Furnace Installation in Clovis, NM
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Curry County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Clovis winters keep a furnace working seven months a year
Furnaces here run October through April, seven months of the year. Winter nights average 25°F, so on the coldest ones the burner is cycling on and off most of the night to hold the house steady.
More than half of homes in the area heat with electricity, and the region has logged 8 winter storms and 101 damaging wind events over the past ten years. When the power goes out in a storm, a furnace that runs on electric ignition or blower motors won't run either. Any new gas furnace installed today has to reach at least 80.0 percent AFUE, the federal minimum for a non-weatherized unit, so a replacement will meet that standard no matter what it replaces.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 25°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
New Mexico requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license comes from the Construction Industries Division, and it belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. It does not get reissued for this furnace or any other. It stands behind everything that contractor takes on.
For a furnace installation in Curry County, that license is what stands behind the work. Most cities and counties in New Mexico also require a permit for a furnace replacement, along with an inspection once the work is done. The permit and inspection are separate from the license. They put someone from the local building office in front of the finished job, gas connections included, before it is called complete.
Source: New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor measures your walls, windows, insulation and ceiling height, then works out how much heat your house actually loses on a cold night. A furnace that is too big will short cycle and wear out faster. One that is too small will run constantly and still leave rooms cold when it is 25°F outside. Ask the contractor to walk through the load calculation with you rather than quote a size off the square footage alone.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Look at how the furnace has been behaving, not just its age. Rooms that will not heat evenly, a furnace that cycles on and off more than it used to, or a repair bill that keeps coming back for the same problem are all signs it is done. Heat is needed here from October through April, so a furnace already struggling early in that stretch is not likely to hold up through the rest of it. A contractor can tell you whether what you are seeing points to a repair or a replacement.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how much your house runs its heat, and here that is seven months a year, October through April. Every non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard new furnace is not wasting as much fuel as an old one. A high-efficiency model turns more of that fuel into heat in your house instead of losing it out the flue. With a heating season this long, that difference has more months to matter than it would somewhere with a short winter. A contractor can tell you which efficiency levels fit your furnace's venting.