The only way to get an accurate pricing estimate is to have a professional HVAC technician come to your house to assess your home and heating needs.
However, you can get an idea of how much a furnace will cost to install based on these factors:
Below, we’ll go into each of these cost factors in more detail, to give you a better grasp of how much it will cost to install a furnace in your home.
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Gas furnaces typically cost more to install but cost less to operate on a month-to-month basis.
That being said, the cheapest fuel type for your home will greatly depend on what kind of fuel you currently have.
If your current heating system runs on electricity it’s going to be less expensive to install an electric furnace.
Why?
There are 2 main reasons:
If your current heating system runs on gas, it will likely be less expensive in the long run to install a gas furnace, because gas is a cheaper fuel type. This means you’ll pay less in monthly heating bills if you stick with gas, which can add up!
Furnaces are sized according to the amount of heat they can produce per hour, measured in BTUs or British Thermal Units.
The bigger the furnace (more BTUs) the more expensive it will be.
Residential furnaces typically range anywhere from 40,000 to 120,000 BTUs.
Now, what size furnace you need will completely depend on your home and heating needs, so it’s not a cost factor you’ll have any control over.
Before a technician installs a furnace, they should perform a load calculation, to accurately determine what size furnace is needed to heat your home. If a technician doesn’t do this or you go against their recommendation, you could end up with a furnace that is too large or too small for your home.
A furnace that is too large will heat your home too quickly and shut off, causing issues like:
A furnace that is too small will run continuously and will likely struggle to heat your home, resulting in:
Just like size, the more efficient a furnace is, the more it will cost to install.
Furnace efficiency is measured by AFUE (Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency) and essentially measures how much fuel creates heat and how much fuel is wasted.
For example, if you have a furnace with an AFUE rating of 98%, it means that 98% of the fuel used will be turned into heat and 2% will be wasted.
Although investing in a higher-efficiency furnace costs more upfront, it will use less fuel month-to-month, which could save you money in the long run.
There are a variety of additional features you can add to your furnace that will increase comfort and convenience. However, they come at an additional cost.
A few of the most common comfort add-ons include:
Variable-speed blower- A variable-speed blower is able to adjust incrementally (i.e. not just low, medium, high, but every speed in between), which makes your furnace more efficient and will likely save you money in the long run.
Modulating burner- Like a variable-speed blower, modulating burners can naturally adjust how much fuel they consume to heat your home. Think of a standard furnace like stop-and-go traffic while a modulating furnace is more like smooth, highway driving. Ultimately a modulating furnace offers maximum efficiency, which results in lower energy costs, quieter operation, and less temperature fluctuations.
Programmable thermostat- Programmable thermostats allow you to set your home’s temperature for different times of the day, which can save you money. For example, if you want to turn your heat down during the day while you’re at work but have it be warm again by the time you return home, a programmable thermostat can do that for you. Ultimately, this saves you money without having to remember to change your thermostat and without that period of discomfort while you’re waiting for your furnace to re-heat your home.
When it comes to installing a furnace, you want to ensure that you are hiring quality technicians who will do the job correctly.
Unfortunately, that means the phrase “you get what you pay for,” applies here. If you want to ensure that your furnace is being installed correctly, you’ll want to ensure that you’re hiring a technician with the experience (and guarantees) to do a great job. To find a quality technician, ask yourself the following questions:
Whether you’re ready to install a furnace or still have questions regarding cost, our team of expert pros is happy to help.