Furnace Installation in Butte, MT
A new furnace here will run from August through June every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Silver Bow County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Butte asks a furnace to run almost all year
Winter nights here average 14°F, and most homes run the furnace from August through June. That is eleven months of the year the burner needs to work when you call on it.
A new furnace here has to be built for that kind of run time, not just a cold snap now and then. Most homes in Silver Bow County heat with gas. Any non-weatherized gas furnace made on or after November 19, 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE. That is the floor, not the furnace you should settle for.
- 11 months
- August through June, your furnace is on duty
- 14°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 64%
- 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 $90 a year to run in Silver Bow County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Silver Bow County home, from EIA household energy data, Montana fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Montana requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The state tested this contractor and keeps a record of them with the Department of Labor and Industry. That license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. Montana sets one exception worth knowing. Work under $2,500 does not need a licensed contractor, and a furnace installation runs well past that line, so the contractor on this job is expected to hold the license the state issues.
Most cities and counties also require a permit when a furnace is replaced, along with an inspection once the work is done. That is separate from the license and it is local, so it applies on top of the state's rule rather than in place of it. Gas heats 64.3% of homes in Silver Bow County, and a furnace installation on one of those homes means a new gas connection, the part of the job where a mistake matters most.
Source: Montana Legislature
- What size furnace does my house need?
- There is no single number that works for every home. A contractor sizes a furnace with a load calculation that looks at your square footage, insulation, window count and layout, not just square footage alone. Guessing too big wastes fuel and cycles the furnace on and off too fast. Guessing too small leaves you short on the coldest nights, and here that means nights near 14°F. Have a contractor run the calculation rather than going by the size of the unit you're replacing, since the old one may not have been sized right either.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for uneven heat, rising bills, and repairs that keep coming back. A furnace that cycles on and off too often, takes longer to warm the house, or needs a repair every heating season is telling you something. Age matters too. With heat needed here from August through June, a furnace that's struggling has almost no season to rest and recover between runs. If a contractor's last repair estimate came close to what a new furnace would run, that's usually the point to stop repairing.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and what furnace you have now. Since 2015, every new non-weatherized gas furnace sold has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard replacement today burns less gas than an older unit did. High-efficiency models go higher than that floor, which matters more in a place like this where the furnace runs nearly year round, from August through June. A contractor can walk through the actual models and their AFUE ratings for your house rather than guessing at which one pays for itself.