Furnace Installation in Oswego, IL
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Kendall County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights that drop to 19°F
Oswego needs a working furnace from October through May. That is eight months of the year, not just the coldest stretch. On winter nights that average 19°F, a furnace runs long stretches to keep a house warm.
Most homes here heat with gas, so a new furnace has to hit 80 percent AFUE, the federal minimum for gas furnaces built since November 2015. Kendall County has also seen its share of winter storms and damaging wind over the past ten years. Across Illinois, some households lose power for a full day or more. A furnace that starts reliably matters when the weather is already working against the house.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 19°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 87%
- 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 Kendall County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Kendall 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.
Kendall County does not run its own contractor license. Illinois leaves that to cities and towns, so whether this contractor is licensed depends on the municipality the house is in, not on a state record. Some towns test and license contractors working within their borders. Others do not, and there is no county list filling that gap.
What stands behind this job is the permit. A furnace replacement in most cities and counties needs one from the local building office, along with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what checks the gas connection and the venting, the part of the job that can turn dangerous if it is done wrong. It is not a license and it does not test who the contractor is, but it is the check that applies here no matter what the local licensing rule turns out to be. In Kendall County, 86.7% of homes heat with gas, so that inspection is checking a gas furnace far more often than not.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- There's no single number that works for every house. A contractor sizes your furnace with a load calculation that looks at your square footage, insulation, windows, and layout together. Too big and it short-cycles, wearing out parts faster and leaving rooms uneven. Too small and it runs constantly all winter and still can't keep up on the coldest nights, when lows here average 19°F.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is the first thing to check, along with how the furnace has been running. Watch for rooms that won't hold an even temperature, a furnace that cycles on and off more than it used to, or a gas bill that's climbing without a clear reason. With heat needed here from October through May, eight months of the year, a furnace on its way out won't get much of a break to fail on its own schedule. If a repair is priced close to what a new furnace would cost, replacing it is usually the better move.
- 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. Most homes here heat with gas, and with furnaces running from October through May, eight months a year, the efficiency rating matters more here than it would somewhere with a short, mild winter. Furnaces built new today have to hit at least 80 percent AFUE by law, and high-efficiency models go higher than that, meaning less gas burned for the same heat. A contractor can walk you through the actual models and ratings available for your house.