Furnace Installation in Grand Junction, CO
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Mesa County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat in Grand Junction
Your furnace here works September through May, nine months a year. Winter nights average 18°F, cold enough that the burner is running most of the night to keep the house warm.
Mesa County has logged 182 winter storms and 152 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and power doesn't always stay on through them. Any new gas furnace installed today has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so the efficiency floor is set before you even pick a model. What matters after that is sizing it right for a house that needs heat nine months out of the year.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 18°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 74%
- 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 Mesa County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Mesa County home, from EIA household energy data, Colorado fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a heat loss calculation, not the square footage of your house. That calculation looks at your insulation, your windows, your ceiling height, and how much wall faces the outside, then works out how much heat your house actually loses on a cold night. A furnace that is too big will short cycle, turning on and off before it heats the house evenly. A furnace that is too small will run constantly and still struggle when it gets to 18°F outside. A contractor can run this calculation for your house and tell you the right size.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- An aging furnace that is starting to act up is the clearest sign. Rising repair costs are another, especially if you are calling someone out more than once a season. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer than it used to, or a yellow flame instead of blue, which points to a combustion problem. With heat needed here from September through May, a furnace that is already struggling in fall is not going to get easier to live with once nights drop to 18°F.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how much you run your furnace and what you have now. Every non-weatherized gas furnace sold since November 2015 has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard new furnace wastes less gas than an older one. High-efficiency furnaces go beyond that minimum by pulling more heat out of the exhaust before it leaves the house. With heat needed here nine months of the year, the difference in gas used adds up over a full season more than it would somewhere with a short winter. A contractor can look at your current furnace and your gas bills and tell you whether the jump makes sense for your house.