Furnace Installation in Jerome, ID
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Jerome County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, and nights near 22°F
In Jerome County, a furnace runs from September through May. That is 9 months a year the burner has to work, and on winter nights that average 22°F, it runs long and often to keep up.
Almost half of homes here heat with electricity, and the power does not always stay on. Idaho saw 11% of households lose power for 24 hours or more in 2024, and this area has logged 12 winter storms and 18 damaging wind events over the past ten years. A new gas furnace installed here has to meet 80.0 percent AFUE if it is non-weatherized, but the bigger question for this climate is whether it can be counted on to run through a long, cold season and whatever the weather brings with it.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 22°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
Idaho requires HVAC contractors to hold a state license.
The HVAC Board tests contractors before they hold this license, and the license belongs to the contractor, not to any single job. The state has already checked this person or company once, on paper, before they get to your furnace.
The license tells you the contractor met the state's bar. It does not cover the install itself. For that, most cities and counties in Idaho require a permit for a furnace replacement, and an inspection once the work is done.
Sources: Idaho Legislature · Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses
- What size furnace does my house need?
- There is no single number that fits every house. A contractor works this out with a load calculation, which looks at your square footage, insulation, window count and how the place is laid out, not just the size of the furnace you have now. Guessing high seems safe but it isn't. A furnace that's too big for the house cycles on and off fast, which wears out parts sooner and leaves rooms uneven. Winter lows here average 22°F and the furnace runs from September through May, so getting this number right matters more than it would somewhere milder.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- Age is one thing to check, along with how the furnace is actually running. Watch for rooms that used to heat evenly and now don't, a burner flame that looks yellow instead of blue, or repair calls that keep coming back more than once a season. Homes here need heat from September through May, so a furnace that quits partway through that stretch leaves you without heat when you need it most. If yours is showing these signs, it's worth replacing before it fails rather than after.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how much you run your furnace and what you're replacing. Homes here need heat nine months a year, from September through May, so a furnace spends most of its life working and efficiency gains have more time to add up than they would somewhere with a short winter. Any non-weatherized gas furnace built since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE, so the real comparison is between that baseline and the higher-efficiency models above it. A contractor can walk through what each option means for your house, since the right choice depends on your furnace's condition now and how your home is set up.