Furnace Installation in Kansas 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 Jackson County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heat, and winters that test the furnace
Jackson County homes need heat from October through April. That is seven months of a furnace cycling on and off, night after night, with winter lows averaging 23°F. A new furnace installed here has to be sized to keep up with that stretch, not just the coldest week of it.
Most homes in the area heat with gas, and any non-weatherized gas furnace built since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE. That is the federal floor, not a ceiling, and it is worth knowing where the furnace you install falls above it. Power outages are also part of the picture here. Missouri saw 19 percent of households lose power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and the region has logged 10 winter storms and 212 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A furnace that depends on electricity to run its igniter and blower will not put out heat during an outage, storm or no storm.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 23°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 70%
- 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 $170 a year to run in Jackson County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Jackson County home, from EIA household energy data, Missouri fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
- What size furnace does my house need?
- It depends on your square footage, your insulation, your windows, and your home's layout, so there is no single number that fits every house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, not a chart based on square feet alone. Two homes the same size can need different furnaces if one has more windows or higher ceilings. With winter lows here averaging 23°F, undersizing leaves you cold on the worst nights, and oversizing wastes fuel and wears out the furnace faster from short cycling. Ask for a load calculation rather than a quote based on the size of the old unit.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- If your furnace is struggling to keep up, cycling more than it used to, or needing repairs every winter, it is telling you something. Age matters too. A furnace working through 7 months of heating season here, October through April, puts in more hours than one in a milder climate, and that adds up over the years. Rising gas bills without a change in habits often mean the heat exchanger or blower is losing efficiency. If a repair is going to cost close to what a new furnace would, replacing it is usually the better move, and a contractor can lay out that comparison for your specific unit.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- For a house that needs heat 7 months a year, a high-efficiency furnace has more months to earn back the difference than it would somewhere warmer. Every non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model here is not wasteful. A high-efficiency furnace sends less heat out the flue and more into your home, which matters most on nights near that 23°F average low, when it runs longest. Whether the higher upfront cost makes sense for your house depends on your gas rates and how long you plan to stay, and that is a conversation to have with a contractor pricing the actual equipment.