Furnace Installation in Indianapolis, IN
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Marion County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Marion County winters ask a lot of a new furnace
Your furnace works eight months a year here, October through May. Winter nights average 23°F, and 55.6 percent of homes in Marion County heat with gas.
Any non-weatherized gas furnace built since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so a new install already meets that floor. Power still matters here. Indiana logged 12 winter storms and 140 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and 17 percent of households in the state went at least 24 hours without power in 2024.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 56%
- 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 $90 a year to run in Marion County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Marion 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.
Marion County sets its own rule on who can do HVAC work, since Indiana leaves that to the counties and cities. That means whether a contractor needs a local license depends on the county or city license office here, not on any state board or state exam. There is no state record of who is qualified to install a furnace. What exists instead is whatever Marion County requires of contractors working within its lines.
For a furnace installation, the protection that matters most is the permit. In most places a furnace replacement 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, the part of the job that can hurt someone if it is wrong. That inspection is not a license and does not test the contractor's skill ahead of time. It is a check on this one job, after the fact, done by the local building department rather than the state.
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 depends on your square footage, how well insulated the house is, the number and size of your windows, your ceiling height, and how the ductwork is laid out. A furnace that's too big cycles on and off too fast and never runs long enough to heat evenly. One that's too small runs constantly and still can't keep up on the coldest nights, and with winter lows here averaging 23°F, that gap shows up fast. A contractor will run a load calculation on your actual house rather than guess from square footage alone.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for a few signs together, not just one. If it's cycling more often, running longer to hit the same temperature, or making a new noise it didn't make before, those point to a furnace losing ground. Rooms that used to heat evenly and now don't are another sign, especially since homes here need heat running from October through May, eight months of the year, so a furnace that's struggling gets a lot of use to struggle through. Frequent repairs on an older unit are usually the clearest sign of all. A contractor can look at the furnace's age and condition and tell you whether repair still makes sense or if replacement is the better move.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how much heat your house needs and how long you plan to stay in it. Since November 2015, every new non-weatherized gas furnace sold has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard-efficiency furnace today burns less gas than an old one from decades ago. A high-efficiency model goes beyond that minimum, which matters more here since the furnace runs eight months a year and works hardest through winter nights averaging 23°F. Most homes in the area heat with gas, so that efficiency difference shows up over a long heating season. A contractor can walk through your gas furnace options and help you weigh the efficiency rating against the rest of the install.