Furnace Installation in West Burke, VT
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Caledonia County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, down to 9 degrees
West Burke needs a furnace running from September through May. That is nine months of the year, and on winter nights the average low is 9°F. A furnace here does not get much of a rest.
Almost half the homes in the area heat with fuel oil, so an oil furnace is a normal choice, not an unusual one. If you're installing a gas furnace instead, a non-weatherized model built now has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE. That's the federal floor, and any furnace installed today has to clear it.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 9°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Vermont has no state license for HVAC contractors.
There is no state board behind this. Vermont does not license or register HVAC contractors, so nothing is tested and nothing is filed with the state before someone works on your furnace.
In most cities and counties, replacing a furnace needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what checks the vent connection and the gas hookup, the part of this job where a mistake is dangerous, and here that check comes from the local building office rather than from any state license.
Source: Vermont Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire Safety
- What size furnace does my house need?
- There's no single number that fits every house. A contractor works this out from your square footage, how much insulation you have, your window count and type, and your ceiling height, using a room by room heat loss calculation. Guessing on size, or going by what the old furnace was rated for, tends to leave you with a unit that's wrong for the house. Too big and it short cycles, too small and it runs nonstop on your coldest nights and still can't keep up. With winter lows here averaging 9°F and heat needed from September through May, getting this number right matters more than it would somewhere milder.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- If your furnace is old enough that repairs are becoming frequent, or a repair would cost a large share of what a new furnace costs, replacement usually makes more sense than fixing it again. Other signs are uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer than it used to for the same result, or a technician telling you the heat exchanger is cracked, which is a safety issue and not something to patch. If your furnace was made before November 19, 2015, it may be running below the 80 percent AFUE minimum required of furnaces made after that date, which means more of what you pay for goes up the flue instead of into your house. With heat needed here nine months of the year, a furnace that's struggling isn't a small inconvenience.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- A high-efficiency furnace burns less fuel to produce the same heat, and that matters most in a place that needs heat as long as this one does, nine months out of the year with winter nights averaging 9°F. Nearly half of homes here heat with fuel oil, and a more efficient furnace means less fuel bought over a heating season that runs from September through May. The tradeoff is a higher equipment cost up front, and a contractor pricing your job can tell you what that difference looks like for your specific house and how it burns off over time.