Furnace Installation in Van Buren, AR
A new furnace here will run from October through April every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Crawford County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Van Buren asks a furnace to run half the year
From October through April, seven months straight, your furnace is the thing standing between your house and a 30°F night. That is the average low here in winter, not the extreme.
More than half the homes in the area heat with electricity, and last year nearly a quarter of Arkansas households lost power for 24 hours or more. A furnace that depends on the grid to run is a furnace that can go quiet during the exact stretch you need it. Worth asking about before you pick one. Any new gas furnace you install has to clear 80.0 percent AFUE, the federal minimum for non-weatherized models built since late 2015.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace is on duty
- 30°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.
Arkansas is the only authority that issues this license, and it covers the contractor rather than the specific job. Counties and cities in Crawford County cannot add their own HVAC license on top of it, so the license a contractor holds here is the same one required anywhere in the state.
For a furnace installation, that license is what stands behind the person doing the work. In most cities and counties, the job also needs a permit from the local building office, with an inspection once the work is done.
Source: Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage alone. A contractor looks at your insulation, window area, ceiling height, and how the house is laid out before landing on a number. A furnace that's too big cycles on and off fast and wears out sooner. One that's too small runs constantly and still can't keep up on a 30°F night. With winter lows sitting around 30°F here from December through February, getting this number right matters more than in milder places.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for repairs that keep coming back, a heat exchanger that's cracked, or a furnace that can't hold a steady temperature anymore. Age matters too. Furnaces built after November 2015 are required to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so if yours is older than that, it's likely running well below what a new one would deliver. Homes here need heat from October through April, seven months of the year, so a furnace on its last legs has to work harder for longer than it would somewhere with a shorter heating season.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and how many months a year the furnace actually runs. Here, that's seven months, October through April, so a furnace gets more use than it would in a place with a short winter. A high-efficiency model also tends to run steadier and hold temperature better on the cold nights, which average 30°F through the winter. A contractor can walk through the options and price the job for your house.