How Many Hours Does It Take to Install a New Furnace?
A common question in the heating and cooling industry is, “How many hours does it take to install a new furnace?”
The answer, of course, depends upon several factors. These factors usually include:
– Type of Furnace being installed
– Condition or age of existing furnace being replaced
– Size of the house requiring the new furnace
– Difficulty level of installing new furnace (i.e., location of the unit, distance ductwork must travel, etc.)
– Whether an AC unit needs to be installed at the same time as a furnace, or if it’s just a furnace installation job
The following sections are meant to give you more detailed information regarding the hours needed for two prevalent types of installations – only a kind of installation is mentioned per section. Each type of furnace number is based upon the average number of hours needed to install a stove in a ‘typical’ size house under ‘typical’ conditions. Still, of course both types can be installed in one job.
Please note that these hours only reflect the time required for installation, not including any pre-job site analysis or preparation work! Hours do not include any relocation or disposal fees for replacing the existing equipment.
*Note – All information below is taken from a series of articles published on HeavyDutyNews.com, written by different writers over several years (2003 to 2005).
How many hours does installing an 80% AFUE gas furnace take?
To install an 80% AFUE furnace usually takes about 6.5 hours under ‘typical’ conditions or 7.5 hours under ‘worst’ conditions. If you’re installing an 80% AFUE furnace in conjunction with another HVAC system at the same time (i.e., AC unit), expect the installation time to be roughly 1/10th of what it would take to do the furnace installation. Alone! For example, if you know your AC unit will need to be replaced during this heating season too, don’t wait to get everything taken care of all at once – it’ll save you money & frustration by doing them both at once!
It’s important to note that homes requiring only an 80% AFUE furnace are much less common than those requiring a 95%+ AFUE furnace. If you need an 80% furnace in your home, you should expect to pay about $200 – $300 more for the unit than if it were a higher efficiency model. It would help if you also planned to replace or upgrade your air filter at least once every six months to ensure the lowest operating costs & highest levels of comfort possible.
The information below is for installing an 80% AFUE gas furnace only (a natural gas furnace, when applicable). It does not apply to oil furnaces or heat pumps!