Furnace Installation in Shelbyville, KY
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Shelby County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Shelbyville asks a lot of a furnace
Your new furnace will run October through April here, seven months of the year. Winter nights average 26°F, so on most of those nights it's cycling on and off to keep the house warm.
Any gas furnace installed now has to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE, so most of the fuel it burns turns into heat instead of going out the flue. Power matters too. Nearly half of homes here heat with electricity, and Kentucky saw 24% of households lose power for at least a day in 2024. Shelby County has logged 11 winter storms and 50 damaging wind events over the past ten years, so a furnace that comes back on by itself once the power returns is worth asking about.
- 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 Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction issues that license, and it tests and records the contractor, not the job. The license tells you the person or company doing the work has met the state's standard, but it does not follow them to your address to check this particular furnace.
That is where the local building office comes in. In most cities and counties, a furnace installation needs a permit before the work starts and an inspection once it is done, and that inspection is what catches a bad gas connection or a venting mistake before it becomes dangerous. The license covers who is allowed to do the work. The permit and inspection cover what actually got done at your house.
Sources: Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction
- What size furnace does my house need?
- It depends on the size of your house, how well it's insulated, your ceiling height, your windows, and your layout, so there's no number that applies to every home. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage alone. Putting in a furnace that's too big or too small for the house causes problems either way, from short cycling to rooms that never get warm. This is worth doing right at the time of installation, since winter nights here average 26°F and you'll be relying on this furnace from October through April.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for a furnace that struggles to keep up, cycles on and off more than it used to, or needs repairs more often than it used to. A furnace that's making noises it didn't used to make, or that's heating unevenly room to room, is telling you something too. Age matters as well. If yours is old enough that parts are getting harder to find, or a repair would cost a large share of what a new one runs, replacement makes more sense than patching it again. A contractor can look at the specific unit and tell you which situation you're in.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- Any furnace installed now has to meet a minimum efficiency of 80 percent AFUE, since that's been the federal requirement for non-weatherized gas furnaces since November 2015. High-efficiency models go beyond that, and here that extra efficiency has more time to matter, since homes in this area need heat for 7 months of the year. Whether the higher upfront cost makes sense for your house depends on your current system, your fuel type, and how you use your heat, so a contractor pricing the job can lay out the options for your specific situation.