin. A contractor can walk you through the actual efficiency ratings for the models that fit your house.