Furnace Installation in Bloomington, IL
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers McLean County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights that drop to 20°F
Bloomington asks a lot of a furnace. Homes here need heat from October through May, eight months of the year, and winter nights average 20°F through December and February. That is a long season and a hard low for whatever you install.
Most homes here heat with gas, and any new non-weatherized gas furnace has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, the federal minimum for units built since November 2015. Beyond that floor, sizing it right for a season this long matters more than any one feature on the spec sheet.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 20°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 71%
- 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 McLean County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical McLean County home, from EIA household energy data, Illinois fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
In Illinois, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
In McLean County, whether a contractor needs a local license depends on the town, since Illinois leaves that decision to cities and towns rather than setting one rule for the state. No state agency tests or records HVAC contractors here. What exists instead is whatever the local building department requires, and that varies by address.
For a furnace installation, the protection in place is the permit and inspection most cities and counties require for this kind of job. The local building office reviews the work and inspects it once it's done, which matters because a furnace burns gas, and a bad gas connection is the dangerous part of the installation. With most homes in McLean County heating with gas, that inspection is what stands between the reader and a connection nobody checked.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your insulation, your windows, and your ceiling height, so there is no number that fits every house. A furnace that is too big will short cycle, heating the house in bursts and wearing out faster. One that is too small will run constantly and still not keep up on a 20°F night. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a guess based on the size of your old unit.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is one sign, especially once a furnace has been running for many winters. Watch for rooms that stay cold, a burner flame that looks yellow instead of blue, or a furnace that cycles on and off more than it used to. Homes here need heat from October through May, so a furnace that is struggling in one of those months will only get worse as the winter goes on. If you are calling for repairs more than once a season, replacement is worth pricing out.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how many months your furnace runs and how old the one you have now is. Homes here need heat eight months a year, with winter nights averaging 20°F, so a furnace here works harder and longer than one in a milder climate. Any new non-weatherized gas furnace has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE by law, and high-efficiency models go well beyond that. A contractor can walk you through the options for your house and what each one means for how it runs.