Furnace Installation in Madison, SD
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Lake County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, down to 9 degrees
Madison needs a working furnace from September through May. That is nine months out of the year, and on winter nights the average low is 9°F. A furnace here does not get much of a break.
Lake County has seen 27 winter storms and 48 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A new furnace has to keep running through that, not just on the mild nights. If it is a standard gas furnace built new, it has to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE, so the fuel you burn goes further before it ever gets to the coldest week of the year.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 9°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 51%
- 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 $80 a year to run in Lake County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Lake County home, from EIA household energy data, South Dakota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
In South Dakota, HVAC licensing for homes is left to the cities and towns.
South Dakota leaves HVAC licensing to individual cities and towns, so whether a contractor is licensed here depends on which city or town the house sits in. There is no state license or state record to check either way.
For a furnace install, most cities and counties require a permit from the local building office and an inspection once the work is done. That inspection is what catches a bad gas connection or a flue that was not run right. More than half the homes in Lake County heat with gas, which makes that connection the part worth having checked.
Source: South Dakota Legislature
- What size furnace does my house need?
- It depends on your house, not just its square footage. A contractor sizes it with a load calculation that accounts for your insulation, your windows, your ceiling height, and how much of the house needs to hold heat when it's 9°F outside at night. A furnace that's too big cycles on and off too often and never runs long enough to heat evenly. Too small, and it runs constantly all winter and still can't keep up. Ask whoever quotes the job to walk you through the load calculation rather than just naming a number.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is the first thing to check, along with how the furnace has been running. A furnace old enough that you're not sure how many winters it has left is worth having looked at, even if it still turns on. Watch for rooms that won't hold an even temperature, a burner flame that's yellow instead of blue, repairs that keep coming back, or a heat exchanger a technician flags as cracked. Homes here need heat from September through May, so a furnace already struggling in fall usually won't make it through the full stretch. If yours is old and needs a repair right now, that's usually the moment to ask about replacement instead.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- Any furnace installed here has to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE. That's the federal floor for furnaces built from November 2015 on. High-efficiency models go beyond that floor, so less of the heat they produce is lost out the flue. Homes here need heat for 9 months of the year with winter nights averaging 9°F, so a furnace's efficiency gets put to work often. Whether the higher upfront cost makes sense for your house is a real question, and a contractor can price both options against each other for your specific home.