Furnace Installation in Jefferson City, MO
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Cole County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heat, most of it below freezing
Furnaces in Jefferson City run October through April, seven months of the year. On a winter night here the burner is often fighting a low around 25°F to keep the house warm.
56% of homes in this area heat with electricity, and the power doesn't always stay on. In 2024, 19% of Missouri households went at least 24 hours without it. A furnace installed here needs to hold up through a long season and through the storms that come with it, Cole County has seen 4 winter storms and 21 damaging wind events over the past ten years. If it's a new gas furnace, federal rules require it to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 25°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 the square footage of your house alone. A contractor works out how fast your house loses heat by looking at your insulation, your windows, your ceiling height, and how the place is laid out, then matches a furnace to that number. A furnace that's too big will short cycle and wear out faster. One that's too small will run constantly and still leave rooms cold on nights near 25°F. Ask the contractor doing your estimate to show you the load calculation, not just a number based on your old furnace.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- If your furnace needs repairs more than once a season, replacing it is usually the better move than paying for another fix. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a burner flame that looks yellow instead of blue, or a furnace that runs long stretches without warming the house. Rising gas or electric bills with no other explanation are another sign the unit is losing efficiency. Since homes here need heat from October through April, a furnace that's struggling in the fall usually won't hold up through a full winter.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and what you're paying to heat it now. Any gas furnace built new today has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, and high-efficiency models go higher than that, meaning less fuel wasted out the vent. With winter here running seven months and lows averaging 25°F, a furnace that runs efficiently is doing a lot of work every year, so the difference shows up more than it would somewhere milder. A contractor can price out the efficiency options for your specific house and heating setup.