Furnace Installation in Clarksburg, WV
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Harrison County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights that drop to 25°F
Homes in Clarksburg need heat from October through May. That is eight months of the year the furnace has to work, and on winter nights it is holding the house against an average low of 25°F. A furnace here does not get much of a break before it is back on.
Gas heats most homes in this area, and any furnace installed new has to meet the federal minimum of 80 percent AFUE. Harrison County has also seen its share of winter storms and damaging wind, the kind that knock out power and leave a furnace unable to run at all until it is back. That is worth knowing when a new system goes in, since the furnace that comes back on fastest and holds up through the season is the one worth having.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 25°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 78%
- 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 $150 a year to run in Harrison County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Harrison County home, from EIA household energy data, West Virginia fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
West Virginia requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license sits with the contractor, not with this one job. West Virginia's Commissioner of Labor tests and records the person or business before they can take on work like this, and that record covers everything they do, not a specific furnace or address.
For an installation, that license is what stands behind the work in Harrison County, but the job doesn't end there. Most cities and counties in West Virginia require a permit for a furnace replacement, along with an inspection once the work is done, and that inspection is what catches a bad gas connection before it becomes dangerous. With most homes in Harrison County heating with gas, that inspection matters as much as the license does.
Source: West Virginia Legislature
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor sizes it by doing a load calculation on your house, not by matching the furnace you have now. That means checking your square footage, your insulation, your windows, and how the place is laid out room to room. Guessing at this or going by a rule of thumb gets you a furnace that's wrong in one of two ways. Too small and it runs constantly all winter without keeping up. Too large and it short cycles, heating the house in bursts and shutting off before it pulls moisture out of the air, which leaves rooms feeling clammy and uneven. With winter lows here averaging 25°F, a furnace that's sized wrong shows itself fast.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- The clearest sign is age combined with rising repair calls. If your furnace is old and you're calling someone out more than once a season, replacing it usually makes more sense than keeping it alive. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a burner flame that's yellow instead of blue, or a furnace that runs longer and longer to hold the same temperature. Homes here need heat from October through May, eight months of the year, so a furnace on its way out has a lot of months left to fail in. If yours is already struggling, it's worth dealing with before winter sets in rather than waiting on it.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how many months your furnace runs and how long you plan to stay in the house. Every non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so that's the floor, not a special feature. High-efficiency models go well beyond that, and with heat needed here eight months a year, that difference gets used a lot more than it would somewhere with a short winter. The tradeoff is the upfront cost against the fuel saved over the furnace's life, and that math depends on your specific house and how you use it. A contractor can walk you through the numbers for your situation.