Furnace Installation in Kokomo, IN
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Howard County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Kokomo asks a furnace to run eight months a year
Winter nights in Howard County average 21°F from December through February, and homes here need heat from October through May. That is eight months of the year the burner is lighting. Most homes in the area heat with gas, so that furnace is the one thing standing between the house and that cold.
A new furnace here has to be built for that kind of run. Any non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE. The storms that come through Howard County matter too. The last ten years brought 10 winter storms and 51 damaging wind events, the kind of weather that knocks out power, and in Indiana, 17 percent of households went at least a full day without it in 2024. A furnace with a standing pilot can still light without power. One that needs power to start cannot, until the power is back.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 21°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 69%
- 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 Howard County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Howard 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.
Indiana has no state HVAC license. Whatever rule applies to the contractor doing your install comes from Howard County or its city, not from any state exam or state list, so what protection exists here depends on the local office rather than a statewide standard.
In most cities and counties, a furnace replacement needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That permit and inspection are the check on this job, not a license. Howard County is largely a gas furnace market, with 68.6% of homes heating with gas, which is exactly the kind of install a permit and inspection are meant to cover.
Sources: Indiana Department of Workforce Development · State of Indiana
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, your ceiling height, how much insulation you have, and how many windows face outside. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on house size alone. Getting it wrong in either direction is a real problem here. Too small and it can't keep up on a 21°F night, too big and it will short cycle, wearing out parts faster and leaving rooms uneven. With heat needed October through May, this is worth doing carefully rather than guessing.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for uneven heat, rising bills, and repairs that keep coming back. Any one of these on its own might not mean much, but together they usually point the same direction. A furnace that's struggling matters more here than in places with a short winter, since yours has to run from October through May. If a contractor has already been out to fix it more than once, ask them straight whether it makes more sense to replace the unit now instead of waiting for the next breakdown.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and how much you're already spending to heat it. Every new non-weatherized gas furnace sold today has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE by law, so even a standard model isn't wasteful. A high-efficiency furnace goes beyond that minimum, using less gas to make the same heat, and that adds up over 8 months of heating a year. With 68.6% of homes here heating with gas, it's a fair question to ask a contractor to run the numbers on for your specific house.