The Real Cost of Installing a Brand New Furnace
Posted on October 31, 2016
When your heat pump or furnace fails, you may be able to fix it, but this cannot continue forever. At some point, you may have to eventually buy a brand new unit. In order to save on costs and ensure efficiency when installing a new furnace in your home, there are several things you must consider.
Below is a guide to help you as you pick on the most important of these considerations.
Finding the Appropriate Furnace for Your Premises
This is the first step in the installation of a new furnace. There is a huge rage of furnace models available in the market today most of which usually last approximately 15 to 20 years.
The common residential furnaces are powered mostly by natural gas and they average between $2,250 and $3,800 in acquisition cost. If you opt for a higher efficiency furnace, you may be forced to pay more.
In some areas, you may find oil furnaces but even so, they are not as efficient as the gas furnaces. Oil furnaces cost anything between $2,200 and $2,500 and this figure could rise if your existing ductwork has to be redone.
Electric heat furnaces are another option for homeowners. In cost, they average about $1,800 to $2,700, but they are expensive to operate especially when warming large spaces.
The last option which is also much newer is the heat pump. This piece of equipment pulls heats from the ground or air utilizing refrigerant coils. The beauty with heat pumps is that they can also be utilized as ACs during summer.
Furnace Efficiency
There are lots of indicators that you need to look at when evaluating the efficiency of furnaces. The first of such indicators is the heat output and is measured in BTUs. On average a home requires a 60,000 British Thermal Unit furnace. Don’t be duped because higher British Thermal Unit rating does not translate to efficiency especially when heating smaller homes. This is because of the frequency of shutoffs thereby resulting into an irregular comfort level.
The efficiency rating is another point to look at. Many newer furnace models tend to be rated at 90% with a few of them above the 95% range. The higher the rating, the higher the efficiency and decrease in energy costs.
The staging of the furnace is a critical determinant in the efficiency equation. Older furnace units were mainly single stage and this means they used more power to heat your home compared to the two stage new models. There are also 3-stage models which run between 33 and 90% power in one percent increments.
Labor Costs
Many HVAC companies charge about $70 per hour to install and a further $50 per hour for the helper. If your installation lasts 8 hours, you pay $1,000 just for labor. If you have an extensive ductwork repair, you may have to spend more money in addition.
There are two warranties that cover you for installation and operation of your furnace. One is the manufacturer’s warranty which protects you against defects and the other one is the contractor’s warranty which covers you for labor. The labor warranty may cover you for a period of between 5 and 10 years.
Inasmuch as the costs of having a furnace installed in your home is a bit high; you can avoid significant price pitfalls through proper research.