Furnace Installation in Lusk, WY
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Niobrara County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, down to 13 below zero
Lusk needs a working furnace from September through May. That is nine months out of the year, and on winter nights the temperature averages 13°F. A new furnace here has to hold up to a long, hard season, not just a few cold snaps.
Wyoming sees its share of power loss in winter storms, and Niobrara County has logged 49 winter storms and 42 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A furnace installed here needs to be sized and set up to keep the house warm through that kind of weather. Any new gas furnace also has to meet the federal minimum of 80 percent AFUE, so the unit that goes in will meet that standard at least.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 13°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 $110 a year to run in Niobrara County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Niobrara County home, from EIA household energy data, Wyoming fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
- What size furnace does my house need?
- A contractor has to size it, and they do that with a load calculation, not a chart based on square footage. That calculation looks at your insulation, your windows, your ceiling height, and how the house holds heat through nights that average 13°F here in the winter. A furnace that's too big will short cycle and wear out faster. One that's too small will run constantly and still leave you cold on the worst nights, so this isn't a step worth skipping.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Watch for repairs that keep coming back, or a heat exchanger with a crack in it, that last one is a safety issue and not a repair. Homes here need heat from September through May, nine months of the year, so a furnace that's struggling has very little time off to make up for it. If your gas bills are climbing while the house feels less warm, the unit is losing efficiency even if it hasn't broken down yet. A contractor can tell you whether what you're seeing is a repair or the start of the end.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you'll be running it and what you're replacing. Any furnace built new today already has to hit 80.0 percent AFUE at minimum, so the real question is whether it makes sense to go higher than that. With heat needed here nine months a year and winter nights averaging 13°F, a furnace here runs far more hours than one in a milder climate, which is exactly the situation where a higher efficiency model has the most time to make its case. A contractor can walk through the actual models and what each one would mean for your house.