Furnace Installation in Ashland, KY
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Boyd County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ashland asks a furnace to work most of the year
Winter nights here average 26°F, and homes need heat from October through April. That's seven months of the year your furnace has to be ready to run.
Any furnace installed new has to meet the federal minimum of 80.0 percent AFUE. With power outages hitting close to a quarter of Kentucky households for at least a day last year, and this area seeing 12 winter storms and 49 damaging wind events over the past decade, a new furnace is going into a place where the power and the weather don't always cooperate.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 26°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Kentucky requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
Kentucky's license is issued by the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, and it covers the contractor, not the job itself. It doesn't get reissued for your furnace. It's the contractor's standing, carried from job to job.
For your installation, that license is what backs the person doing the work. The furnace itself still gets checked on its own. In most cities and counties, putting in a new furnace needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what confirms the gas connections and venting were done right on your job. The license tells you the contractor is accountable. The permit and inspection tell you this furnace was checked.
Sources: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor measures your walls, windows, insulation and ceiling height, then works out how much heat you actually lose on a cold night. Guessing high seems safe, but an oversized furnace cycles on and off too fast and never runs long enough to heat evenly. With winter nights here averaging 26°F, that calculation is what tells you the real answer, not a rule of thumb.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Rising repair bills are one sign, especially if the same part keeps failing or each repair costs more than the last. A furnace that's short cycling, making noises it never used to, or leaving some rooms cold is telling you something is wrong even if it still runs. If a contractor has to keep coming back for the same problem, replacing it is usually the better choice. Have it looked at before the cold months, since homes here need heat from October through April.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and how much you run the furnace. Every non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model today wastes less fuel than older units did. A high-efficiency furnace goes further than that minimum, pulling more heat out of the same amount of gas. Since homes here need heat seven months of the year, that difference has more months to add up in than it would somewhere with a shorter winter. A contractor can walk through the options and price them for your house.