Furnace Installation in Beulah, ND
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Mercer County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, down to 6 below
Beulah needs a furnace for nine months of the year, September through May. Winter nights average 6°F, and a furnace here spends most of its life working, not idling.
58.4 percent of homes in the area heat with propane. When storms take down power lines, a furnace with electric ignition and blowers won't run without it, and this county has seen 24 winter storms and 65 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Any furnace installed new has to meet the federal minimum of 80 percent AFUE, so it turns most of that propane into heat instead of losing it up the flue.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 6°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A high-efficiency propane furnace would save about $190 a year to run in Mercer County compared with a propane furnace.
Estimates for a typical Mercer County home, from EIA household energy data, North Dakota fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
North Dakota requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is held by the contractor, not issued job by job. It follows them from one furnace install to the next rather than getting renewed each time they work. In North Dakota, work under $4,000 does not need a licensed contractor. That threshold decides whether the person in your basement is required to hold one.
A furnace installation runs well past that $4,000 line, so the contractor doing this job needs to be licensed. The state license is what stands behind the work itself. The connection between your furnace and its gas line gets checked separately. In most cities and counties, a permit and inspection from the local building office cover that part once the installation is done.
Sources: North Dakota Legislative Branch · North Dakota Secretary of State
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size depends on your square footage, insulation, window count, and layout, not on the size of the furnace you have now. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, which measures how fast your specific house loses heat. Guessing at size or matching the old unit often leads to a furnace that is too big, which cycles on and off and wears out faster, or too small, which runs constantly and never quite keeps up. With winter lows here averaging 6°F, getting this number right matters more than in milder places.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer than it used to, or repairs that keep coming back. An older furnace nearing the end of its life is more likely to fail on the coldest night rather than give you warning. Since homes here need heat from September through May, nine months of the year, a furnace on its way out has very little time off to make waiting worth it. A contractor can look at its condition and tell you whether repair still makes sense or replacement is the safer bet.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and how much you run the furnace. Every new non-weatherized gas furnace sold since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model today wastes less fuel than older units. A high-efficiency furnace pulls more heat out of the same amount of fuel, which counts for more in a place where the furnace runs nine months a year. A contractor can walk through the options and price out what fits your house.