HVAC Installation in Fort Collins, CO
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Ten months of heat a year, and winter nights near 15°F
Your furnace is the machine that keeps this house livable most of the year here. Fort Collins needs heat from September through June, ten months of the year, and winter nights average 15°F from December through February. Summer afternoons only average 76°F, so cooling barely comes into it. Most of the load falls on the furnace, not the air conditioner.
A new system installed here has to be sized for those cold nights, not for a mild average. Most homes in the area heat with gas, and whatever replaces that furnace still has to meet the federal minimum efficiency rating for gas furnaces. The last ten years brought 97 winter storms to the area. A gas furnace with a standing pilot keeps running through a power outage, but most modern furnaces need electricity to fire the igniter and run the blower, so they will not.
- 10 months
- September through June, your system heats
- 15°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 76°F
- the average summer afternoon it cools against
- When should I replace my HVAC system?
- Replace it when repairs start piling up or the system can no longer keep the house warm through a Fort Collins winter. A furnace here works hard from September through June, ten months a year, so it wears differently than one that only runs a few months in a milder place. If you are calling someone out more than once a season, or a repair bill is getting close to what a new system costs, that is the point to stop patching it. A contractor can look at the actual unit and tell you whether it has real years left.
- Should I replace my furnace and air conditioner at the same time?
- If both are old, replacing them together usually makes sense, but it depends on the condition of each one. A furnace and air conditioner installed at the same time are matched to work together, and pairing new equipment with an old unit on the other side can mean that older unit fails soon after anyway. Cooling season is short here while the furnace runs from September through June, so the furnace is usually the one carrying the bigger load. A contractor can check both and tell you honestly whether one or both need to go.
- What happens during an HVAC installation?
- A contractor removes the old equipment, sets the new furnace or air conditioner in place, and connects it to the ducts, gas line or refrigerant lines, and electrical. Once it is hooked up, they test it, check for proper airflow, and confirm it is heating or cooling the way it should before they leave. In a place where winter nights average 15°F, they will also check that the furnace is sized to keep up on the coldest nights, not just an average one. The exact steps depend on what is being replaced and how the house is set up, so the contractor doing the work can walk you through what applies to yours.