Furnace Installation in Burlington, VT
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Chittenden County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, in a place that loses power
Burlington asks a furnace to run from September through May. That's nine months a year, with winter nights averaging 12°F. A furnace here isn't cycling on for the occasional cold snap, it's carrying most of the year.
Chittenden County also sees storms that knock out power, and Vermont households went dark for a day or more often enough in 2024 that it's worth planning for. A new gas furnace installed today has to meet 80.0 percent AFUE, the federal minimum for non-weatherized units. Past that baseline, what matters most here is a furnace sized and installed to hold up through a long season, not just start one.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 12°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 55%
- 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 $130 a year to run in Chittenden County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Chittenden County home, from EIA household energy data, Vermont fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Vermont has no state license for HVAC contractors.
There is no state record of any kind here. No exam, no license number, no registered business list. A contractor could have done this work for years or for one week and the state would have nothing on file either way.
For a furnace installation, the protection that exists comes from the local building office, not from Montpelier. Replacing a furnace needs a permit in most cities and towns, and an inspection once the work is done, which is what catches a bad gas connection or a flue that was not run right. Just over half the homes in Chittenden County heat with gas, so that inspection is doing real work here, not just paperwork.
Source: Vermont Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Safety
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size depends on your home's square footage, how it's insulated, your window count, and your ceiling height, so a contractor needs to run a load calculation rather than go by a rule of thumb. Too big and the furnace short-cycles, heating the air fast then shutting off before it warms the house evenly. Too small and it runs constantly during the cold stretch here, when nights average 12°F, and still can't keep up. A contractor doing your furnace installation should size it to your house, not just match what's already installed.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- If it's struggling to keep the house warm, cycling on and off more than it used to, or needing repairs more often, those are signs it's near the end. Age matters too. Furnaces here run from September through May, nine months a year, so the wear adds up faster than in places with a short heating season. A furnace that's had a cracked heat exchanger or keeps tripping its limit switch is worth replacing rather than repairing again.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how many months a year your furnace runs and what you're replacing. With heat needed from September through May here, a furnace spends most of the year working, so efficiency has more chance to matter than it would somewhere with a short winter. Any non-weatherized gas furnace built after November 19, 2015 has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so the real comparison is between that baseline and the higher-efficiency models above it. A contractor can walk through the options for your house and let you weigh the difference against the upfront cost.