Furnace Installation in Salt Lake City, UT
A new furnace here will run from October through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Salt Lake County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Eight months of heat, and nights near 22°F
Furnaces in Salt Lake County run from October through May. That is eight months of the year, and on winter nights that average 22°F, a furnace is doing real work, not just taking the edge off a cool evening.
Most homes here heat with gas. Any new non-weatherized gas furnace installed today has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, the federal minimum. A furnace going into a season this long and this cold needs to be sized for it from the start.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace is on duty
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 82%
- 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 $100 a year to run in Salt Lake County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Salt Lake County home, from EIA household energy data, Utah fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Utah requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The Division of Professional Licensing tests and licenses HVAC contractors in Utah. The license belongs to the contractor, not to any one job. Utah does carve out an exception for small jobs. Work under $7,000 does not need a licensed contractor. A furnace installation runs well past that line, so this is licensed work.
Most cities and counties also require a permit for a furnace installation, along with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what catches a bad gas connection or a venting mistake, the part of this job where a mistake actually matters. In Salt Lake County, most homes heat with gas, so that inspection is doing real work here.
Sources: Utah State Legislature · Utah Department of Commerce
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor has to size it for you with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage. The right size depends on how your house holds heat, the insulation, the windows, how much air leaks out. Too big and it short cycles, heating the house in bursts and wearing itself out faster. Too small and it runs constantly through a Salt Lake City winter and still can't keep up on the 22°F nights. Ask the contractor to walk you through the calculation rather than quoting a number off the old unit's nameplate, since that one may have been sized wrong too.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch how the furnace behaves, not just its age. Rooms that won't hold heat, cycling on and off more than it used to, or a gas bill climbing with no other explanation all point to a furnace that's struggling. If a repair keeps coming up on the same unit, that's the furnace telling you it's done. Heat is needed here from October through May, so a furnace you can't trust through the winter is worth replacing before it fails on one of those 22°F nights.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and what you're replacing. A high-efficiency furnace burns less gas to make the same heat, and that matters more here than most places because Salt Lake City homes need heat for 8 months a year. Furnaces sold new today already have to reach 80 percent AFUE at minimum, so the question is really how much higher than that you want to go. A contractor can lay out the install cost against the gas savings for your specific house.