Furnace Installation in Cape Girardeau, MO
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Cape Girardeau County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heat, starting around 27 degrees
Your furnace has to carry the house from October through April here, seven months a year. Winter nights average 27°F through December through February. A new furnace needs to hold up to that whole stretch, not just the coldest week in it.
Wind and ice take down power lines in this area. Missouri saw 19% of households lose power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and the region has logged 10 winter storms and 120 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A gas furnace still needs electricity to run its blower and controls, so an outage stops it too. Any new gas furnace installed today has to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE, the federal minimum for non-weatherized models.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 27°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not a guess based on square footage alone. A contractor works through the house, the insulation, the windows, and how much air leaks in and out, to figure out how much heat you actually lose on a cold night. Around here that matters more than in mild climates, since winter lows average 27°F and the furnace has to keep up from October through April. A furnace that's too big cycles on and off too fast and wears out sooner. One that's too small runs constantly and still can't keep the house warm.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- An old furnace that's starting to struggle is the clearest sign. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer than it used to, or repairs that keep coming back. If a technician tells you the heat exchanger is cracked, that's not a repair, that's a replacement, since a cracked heat exchanger can let combustion gases into the house. With heat needed here from October through April, a furnace that can't be trusted is worth replacing before it fails on a cold night.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and what your current furnace is costing you to run. Furnaces made since November 2015 already have to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model today isn't wasteful. A high-efficiency furnace goes further than that, using a second heat exchanger to pull more heat out of the exhaust before it leaves the house. With heat needed here seven months out of the year, that difference adds up more than it would somewhere with a short winter. A contractor can walk through the numbers for your specific house and furnace.