Furnace Installation in Springfield, IL
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Sangamon County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heat, and nights near 22°F
Your furnace has to cover October through April here, seven months out of the year. On the cold nights, the average low is 22°F, and that's the load a new furnace is sized against, not just the mild days on either end of the season.
Most homes in the area heat with gas, and any non-weatherized gas furnace built since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE. Sangamon County also sees its share of winter storms and wind events that knock out power, so the furnace going in should be one that starts back up on its own once power is restored.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 73%
- 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 $100 a year to run in Sangamon County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Sangamon 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.
Illinois leaves HVAC licensing to cities and towns, so whether a contractor is tested or just registered depends on the city or town where the house sits, not the state or the county. Sangamon County itself does not run a licensing program. Some places test contractors before they can work, some just keep a list of registered businesses, and some have no rule at all.
For a furnace installation, most cities and counties require a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That permit and inspection are what stands behind this job here, not a license, since none applies at the state or county level. With 73.2% of homes in Sangamon County heating with gas, that inspection is checking work that matters to a lot of houses, not just this one.
Source: Illinois General Assembly
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a heat load calculation done on your house, not a chart based on square footage. A contractor works out how fast your house loses heat, factoring in your insulation, your windows, and your ceiling height, then matches a furnace to that number. Too big and it short cycles, heating fast then shutting off before it warms things evenly. Too small and it runs constantly through those 22°F nights without keeping up. Ask whoever quotes the job to walk you through the calculation, not just hand you a model number.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- A rising number of repair calls is one sign, especially if the same part keeps failing or a repair would cost a large share of what a new furnace would. Watch also for rooms that will not heat evenly, a burner flame that looks yellow instead of blue, or a furnace that runs longer and longer to hold the same temperature. An older furnace working through all of those signs at once is telling you something. With heat needed here from October through April, a furnace that is struggling has seven months 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 against a new one. Non-weatherized gas furnaces built on or after November 19, 2015 have to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, and a high-efficiency furnace is rated above that floor, turning more of its fuel into heat instead of losing it. That difference matters more here than in a mild climate, since your furnace is running seven months a year through winter lows that average 22°F. With 73.2 percent of homes here heating with gas, most people are comparing one gas furnace to another, and a contractor can run the actual numbers against your current unit before you decide.