Furnace Installation (Podcast)

Owner Jared Grier talks about furnace installation on Cape Cod, including selecting a furnace installer, the best fuel options, and the installation process.

John Maher:  Hi, I’m John Maher and I’m here today with Jared Grier, Owner of Cape Cod Heat Pumps, an electrical and HVAC contractor in Marstons Mills, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, focused on detail, quality and professionalism. Today our topic is furnace installation. Welcome, Jared.

Jared Grier:  Thanks, John.

Factors That Homeowners Should Consider When Choosing a Furnace Installer

John: So, Jared, what are some of the factors that homeowners should consider when they’re choosing a furnace installer?

Jared: Yeah, that’s a great question. Oftentimes customers, they’re going to ask about a brand, a product brand that we put in, and I think you really nailed it on the head right there is, I always tell customers that truly the contractor is going to matter more than, quite frankly, the product brand that they’re putting in.

All equipment is relatively equal. Some contractors are going to prefer one brand over another as we do here. But for the most part, all their quality is relatively similar. What’s really going to matter more than that product brand is really the proper sizing of the equipment. Did that contractor walk around the house with you? Did they measure the house to perform a Manual J? Or are they just replacing with a like-size piece of equipment that’s there? Are they following all the proper practices, procedures for flueing of the equipment, the length of flues, the amount of airflow that that unit can handle with the existing ductwork in the house.

There’s so many factors outside of a brand when it comes to a contractor that’s going to matter more. And just making sure that our customers ask the right questions and we as a contractor give them the correct answers is going to be the best way to move forward.

The Best Fuel Options for Furnaces

John: Okay. In terms of the furnace itself, what are the best fuel options for furnaces these days?

Jared: Yeah, here on Cape, we essentially have three different fuel sources that are going to be common for furnaces. Your most common is going to be natural gas. Your next option would be propane. Then there’s also oil, which we don’t service or install. Oil, propane, quite frankly at that point, a lot of those customers should look at heat pump options because the heat pumps are going to be less expensive to operate than those fuel types, as well as there’s great incentives through the Mass Save program.

However, if you are a natural gas customer, that is going to be the least expensive way to heat your home here on Cape Cod. A lot of people that have gas systems like to stick with gas systems. The new systems are often more efficient than what they might have existing at their home, have different features and benefits to them that they might not have. We’ve got really good indoor air quality options as well. Really, it’s going to be a case-by-case basis on what that customer’s existing fuel source is. What’s existing in the house. And potentially what direction they’re going to want to move now and into the future.

Furnace Efficiency Ratings

John: Do you still compare furnaces by efficiency ratings? This furnace is 95% efficient or 98% efficient, something like that?

Jared: Yes, absolutely. Furnaces get rated on a scale we call AFUE. It’s “Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency”. Best way to put it, that I put it to our customers is, if you pay for a dollar’s worth of fuel, whether that be propane, oil or gas, how much of that fuel is turned directly into the heat for your home? Our modern natural gas furnaces are upwards of 97% efficient. That means for every dollar’s worth of natural gas that you’re paying for, you’re getting 97 cents worth of heat out of it, which is pretty spectacular. Whereas some of the older systems, the systems that some of my customers might have are only about 80% efficient. Just by changing out that furnace, you’re going to get a pretty big bump in your efficiency.

Propane furnaces are essentially the exact same furnaces I would buy as a natural gas one, we just change it in the field to work with propane. Often their efficiencies are pretty much on par with natural gas. Oil, which, as I said, we don’t do, their efficiencies are just not as great. Generally, you’re going to be somewhere between the low to mid-80s. There are some more high-end oil furnaces that are considered “condensing oil furnaces”, but with all the upkeep and the cost it takes to keep those units running, and just the initial cost to the customer, those aren’t all that common.

The Furnace Installation Process

John: What’s involved in the process of installing a furnace, whether it be just changing from an old natural gas furnace to a newer one that maybe has a better efficiency, or maybe even swapping out an old oil-burning furnace for a new modern gas one?

What Is a Furnace?

Jared: Just first, let’s also define what a furnace is, because there is a lot of misconceptions and we do get a lot of customers that call here not quite understanding, and it’s no fault of theirs, what kind of system [they have]. But two common terms would be “furnace” and then “boiler”. Your furnace would be a forced air system. Often when we have a customer that calls us, we’re asking, “Do you have ductwork? Do you have vents in the floor, or possibly in the ceiling?” That would be a furnace-style system. A boiler-style system, that’s something where you’re going to either have radiators, panel radiators, or baseboard heat. So just to better define those for the customers.

Installing a Furnace

But when it comes to installing furnaces, if it is a new construction home, which often is what we’re doing, a new construction home, that’s going to mean new ductwork throughout the house. If it’s a two story house, we’re probably going to have a system up in the attic, one in the basement. Maybe we do one system in the basement, zone it to have a zone for the first floor or second floor. That’s obviously going to require us to go in, install all that ductwork.

If it is a replacement, that does mean that they probably already have all that ductwork in place, which at that point is just a push and pull. We’re going to take out your old furnace, we’re going to put the new one in its place. We’re going to flue it, reconnect to your existing ductwork, add in any sort of indoor air quality products that you might have chosen, and we’re off and running.

How Long Does a Furnace Installation Take?

John: How long does that usually take from when you first start to getting that all up and running?

Jared: Yeah, we’ll just stick with the replacement market. But oftentimes if we’re in the middle of the wintertime, we’re not leaving that customer without heat. Often we’ll tell them before we get there, in the morning crank up the heat, that way the house is nice and warm, and we’ll take down the system first thing and we’ll have it up and running by the end of that day. If it does require maybe a dual fuel type setup or air conditioning, often that will go into day two, depending on the install. But either way, we could do these replacements in the middle of February and customers won’t even notice.

John: You’re able to do it that quickly because in that case where you’re doing a replacement, you’re not changing out all of the ductwork and things like that, that stuff is all in place and you’re just replacing the furnace itself?

Jared: Exactly. Unless the duct system, which we do come across, is really just poorly designed from the get-go, the original install, we’re able to utilize the existing ductwork. Maybe we do need to make some modifications. But yeah, oftentimes when we’re doing these replacements, the infrastructure is already there. So the hard work, if you will, is almost already done, we’ve just got to replace the heart of that system, which happens to be the furnace.

Permits and Approvals for a Furnace Installation

John: Are there any permits or approvals that are required for a furnace installation like that?

Jared: Yes. Here in Massachusetts, it actually requires three different trades to replace your furnace. You’re going to need a sheet metal person, which would be us. You’re going to need a plumber or gas fitter to reconnect your gas. Then you’re going to need a licensed electrician to hook up the line voltage electrical. So, all those things, or depending on the town, you’re definitely going to have a gas and electrical permit. Some towns, if you’re just replacing a furnace, don’t have any mechanical or sheet metal permits. Other towns do. So that can be a very town-by-town specific. But we’ll walk our customers right through that.

John: Is that something that you guys handle all yourselves, or is it something that you have to work with the customer on getting those permits?

Jared: Yes, that’s everything we do. It’s part of our project. It’s part of the scope of work. The customer may or may not have to be present for the inspector to get into the home. But yes, that is something that we’re going to set up on the behalf of the customer.

Challenges with Furnace Installation on Cape Cod

John: Are there any challenges with furnace installation on Cape Cod? Any kind of situations that you’ve seen with some of the typical houses there where the project is a little bit different than you might see in other places?

Jared: Again, it’s very situational. If we’re dealing with an existing house, maybe we’re trying to retrofit in, we’ve got to look at the ability to actually get duct work in that home. Do we have space in the attic? Do we have space in the basement to run that duct work? That’s certainly one challenge.

Another challenge that we do have here is high efficiency furnaces in attics. These furnaces do create, as a byproduct, condensate, similar to the exhaust on your car in the wintertime. You’ll see some water dripping out of it. Our furnaces do the exact same thing. Now, if you’re here all year long, this isn’t a secondary home, we can certainly put in a high efficiency furnace without risking freezing that unit. If there’s a second home and you maybe are keeping the house at 50 degrees or on the cooler side of things, we often don’t encourage people to go with those high efficiency furnaces because we’re going to run into those instances where we possibly could freeze that unit and cause some trouble.

Furnace Warranties and Guarantees

John: What about warranties and guarantees that are typically offered for furnaces and furnace installations?

Jared: Yeah, we’ll start with Cape Cod Heat Pumps’ warranty. By law, we have to carry a one-year labor warranty on everything that we do. If our customers actually, after the first year of the install, have us do maintenance after the first year, we actually extend that labor warranty for an additional year. Just by doing the proper practices and procedures and having us out there to check that system, we’re going to extend our warranty with that customer for a year.

sAs for the manufacturers, those do vary, but they all are relatively similar. Generally, you’re somewhere around the 10 year parts warranty and limited lifetime heat exchanger warranty. So that does mean that usually that’s for 99 years, prorated into eternity, for the heat exchanger, but typically you’re 10 years on the operational parts and the equipment.

John: Does that 10 years, do you have to show that you’ve had yearly maintenance done on the furnace in order to get that warranty or anything like that? Are there any rules and regulations when it comes to that?

Jared: Technically, yes. All these manufacturers do cover themselves. The last thing they want is to have a customer that had a system put in, didn’t have it maintained for 10 years, and then has some sort of warranty issue, right? That’s not a manufacturer defect at that point, that’s an issue with the customer properly maintaining their system. When push comes to shove, these manufacturers do have it in their fine print that they are able to request maintenance records, and if you do not or cannot prove the maintenance, they can deny those warranty claims. Just another reason why having maintenance done every year is important because it’ll help maintain that manufacturer’s warranty as well.

John: All right, well that’s really great information, Jared. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Jared: Thanks for having me, John.

John: For more information, you can visit the Cape Cod Heat Pumps website at ccheatpumps.com, or call today.