Furnace Installation in Stevens Point, WI
A new furnace here will run from September through May every year. Tell us about the house, and a licensed contractor who covers Portage County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Nine months of heat, and nights near 10 below
Stevens Point homes run the furnace September through May. That is 9 months out of the year, with winter nights averaging 10°F. A new furnace here has to hold up under a long season and real cold, not just take the edge off a few chilly evenings.
Most furnaces installed today run on gas, same as 56.4 percent of homes in the area already do. Any non-weatherized gas furnace built since November 2015 has to reach at least 80 percent AFUE by federal rule, so that is the floor a new unit starts from. Portage County also sees its share of winter storms and damaging wind, and a good number of Wisconsin homes lose power for a day or more when one hits. A furnace that starts back up on its own once the power returns matters here.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace is on duty
- 10°F
- the average winter night it heats against
- 56%
- of homes here heat with gas, so most furnaces here burn gas
- 80% AFUE
- the federal minimum any new unit must meet
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
A high-efficiency gas furnace would save about $100 a year to run in Portage County compared with a gas furnace.
Estimates for a typical Portage County home, from EIA household energy data, Wisconsin fuel prices and NOAA climate normals. Your home will differ.
Wisconsin requires contractors to register with the state.
That registration puts the contractor's business on file with the state, but nobody tested their work to get it. Wisconsin also keeps counties and cities from layering on their own HVAC license, so Portage County has no separate local requirement standing behind the state's list either. What you have is a record that the business exists, not a credential for the work.
For a furnace installation, the protection that matters here comes from the local building office. Most cities and counties require a permit before the work starts and an inspection once it's done, and that inspection is what catches a bad gas connection or a venting mistake, the part of this job that can actually hurt someone. In Portage County, 56.4% of homes heat with gas, so that inspection is checking furnaces like this one on a regular basis.
Sources: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau · Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services
- What size furnace does my house need?
- The right size comes from a load calculation, not the square footage of your house alone. A contractor measures your walls, windows, ceiling height and insulation, then figures out how much heat you actually lose on a cold night. Too big and it short cycles, heating fast then shutting off before it warms the house evenly. Too small and it runs constantly through the cold months and still can't keep up. With winter lows here averaging 10°F, getting this number right matters more than it would somewhere milder.
- How do I know it's time to replace my furnace?
- An older furnace that's needed more than one repair in the last couple of winters is usually a better candidate for replacement than another fix. Rising gas bills with no other explanation, uneven heat between rooms, or a burner flame that looks yellow instead of blue are also signs something is wrong. Homes here need heat from September through May, so a furnace on its way out doesn't get much of a break to show you it's failing before you need it again.
- Is a high-efficiency furnace worth it?
- It depends on how long you plan to stay in the house and what furnace you have now. Every non-weatherized gas furnace made since November 2015 already has to hit at least 80 percent AFUE, so the real comparison is between that baseline and a higher-efficiency unit. With 9 months of the year needing heat here, the difference in gas burned adds up over a season more than it would somewhere with a shorter winter. A contractor can walk you through the actual models and what each one would cost installed in your house.