By Steve Hawkins
Cohezion Communications
We asked professional Andy Reynolds, an experienced heating and A/C installer, a few questions about what's important with a furnace this coming season. One of the most exciting things about some of today's new furnaces is the fact that they are much more energy efficient, and therefore a wise investment for the comfort of your home.
More information can be found at http://www.andysateam.com!
Nobody likes a quote that starts with, “That depends ….” But when installing heating or air conditioning systems in Utah (or anywhere else) it’s impossible to give a fair and accurate quote without visiting your home and performing a load calculation. Calculating the cost of a new furnace is my business, so let me explain the key criteria to determining a new furnace cost.
The criteria are:
1. correct furnace size +
2. furnace efficiency and features +
3. ease or difficulty of installing
Correct Furnace Size (load calculation)
The following factors go into load calculation for a new furnace:
Number of vents
House type (construction materials and how many stories)
Ceiling height
Square footage of each room
Insulation in walls and attic
Window types
Door types
I will only sell you the correct type of furnace for your home. Too big or too small is bad for you and not energy efficient. Oversized furnaces often cycle on and off more often than correctly sized furnaces, adding to your costs. Undersized furnaces have to work longer than their big brothers – again adding to your costs. Get it just right and you’ll be comfortable and save on utility bills.
Furnace Efficiency and Features
I install quiet, high efficiency furnaces that are made to perform for decades.
Here are some of the types of furnaces I install and repair:
American Standard Furnaces
Amana Furnaces
Bryant Furnaces
Carrier Furnaces
Lennox Furnaces
Payne Furnaces
Rheem Furnaces
Trane Furnaces
Generally, the companies listed above are good quality furnaces and range from below 90% efficiency and not as quiet with limited features as other makes while furnaces made by Carrier and Trane tend to be the quietest, most efficient furnace you can buy and full of features. But of course they cost more.
Furnace features include single or dual stage, even triple stage burner systems. A multistage furnace burns more or less fuel depending on how cold it is and how long the furnace has been running, allowing your furnace to automatically run at a the optimal cost depending on circumstances.
Another feature is the type of furnace blower. Most modern blowers are variable speed, meaning they change speeds to create the most efficient way to distribute heat throughout your home.
These blowers are very efficient and can use less energy than a 100W incandescent bulb, which saves you money on gas and electricity – and keeps your home more comfortable.
Ease of Installation
If your home provides easy access to your furnace space, then my job goes faster and costs less. If it’s in the attic it will likely cost a little more, and if it’s in a crawl space under the house it will cost a little more than that. That’s not just my personal system for calculating the labor of a furnace installation – it’s pretty much the industry standard. It can take two men a full day to correctly install a furnace, including removing the old furnace, putting in the new one, ensuring correct electrical and gas hookup, venting and drainage.
Also, be aware that new high efficiency furnaces recycle a lot of the warm air that used to go up your sheet metal ductwork. Now the air that’s vented outside is much cooler and tends to condense a lot more, which means water dripping back into the pipes. That’s why new furnace exhaust systems are made of PVC (to prevent rusting) and usually require some type of small drainage system. So that PVC exhaust system isn’t your installer using cheap materials – he or she is using the correct materials.
Remember all reputable furnace installers in Utah will need to visit your home and perform a load calculation to determine the proper furnace for your home. Of course, if you know the exact type of furnace you need, we can give you a quote over the phone for the unit alone, but we’re rarely asked to do that.
Cost of New Furnace at a Glance
How big a furnace do I need?
See the information at left that explains how a load calculation is performed. It only takes 5 minutes to read and then you’ll be better informed to make the right decision.
How efficient a furnace should I get?
Most modern furnaces run close to 90% efficiency. You can get units that run as high as 95%, but they cost more so it will take time to recoup the incremental savings.
How long will a new furnace last?
You can expect to get a true 15-20 years or more of dependable, efficient performance from a new furnace.
What does a new furnace cost?
The retail cost of a new gas furnace (without installation) from a quality manufacturer can range from about $900 to $2,500, depending on size, efficiency rating and features.
What is your service area?
I service all of Utah County, from Payson to Lehi. I will occasionally travel to South Salt Lake County or as far south as Nephi on a rare slow day, but keeping my service area manageable helps me keeps my costs so low.
What about warranties?
All of our furnaces come with factory warranties on the unit. Most are 10-20 years on heat exchanger and 5 years on parts. We guarantee our installation work for one full year.
