Furnace Installation in Taos, NM
A new furnace here will run from September through June every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Taos County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Ten months of heating changes what you install
Winter nights here average 14°F, and homes in Taos County need heat from September through June. That is ten months a year the furnace is doing real work, not a few cold snaps here and there. A new furnace has to be sized and installed for that kind of run time.
Any gas furnace built now has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so that floor is already set before your contractor even shows you options. Power is worth asking about too. Storms here have knocked out electricity for a day or more, and a furnace that won't restart on its own means a cold house until someone resets it.
- 10 months
- September through June, your furnace is on duty
- 14°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 gas furnace would save about $80 a year to run in Taos County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Taos County home, from EIA household energy data, New Mexico fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
New Mexico requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
New Mexico's Construction Industries Division licenses the contractor, not the job itself. That means the person running the license has been tested and is on record with the state, but the license doesn't get inspected furnace by furnace. It follows the contractor from one house to the next.
For a furnace install, the license is what stands behind the person doing the work, and the permit is what stands behind the work itself. Most cities and counties, including here, require a permit for a furnace replacement and an inspection once it's done, which is where the gas connections and venting get checked by someone other than the contractor. In Taos County, close to half of homes heat with gas, so that inspection is doing real work on a job like this one.
Source: New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor answers this with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage. That calculation weighs your square footage against insulation, window count and type, ceiling height, and how much air leaks in and out. A furnace that's too big will short cycle and wear out faster. One that's too small will run constantly and still not keep up when it's 14 degrees outside, which is a real winter night here. Ask whoever quotes the job to walk you through the calculation, not just hand you a number.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch how often you're calling someone out for the same unit. If you're patching it more than once a season, that's a sign the repairs are no longer worth it. Uneven heat between rooms, a furnace cycling on and off more than it used to, or a gas smell are all signs to take seriously, and a gas smell means shutting it off and calling someone right away. Homes in Taos County need heat from September through June, so a furnace on its way out here does not get much of a break to reveal problems slowly.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how much you run your furnace and what you're comparing it to. Every non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so the real question is whether it makes sense to go higher than that minimum. With heat needed here 10 months out of the year, a furnace that runs this much has more hours to make higher efficiency count than one that sits idle most of the year. A contractor can walk you through the AFUE options for your specific house and what each one means for your gas use.