Furnace Installation in Fort Smith, AR
A new furnace here will run from November through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Sebastian County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Six months of heat, and a grid that doesn't always hold
Fort Smith needs a working furnace from November through April. Winter nights average 31°F, cold enough that the furnace runs through most nights in that stretch, not just the coldest week of the year.
More than half the homes here heat with electricity, and the power doesn't always stay on. Sebastian County has seen 10 winter storms and 122 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and last year nearly a quarter of Arkansas households lost power for 24 hours or more. A new furnace here should be one you can count on through a full season, not just a mild one. Any gas furnace installed today has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so it turns more of the fuel it burns into heat in your house.
- 6 months
- November through April, your furnace is on duty
- 31°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Arkansas requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The license is issued to the contractor, not to the job, so it does not expire when this furnace install is finished. Arkansas also keeps cities and counties from layering on their own HVAC license, so the state's license is the one credential that applies in Sebastian County, not a patchwork that changes by address.
A gas furnace lives or dies on its connections, and that is what a permit and inspection are for. In most cities and counties here, installing a furnace needs a permit from the local building office, and the finished work gets inspected before it is signed off. The license tells you the contractor was tested and is on record with the state. The inspection is what checks this particular furnace, in this particular house, was put in correctly.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- What size furnace does my house need?
- There is no single number that works for every house. A contractor sizes your furnace by calculating the heat loss of your home, looking at square footage, insulation, window count, ceiling height, and how much air leaks in and out. A furnace that is too big cycles on and off too often and never runs long enough to heat evenly. One that is too small runs constantly and still cannot keep up on the coldest nights, and with winter lows averaging 31°F here, that gap shows up fast. A load calculation done on site is the only way to get the right size.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is one sign, along with how the furnace has been running lately. Watch for uneven heat between rooms, a furnace that runs longer than it used to, rising gas or electric bills without a clear reason, or repairs that keep coming back. Homes here need heat from November through April, six months a year, so a furnace on its way out has a lot of months left to fail in. If a repair would cost close to what a new furnace would, replacement is usually the better move, and a contractor can help you weigh that against what you are seeing.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how you heat now and how long you plan to stay in the house. Furnaces built since November 2015 have to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so even a standard model wastes less fuel than older units did. A high-efficiency furnace pulls more heat out of the same fuel and sends less of it up the flue, which matters most in a place that needs heat for six months of the year. More than half the households here heat with electricity, and a contractor can walk through how a gas furnace upgrade compares to what you are running now for your specific house.