Furnace Installation in Columbus, IN
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Bartholomew County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heat, and winters that test the equipment
In Bartholomew County, a furnace runs from October through April. That's seven months a year the burner has to work, on nights that average 24°F through the coldest stretch of winter.
More than half the homes here heat with gas, and the county has recorded 10 winter storms and 40 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power drops, a furnace cannot run even on gas, because the blower and controls need electricity. Any furnace installed new has to meet the federal minimum of 80 percent AFUE, so a chunk of every dollar spent on gas turns into heat rather than going up the flue.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 24°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 51%
- 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 $80 a year to run in Bartholomew County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Bartholomew County home, from EIA household energy data, Indiana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
In Indiana, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the counties and cities.
Bartholomew County sets its own rule on who can do this work, and whether a license is required here depends on the local office, not the state. Indiana leaves that decision to counties and cities, so there is no state record of who is qualified to install a furnace, only whatever the county or city itself requires.
What covers this job here is the permit process. A furnace installation typically needs a permit from the local building office, and an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what checks the gas connection and venting rather than a license number. More than half the homes in Bartholomew County heat with gas, which is exactly why that inspection step exists.
Sources: Indiana Department of Workforce Development · State of Indiana
- What size furnace does my house need?
- There's no single number that works for every house. It comes down to your square footage, your insulation, your ceiling height, how many windows you have and which way they face, and how tight the place is built. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, room by room, not a chart based on home size alone. Putting in a furnace that's too big for the house causes it to short cycle, heating fast then shutting off before it pulls moisture out of the air, and that wears out its parts faster. Too small, and it'll run constantly on the 24°F nights and still not keep up.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Start by checking how old it is. If yours has been through many winters and needs a repair now, that repair might just be a bridge to the next breakdown. Watch for rooms that won't heat evenly, a furnace that cycles on and off more than it used to, or a rise in your gas bill with no other explanation. If a repair quote starts creeping toward half of what a new furnace runs, that's usually the sign to stop patching it. Since homes here need heat from October through April, a furnace that's already struggling in the fall is one you don't want to gamble on through a full winter of 24°F nights.
- 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. Every furnace built new today has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, but high-efficiency models go higher than that, meaning less of the gas you burn goes out the flue instead of into your house. With heat needed here for 7 months of the year, a more efficient furnace has more months to earn back the difference in what it costs to run versus a standard model. A contractor can look at your current gas bills and tell you what the difference would actually mean for your house, since that math depends on your specific furnace and how you use it.